Microseris. COMPOSIT^E. 423 



108. PHALACROSERIS, Gray. 

 Head rather many-flowered. Involucre camiianulate, of 12 to IG equal lanceolate 

 and somewhat herbaceous scales, in one or two series, their barely united bases 

 becoming somewhat dilated and concave in fruit, occasionally a loose and linear 

 subtending bractlet. Eeceptacle convex, naked. Ligules linear, rather short. 

 Akenes short-oblong, becoming slightly incurved, obscurely 4 - 5-angled or nerved, 

 truncate at both ends, smooth and even, destitute of pappus. — A single species. 



1. P. Bolanderi, Gray. Perennial, glabrous : leaves linear-lanceolate or oblan- 

 ceolate, entire, in a tuft from the short and thickish dark-colored rootstock : scapes 

 perfectly simple and naked, a span to a foot high : flowers orange-yellow. — Proc. 

 Am. Acad. vii. 364 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 507. 



Wet meadows (Westfall's, &c.) of the Sierra Nevada, alt. 7,000 to 8,000 feet, south of the 

 Yosemite Valley, Bolander, Torrey, A. Gray. Head not nodding before expansion ; involucre 

 barely half an inch high. Flowers open in sunshine. 



109. MICROSERIS, Don. 



Head several - many-flowered. Involucre cylindraceous or campanulate ; the 

 thin-herbaceous or membranaceous scales from linear-lanceolate to ovate, either regu- 

 larly imbricated or mainly in a double series, the outer short and calyculate. Eecep- 

 tacle flat, naked. CoroUas mostly with a hairy tube. Akenes terete or rarely 

 somewhat angled, 8-10- (sometimes 12-14) ribbed, truncate at the apex, occa- 

 sionally narrowed above into a sort of neck or beak, furnished Avith a basal callosity 

 which is more or less hollowed at the insertion ; the outermost frequently pubes- 

 cent. Pappus of few or several (mostly 5 to 10, sometimes 12 to 24) awn- bearing, 

 chaffy scales, or slender awns or bristles with more or less paleaceous dilated base, 

 either naked or sometimes plumose, rarely by abortion wanting. — Annuals, bien- 

 nials, or some perhaps perennials, glabrous or slightly furfuraceous-puberulent, with 

 chiefly radical and often pinnatifid leaves, and heads of yellow flowers terminating 

 scapes or long peduncles, commonly nodding before expansion. — Don in Phil. ^lag. 

 xi. 388 (1832); Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 207. Bellardia, Colla (1835). Lepi- 

 donema, Fischer & Meyer (1835). Fichtea, Schultz in Linniea (1835). Calais, DC. 

 (1838); Gray in Pacif. Pt. Eep. iv. 121. Phylloimiypus, Walp. in Linnaja (1840). 

 JJro-pappus & Scorzonella, Nutt. (1840). Ilia^oseris & Scorzonella, Benth. Sc Hook. 

 Gen. PI. ii. 506, 533. 



A genus of sixteen species, all Western Nortli American, excepting two in the southern hemi- 

 sphere (one in Chili and one in New Zealand and Australia). De Candolle's name of Calais, wxAvv 

 which our species have become familiar, has to give way to the much older and less happily 

 chosen one of Microseris, to include also Scorzonella, contrary to Jlr. Bcntliam's opinion. Tlie 

 hollowed callus at the insertion of the akene is about the same in all, and the iinlirication of the 

 involucre passes by degrees into the simpler calyculate mode. The fusiform roots of the so-called 

 perennial species seem to be only biennial. 



§ 1. Pappus plumose and ivhite : alenes slender, terete, not attenuate either totvards 

 apex or base : stems more or less branching, from a fusiform {probably bien- 

 nial) simple or fascicled root. — Ptilophora, Gray. 

 1. M. nutans, Gray. Slender, a foot or so higdi, mostly at length loosely 

 branched : leaves entire or laciniate-pinuatilid into linear lobes, varying from iili- 

 form-linear to spatulate, or the radical even oval : heads 8 - 20-flowered, on slender 

 peduncles : involucre cylindraceous, of 8 to 10 linear-lanceolate gradually acumi- 

 nate principal scales and a few short and loose calyculate ones : pappus of 12 to 20 



