56 GENUS AHTEMISIA. 



Where it forms low savannah it mixes with Stipa eminens and S. setigera especially, or 

 with the annuals, such as Avena fatua, Bromus maximus, etc., that have replaced the 

 native bunch-grasses. In its relation to water, it stands just below Adenosloma and just 

 above its climax associates. It is essentially a xerophyte, ranging from a rainfall of 25 

 to 10 inches. As an indicator, it denotes a climate slightly moister than that of the 

 bunch-grass prairie and drier than that of the chaparral. In the chaparral climax it 

 indicates disturbance of the soil, usually associated with alluvial or colluvial deposits. 



USES. 

 The Spanish-Californians and other early settlers made some use of this plant for 

 medicinal purposes, employing it for almost every ill. According to Torrey (Bot. Mex. 

 Bound. 17, 1859), it was used by the Mexican immigrants as a popular remedy against 

 cholera, under the name of "estafiat." The Americans usually call it "old man." The 

 foliage is not regularly browsed by cattle, because of the strong odor and bitter taste, 

 and although browsed by sheep and goats, this is done only in the absence of more 

 palatable food. As a result the hillsides of western California are in many places covered 

 with a dense stand of this brush where more desirable species are destroyed by sheep, 

 goats, and donkeys. Because of its abundance and lightness the pollen is a frequent 

 cause of hay-fever, as has been determined by skin-reaction tests. This has led to 

 the use of an extract prepared from the pollen as a desensitizing agent for the relief of 

 certain types of hay-fever on the Pacific Coast. Beneficial results are secured only in 

 those cases where positive reactions are first obtained with the pollen extract. 



4. ARTEMISIA MACROBOTRYS Ledebour, Fl. Alt. 4 :73, 1833. Plate 4. 



A perennial herb with a rootstock, 2 to 4 dm. high, probably nearly inodorous; stems 

 several from a slender crown, simple below, erect, glabrous or sparingly pilose, plainly 

 striate, yellowish-green; basal and lower leaves crowded, petioled, 4 to 8 cm. long including 

 petiole, pinnately divided into several pairs of segments which spread nearly at right 

 angles, these parted into lanceolate very acute lobes which are sometimes again cleft, 

 copiously long-pilose or glabrate; upper leaves similar; inflorescence an elongated ter- 

 minal raceme or this somewhat branched and subpaniculate, 10 to 20 cm. long, 1 to 3 cm. 

 broad; heads heterogamous, peduncled (peduncles 1 to 5 mm. long), mostly nodding; 

 involucre hemispheric, 3 to 4 mm. high, 6 to 7 mm. broad (much smaller at least in some 

 Siberian forms), bracts 14 to 18, elliptic or the outer ovate, obtuse, brown and scarious 

 on the margins, sparingly villous; ray-flowers about 9 to 12, fertile, corolla tapering 

 upwards, about 2 mm. long; disk-flowers about 30 to 50, fertile, corolla funnelform, 

 2 to 3 mm. long or only 1.5 in small-headed Siberian forms, mostly glabrous; style- 

 branches of ray-flowers acute to emarginate, of disk-flowers truncate and erose at summit; 

 achenes elliptic-turbinate, 4- or 5-ribbed, glabrous. 



Western Yukon to Siberia. Credited to Alaska by Rydberg (N. Am. Fl. 34:264, 

 1916), but apparently rare there; widely distributed in Siberia. Type locality, dry 

 plains of the Kerlyk River, Siberia. Collections : The only specimen seen from America 

 is one from above Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory, July 14, 1899, Tarleton 111 (NY). 



MINOR VARIATIONS AND SYNONYMS. 



This plant is so little known in America that nothing can be said as to its possible variations. The extent 

 of variation in Siberian forms is mentioned under the heading of Relationships. 



1. Artemisia laciniata Willdenow, Sp. PI. 3: 1843, 1804. — The original name under which A. macrobotrys 

 was described. Cited by Ledebour as a synonym of his A. macrobotrys. 



2. Artemisia tanacetifolia Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 848, 1753. — A synonym as far as the reference to Siberia 

 is concerned. At least some portions of the description, such as "foliis bipinnatis subtus tomentosis nitidis," 

 refer to some other plant, probably A. nana Gaudin. Therefore the name A. lanacetijolia can not be taken up 

 for the present species, notwithstanding its early date of publication. 



