Lygodesmia. COMPOSITiE. 4^^^ 



slender glabrous peduncles : leaves oblong or oblong-spatulate, often denticulate or 

 repand-toothed, sparsely or the lower thickly beset with long and spreading villuus- 

 hispid bristles, as is the base of the stem : involucre narrow, about 20-ilowered, 

 smooth and glabrous or beset with some scattered long bristles, not glandular : 

 corollas white. — H. argutum, jSIutt. 1. c. (I), from. Sta. Barbara. 



Open woods ; common through the State from San Diego Co. northward, and in the foot- 

 hihs of the Sierra Nevada ; extending to British Columbia and eastward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Invohicre 3 to 5 Hnes long. Akenes a hne and a half long, evenly and strongly striate- 

 ribbt'd. 



5. H. triste, Wilkl., var. gracile, Gray. Slender, a span or two high : stem 

 1 - 2deaved or sometimes nearly leafless, bearing few heads, tomentose-puberulent 

 or almost glabrous below : the summit or peduncles and involucre villous or hirsute 

 with long and blackish hairs : leaves oblong-spatulate, entire or denticulate, taper- 

 ing into a slender petiole ; corollas yellow. — //. gracile, Hook. 1. c. ; Fries, Symb. 

 k Epicrisis Hierac. 



Var. detonsum, Gray. A foriu destitute or nearly so of the dark soft hairs 

 even on the involucre, or with scattered and more bristly and sometimes glandular 

 ones in their place ; the heads rather smaller. 



Ehhett's Pass, Sierra Nevada, at 8,000 feet {Brewer), the var. detonsum; also in the Rocky 

 Mountains and in Oregon, accompanied by and passing into the black-headed form of the northern 

 Rocky all 1 Cascade Mountains, //. gracile, Hook. This in turn clearly passes into the Alaskan 

 //. trislc : whirh has very long and dense dark gray hairs to the heads, shorter stems, and hir- 

 sute upper leaves. 



122. LYGODESMIA, Don. 



Head few-flowered. Involucre cylindrical or cylindraceous, of 4 to 8 narrow 

 membranaceous scales in a single series, with a few short calyculate ones at base, or 

 rarely more unequal and imbricated. Eeceptacle flat, naked. Akenes linear, terete, 

 5-striate or ribbed (the ribs mostly broad and low, separated by narrow grooves), 

 often tapering at summit, but not truly beaked, the callus at base hollowed at the 

 insertion. Pappus of copious barely scabrous capillary bristles, either rather soft or 

 rigid, dull white or sordid, persistent. — Low perennials (rarely annuals or bien- 

 nials), pale and glabrous ; witli slender and rather rigid either rush-like or divari- 

 cate striate branches, narrow entire or laciniate-pinnatifid leaves, the upper mostly 

 reduced to subulate scales or bracts, and small or middle-sized heads of rose-colored 

 flowers. — Benth. k Hook. Gen. Ph ii. 530; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 217. 



A genus of five or six species, natives of the dry interior region, except that one species inhab- 

 its Texas and Florida ; in the flowers and general aspect resembling Stcp/ianomeria, hut with a 

 simple scahrous pappus. One species has been collected just wilhin the borders of the State : 

 another approaches so nearly that it may claim admission. 



1. L. juncea, Don. Perennial, copiously and corymboscly branclied from the 

 l)ase, about a foot high, rigid: lower leaves linear-subulate, an iucli or two in length, 

 entire, the upper all reduced to little scales or bractlcts : heads 5-rt(iwer('d. halt an 

 inch long, erect at the summit of the simple brancldets : ligules ol)long : papinis 

 fine and soft. 



Unionville Valley, Nevada ( Watson), thence eastward to the Missouri River. Involucre of 

 equal scales and a few calyculate ones at base, as in all the species except the next. 



2. L. spinosa, Nutt. Perennial; or possibly biennial, the root or crown sm-- 

 mounted by a tlense tuft of wool : stems divergently and often tortuously mucli 

 branched, rigid, and the branclios spinoscont : lower leaves linear, entire or slightly 

 toothed; upper ones subulate and on the luanchlets reduced to minute scale.'?: heads 

 3_5.flowered, small, on short lateral peduncles or spurs : involucre of few unequal 



