350 COMPOSITE. WyetMa. 



petiole, or the uppermost with rounded or almost cordate base : involucre campanu- 

 late ; its scales 10 to 12, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, mostly herbaceous, 

 and longer than the disk-flowers : rays 10 to 15 : akenes linear-prisniatic (5 lines 

 long), minutely pubescent at summit, crowned with a very short truncate chaffy cup 

 and 2 or in the ray 3 to 5 subulate awns. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 544. 



Sierra Nevada, from above the Yosemite to Mono Lake, Mount Dana, Sonora Pass, &e. , and 

 adjacent parts of Nevada. Involucre about an inch long, commonly very white-woolly, some- 

 times, like the whole plant, glabrate. Said to grow in large patches. 



* * * Involucre broadly campanulate, of numerous loose scales : pappus 1 — Pawned. 



k^(\ 5. W. angustifolia, Nutt. Green and hirsute, at least the simple stems, a span 

 to 2 feet high : leaves elongated-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, occasionally ser- 

 rulate ; the radical and lower ones a span to a foot long ; the upper sessile, shorter 

 and often broader : head naked : scales of the involucre numerous, broadly linear or 

 lanceolate ; most of them herbaceous or foliaceous, loose, ciliate with villous or hir- 

 sute hairs: akenes (3 lines long) minutely pubescent at summit, bearing one or 

 two (or those of the ray 3 or 4) stout minutely hirsute awns, with some very short 

 intervening chaffy scales, more or less united at base (rarely awnless). — Alarconia 

 angustifolia, DC. WyetMa angustifolia & W. robusta, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. vii. 352. Helianthus longifolius, Hook. H. MooTcerianus, DC. 



Plains and hillsides, from Monterey east to the foot-hills and north to Oregon. A rather 

 common and variable species. There are indications of an allied species in the foot-hills of Mari- 

 posa and Tuolumne Counties. 



W. helianthoides, Nutt. , his original species, which is imperfectly known, but resembles W. 

 angustifolia, with a more leafy stem, and 



W. amplexicaulis, Nutt., which is very smooth and glabrous, with upper leaves closely ses- 

 sile (both with commonly awnless pappus), inhabit a region northeast of California, but have 

 not been found very near the borders of the State. Their thick roots or rootstocks are used for 

 food by the Indians, along with those of Balsamorhiza. 



46. VERBESINA, Linn. 



Head many-flowered, heterogamous with fertile rays, or rarely by their abortion 

 homogamous ; the disk-flowers perfect. Involucre of numerous or rather few scales. 

 Receptacle convex or conical ; the chaff embracing the akenes. Akenes flat (later- 

 ally much compressed) and winged on the margins, or those of the ray wingless. 

 Pappus of 2 awns, either free from or united with the wings. ■ — Chiefly herbs ; with 

 opposite or alternate leaves, and mostly yellow flowers ; natives of the warmer parts 

 of America : only the following reaches the borders of California. — Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. ii. 379. 



1. V. encelioides, Tjenth. & Hook. Annual, more or less hoary -pubescent, or 

 sometimes smoothish and green : stem loosely branching, a foot or two high : leaves 

 triangular- ovate or somewhat cordate, or the upper nearly lanceolate, coarsely and 

 ineisely serrate, and with interrupted margined or winged petiole dilated at base 

 into a toothed or laciniate foliaceous clasping auricle : heads large, corymbose : 

 scales of the hemispherical involucre loose ; the outer set linear-lanceolate and acu- 

 minate, foliaceous, fully equalling the flattish disk : rays numerous, cuneate-oblong, 

 bright golden yellow, 3-lobed at summit : disk akenes surrounded by a broad 

 whitish and thiekish wing, which at the summit is little if at all exceeded by the 

 short and very slender awns of the pappus. — Ximenesia encelioides, Cav. Ic. ii. 60, 

 t. 178; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 359. 



On the Rio Colorado, or at least through that region all the way to Texas, and the northern 

 provinces of Mexico, now widely diffused over the warmer parts of the world, and not rare in 

 gardens. The wild plant along our borders is mostly a low and caneseent form (var. caiia), but 

 it becomes luxuriant and greener in moist and richer soil. 



