Ciiicus. COMPOS I 'IVK. 417 



wlipro Bcntham hns placed these genera, althougli tlie bristles of the pappus arc somewhat too 

 stout and flattish. 



1. R. scaposa, Gray. Somewhat liirsuto as well as glandular : scape a span to 

 a foot high, sometimes with a leaf or two towards the base : involucre 20 - 30-flow- 

 ered (an inch or less long). 



Sierra Nevada, in the Yoseiiiitc and Mono districts, at tlic elevation of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, 

 Brewer, Bolander, Gray. 



2. R. argentea, Oray. Leaves shorter, only one or twoniiclu's long, silvery- 

 silky : sc.apii one to four inches high: involucre narrower, 7 - in-lloworcil (Inilf nn 

 inch or more long). 



Higher Sierra Nevada, at 8,000 to 11, 000 feet ; Mount Dana to Sonora Pass {Brewer, Bolaiider), 

 above Dojuier Lake {E. L. Greene), and on Lassen's Peak, Lcmmon. 



Tribe IX. CYNAROIDEvE. 



Tlie only Californian representatives of the tribe are Thistles, of well-known 

 appearance, and a Centaurea or two, of the ^lediterranean region, sparingly natural- 

 ized in fields and around harbors. Even Burdocks are nnknown. 



Cynaua Scoia-mus, Linn., the Artichoke of the Old World, — remarkable for the tliick fleshi- 

 ness of the receptacle and scales of the involucre, which are edible, — is occasionally spontaneous, 

 jirobably escaped from cultivation. 



104. CNICUS, Linn. TumrLK. 



Head many-llowered ; the llowers all perfect and fertile, with tubular corollas 

 deeply (often more or less unequally) 5-cleft into narrow lobes. Involucre globular, 

 ovoid, or at maturity sometimes campanulatc ; the mostly narrow .scales imbricated 

 in many series, more commonly tipped with a spine or cu.spidate point. Recep- 

 tacle flat, fleshy, densely clothed with bristles. Filaments commonly papillose- 

 liairy, distinct : anthers sagittate at base, the auricles frequently extended into tails. 

 Style fdiform, sometimes thickened or with a pubescejit ring or node at the base of 

 the miinitoly puberulont atigmatic ])oriion ; wliicli in our sptvicH is almost always 

 slender, consisting of two fdiform branches which are more or less firmly united by 

 their inner faces up nearly or quite to the tip. Akenes glabrous and smooth, thick- 

 Avallcil, obovate or oblong, more or less compressed, attached by their very base. 

 Pappus of copious and rather rigid long and plumo.sc bristles in a single scries, con- 

 nected at the very ba.so into a ring, so that they remain united after detaching. 

 Kut rarely the bristles of some of the outermost flowers are slightly or not at all 

 plumose. — Stout herbs, more commonly biennials, with alternate and usually 

 prickly leaves, and large or middle-sized beads; the flowers purple, red, pale yellow, 

 or white. — Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 4G8 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 39. 

 Cirsium, Tourn., DC. Prodr., &c. 



A large genus, widely dis))erscd over the northern hemisphere, most numerous in the Old 

 "World. It seems necessary to ftdlow Hentham in restoring the I^iiuirean name of Cnicu-i, includ- 

 ing, however, a good deal more tiinn the Cirsium of Cassini, De ("andolle, kc Two Enropenu 

 Huocics, whii'h are common niid lronbh>Home in tlie Alhintic Stiites, srM'm nol 1o Iiavo rencliiMJ 

 ('nllfonila, viz. — 



V. I.ANCKOI, ATI'S, the conunon Fidil Thistle, whidi is well miiiknl l.y {]w l.-nves being decur- 

 ront on tlio .stem, and t.Iieir upper surface very hiusli or nhnost jnickly. 



C. AUVENSis, the Panada Thistle (l)nt not indigenous to ("anndn), wilh numerous small henda 

 whii'li incline to be ditecions. 



