ADDISONIA 31 
(Plate 56) 
XANTHISMA TEXANUM 
Texas Xanthisma 
Native of Texas 
Family CaRDUACEAE THISTLE Family 
Xanthisma texanum DC. Prodr. 5: 95. 1836. 
Centauridium Drummondii Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. 2; 246. 1842. 
An annual or biennial herb, one to two feet high, bearing solitary 
radiate “bens of flowers, on spreading branches. The alternate 
leaves are oblong to linear-lanceolate, acute and slightly awn-tipped, 
about one inch long. ‘The upper leaves are nearly entire, while 
the lower are somewhat pinnatifid-toothed. Around the compact 
disk of numerous fertile flowers are about twenty ray-flowers, also 
fertile, in a greenish involucre of vis or three series of imbricate 
bracts which are epee en leathery at the base and herbaceous at the 
he achenes are top-shaped, four- or five-ribbed, with a 
pappus of numerous fringed bristles of irregular length. 
This plant was probably first collected in Texas about 1830, by 
Berlandier, and later by Drummond and by Riddell. It grows 
naturally in the prairies of Texas. It is sold by seedsmen as 
Centauridium Drummondii, a name given to it by Torrey and 
Gray, who described it from Drummond’s specimens. 
In gardens it is treated as a hardy annual, and flowers nearly all 
summer. Its flowers are of a pleasing golden yellow shade and, 
owing on long stems, are valuable for cutting. It is readily 
propagated by seeds. 
KENNETH R. BOYNTON. 
EXPLANATION OF Pate. Fig. 1.—Flowering branch. Fig. 2.—Achene, X 3. 
