180 COMPOSITE. 



leaves lanceolate, acute, entire, 25 in. long, entire, or obscurely serrate, 

 the whole margin scabrous: heads ^ in. high, in a more or less ample 

 panicle of short loose leafy racemes; bracts of campanulate or broadly 

 obconic involucre much imbricated, linear or linear-spalulate, with short 

 and rounded green tips: rays 2530, purple or violet, % in. long. 

 Common and variable; some forms very showy. Aug. Oct. 



5. A. Souoiiiensis. Slender, decumbent at base, 11% ft. high, 

 glabrous and glaucescenl, only the leaf -margins scabrous-ciliolate: leaves 

 mainly radical, narrowly lanceolate, tapering to a long petiole, this with 

 a dilated and strongly ciliate basal part: heads rather few in a terminal 

 corymbose panicle; involucres % in. high, broad-campanulate to broad- 

 obconic, the well imbricated bracts narrowly oblanceolate, acute; rays 

 purplish, rather narrow, % in. long. In open plains of the Sonoma 

 Valley, in low subsaline ground. Sept., Oct. 



6. A. lentus. Erect, slender, 46 ft. high, slightly succulent, glabrous 

 except a slight pubescence under the heads, and a delicately serrulate- 

 scabrous margin to the leaves: lowest leaves 35 in. long, lanceolate- 

 linear, slightly falcate, those of the flowering branches straight and 

 half-clasping at the sessile base : panicle loose and ample, often a yard 

 long, the branches loosely racemose: heads 4 5 lines high; involucres 

 oblong; bracts linear, acute, appressed, green-herbaceous and somewhat 

 succulent almost throughout: rays many, % in. long, light purple. 

 Plentiful along tidal streams in western part of the Suisun marsh; the 

 largest and most beautiful of Calif ornian species. Oct., Nov. 



* * * Biennial or annual, paniculate; heads small. 



7. A. exilis, Ell. Glabrous, slender, 2-6 ft. high, with narrow 

 lanceolate or linear entire leaves, and a diffuse panicle of very small 

 heads: bracts of narrow involucre lanceolate-subulate, mainly green 

 herbaceous, the margins scarious : rays white, short and inconspicuous : 

 pappus fine and soft: achenes little compressed. Borders of Suisun 

 marshes, and elsewhere in low subsaline land. Aug. Dec. 



18. ERIGERON, Linn. Involucre of narrow, usually almost equal 

 bracts which are never coriaceous or distinctly herbaceous-tipped. Rays 

 very narrow, commonly extremely numerous and in several series, but 

 in several of our species wanting. Style branches with short roundish 

 appendages. Achenes compressed, 2-nerved. Pappus of scanty fragile 

 bristles, a short outer series sometimes manifest. 



* Perennials; stems leafy at base; cauline leaves reduced. 



1. E. ula iicus. Ker. Monocephalous branches several from a stoutish 

 leafy caudex, the whole plant more or less villous or hirsute, especially 

 above; leaves obovate or spatulate-oblong, 2 4 in. long, entire or with 



