222 CICHORIACE^. 



sometimes making a height of 2 ft. or more : heads smaller, with fewer 

 flowers. The type common, chiefly along the seaboard; the variety, of 

 the interior, extending far southward. April, May. 



7. MICBOSERIS, Don. Stemless annuals, with an ample radical 

 tuft of mostly pinnatifid leaves, and many slender erect or decumbent 

 monocephalous scapes; the ovoid or subglobose heads nodding in bud, 

 and even in flower; usually erect in fruit. Involucre with short-imbri- 

 cated bracts at base; the main bracts longer and equal. Ligules short; 

 expanded heads small. Achenes oblong-claviform to turbinate. Pappus 

 of usually short palese tapering into a long scabrous awn. 



1. M. Donglasii (DO.), Gray. Scapes many, decumbent at base, 

 8 18 in. high: head broad-ovoid: achenes 2 lines long, thickish, oblong - 

 turbinate, contracted near the summit, those of the outer circle usually 

 white- villous : paleas of the pappus 2 lines long, round-ovate to orbicular. 

 half or a third the length of the awn, glabrous or villous on the outside. 

 Very common, and in great variety of forms. April, May. 



2. M. attennata, Greene. More slender, with fewer scapes, these 

 not as long, more erect: head oblong: achenes 4 lines long, attenuate- 

 fusiform^ the upper and narrower half not filled by the seed but vacant: 

 pappus-pale % 3 lines long or more, oblong -lanceolate, about half the 

 length of the awn, more or less villous externally. Hills of Contra 

 Costa Co., but first collected at Berkeley, where it is long since extinct. 



3. M. imlivisa, Greene. Stoutish, leaves not pinnatifid, many not 

 even toothed, oblanceolate; scapes quite erect, 1 1J^ ft. high: heads 

 subglobose, the fl. and achenes more than 100; outer row of achenes 

 silvery-silky, the others glabrous, all chestnut-brown, 2 lines long, the 

 pappus about 5 lines, of 5 whitish barbellulate not fragile bristles the bases 

 of which are dilated into small triangular lanceolate palese. Plains of 

 Solano Co., east of the mountains. May. 



4. M. tenella (Gray). Very slender, and the leaves subentire, or 

 larger and the leaves pinnatifid: heads broad-ovate to subglobose: 

 achenes dark-brown, oblong-clavale: pappus mostly of only 2 or 3 very 

 slender fragile bristles which are merely deltoid-dilated at base. Very 

 common and variable; occasionally destitute of pappus and the small 

 heads hemispherical. April, May. 



5. M. elegaiis, Greene. Seldom 1 ft. high, slender, the leaves pin- 

 natifid: fruiting head small (less than Y 2 in. high): achenes little more 

 than a line long, turbinate: pappus-palex ovate-deltoid, a fourth the length 

 of the very slender awn, these and often the whole summit of the achene 

 minutely villous. Low plains of Solano and Contra Costa counties. 



6. M. Bigelovii, Gray. Often 1 ft. high and more: broad-ovate head 

 ^ in. high: involucre more imbricated than in the foregoing: acheues 



