SUNFLOWER FAMILY. Compositae. 



Venegasia These big, leafy plants, with their bright 



Venegdsia flowers, are a splendid feature of the 



carpesioldes California woods and canyons in June, 



Yellow especially on the slopes of the Santa Inez 



mountains, where they often cover large 

 areas with green and gold; unfortunately 

 the smell is rather disagreeable. The leafy stems are four 

 or five feet high, nearly smooth, with alternate, bright 

 green leaves, almost smooth and thin in texture, and the 

 flowers, resembling Sun-flowers, are over two inches across, 

 with clear yellow rays, an orange center, and an involucre 

 of many green scales, overlapping and wrapped around 

 each other, so that the bud looks much like a tiny head of 

 lettuce. This was named for Venegas, a Jesuit missionary, 

 and is the only kind, growing near the coast in the South. 



This is a slender plant, from six inches 

 to two feet tall with F a l e gray- green, 

 leptodada woolly leaves, the lower ones somewhat 



Lilac toothed, and pale pinkish-lilac flowers, not 



Summe very conspicuous in themselves, but some- 



times growing in such quantities that they 

 form pretty patches of soft pinkish color in sandy places. 

 The flower-head is about half an inch long, with no rays, 

 but the outer flowers in the head are larger and have long 

 lobes resembling rays. This is very variable, especially in 

 size, and is common along dry roadsides and quite abun- 

 dant in Yosemite, The picture is of a small plant. L. 

 Germanorum, which is common on sandy hills along the 

 coast from San Francisco to San Diego, has yellow flowers 

 and blooms in autumn. 



There are many kinds of Baeria, not easily distinguished. 



This is a dear little plant, often covering 



Gold Fields t ^ ie fields with a carpet of gold. The 



Baeria gradlis slender stems are about six inches tall, 



Yellow with soft, downy, light green leaves, 



usually opposite, and pretty fragrant 



flowers, about three-quarters of an inch across, with bright 



yellow rays and darker yellow centers. This is sometimes 



called Fly Flower, because in some places it is frequented 



by a small fly, which is annoying to horses. B. macrdntha 



is a much larger plant, a biennial, with a tuberous root, 



from seven inches to a foot and a half tall, with long, 



narrow, toothless leaves, with hairy margins, and flower- 



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