Franseria. COMPOSITE. 345 



§ 1. Fertile involucre 1-2-celled, armed with several stout or flattened and strai'jht 

 or merely curved spines. 



=k Annual: spines on the fruit very flat and broad. 



1. F. Hookeriana, Nutt. A foot or so high, rough-hirsute : leaves twice 

 pinuatiliJ, either green or strigosely hoary beneath : racemes panicled : fruiting 

 invokicre smooth or sometimes sparingly hirsute, about 3 lines long ; its widely 

 spreading spines lanceolate-subulate and thin. — Ambrosia acanthicarpa, Hook. 



Los Angeles, Braver. Eastern borders of the State, Mono Lake, Bolandcr. Thence common 

 to Oregon, Texas, Nebraska, &c. Involucre apparently always one-tlowered and one-celled. 



vc V; Perennial, sometimes woody at base. 



-H Leaves twice or thrice piunately 2}ci}'ted, their tdtimate divisions small. 



2. F. dumosa, Gray. Shrubby and divergently much branched, a foot or so 

 high, canescent with line and close white pubescence : leaves with rather few obtuse 

 lobes, some of them only simply pinnatifid : fruiting involucre nearly glabrous ; the 

 spines flat and subulate. — ^liep. Frem. 2nd Exp. 316. F. albicaulis, Torr. PI. 

 Fremont. 16. 



Gravelly plains, southeastern borders of the State, Coulter, Selwtt, Cooper, &c. Also in Arizona. 



3. F. pumila, Xutt. Herbaceous, a span high, canescently silky-hirsute : " root 

 creeping": leaves thrice pinnatifid, the lobes crowded : spike dense : "spines of the 

 fruit not exserted." — Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. vii. 344. 



"Near San T>\ego, NuUall, Parry. All the specimens seen are young, and the fruit unformecL 

 But l)il|iinr) (Studj sopra Artem.). who makes of this a genus (Hernia mhrosia), says tliat the 

 iipiMi- i.rtilr involucres are 2-celled and 2-flowered, the lower one-celled and one-ilowered. Nut- 

 tall assigns short spines to the fruit. Very probably this species is a dwarf state of F. tcnuifolia. 



4. F. bipinnatifida, Xutt. Herbaceous : stems decumbent or trailing, 2 or 3 

 feet long, somewhat hirsute : leaves twice or thrice pinnatitid, canescently hirsute or 

 almost silky : spike dense : fruiting involucre nearly glabrous ; its spines rather 

 short, stout, conical-subulate, flattened. 



Along the sea-shore from San Diego to British Columbia. Fruiting involucre 4 or 5 lines 

 long, rather narrow. Perhaps, as Lessing supposed, a form of the next. 



-{- -i- Leaves undivided or merely incised. 



5. F. Chamissonis, Less. Herbaceous : stems trailing, a foot or two long, 

 stout, appressed-hirsute : leaves silky-canescent or silvery, varying from oval to 

 cuneate-oblong, contracted at base into a long petiole, unequally and obtusely ser- 

 rate, sometimes incised, rarely almost pinnatitid : spike dense : fruiting involucre 

 sparsely hirsute ; its spines very stout and flatfish. — F. Chamissonis, var. malvce- 

 folia. Less. F. cuneifolia, Nutt. 1. c. 



Sea-shore, in sand, from San Francisco north to British Columljia. 



6. F. deltoidea, Torr. Herbaceous with more or less woody base, low, canes- 

 cent with a tine and close woolliness, which is partly deciduous with age : branches 

 slender : leaves varying from deltoid-ovate or almost hastate to rhombic-lanceolate, 

 obtusely and tinely serrate, sometimes sparingly incised, on slender petioles : sterde 

 heads rather loosely racemed : spines of the ovoid 2-flowered involucre flat and 

 thin, broadly lanceolate subulate, pubescent or almost glabrous. — PI. Fremont. 

 15, & Bot. Mex. Bound. 86. 



Southeastern frontiers of the State : common on the Gila : also in Lower California if, as is 

 probable, this is also F. chcno])ocliifoUa, Benth. Bot. Sulph. 26, the older name. 



7. F. eriocentra, Gray. Shrubby, low, hoary-pubescent : branches slender : 

 leaves varying from cuncate to lanceolate, sparingly incised : heads mostly glomerate : 

 fruiting involucre and its rigid nearly terete subulate spines clothed with long vd- 

 lous wool. — Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 355. 



