Helianthus. COMPOSITE. 353 



Brandies of the style tipped with a subulate hispid appendage. Akenes thick, 

 commonly obovate-oblong, either 4-angled or somewhat lenticular, laterally more or 

 less compressed, the edges obtuse as well as marginless. Pappus caducous, of 2 

 chaffy awns or pointed scales, one from each principal angle of the akene, sometimes 

 with two or more very small and thin intermediate scales, which are equally cadu- 

 cous. — Coarse annuals or perennials, with entire or merely toothed leaves, at least 

 the lower ones mostly opposite, and solitary or somewhat corymbose heads, of large 

 or middle size. Pays yellow : disk yellow, brownish, or sometimes dark purple. 



A genus of nearly threescore species, all American and chiefly temperate North American, 

 most of them in the Atlantic United States, very few in California. 



* Annuals, with leaves 3-ribbed at base, all but the lowest usualli/ alternate : receptacle 

 flat : disk brownish or dark purplish. 



1. H. annuus, Linn. Large, hispid and rough : leaves deltoid-ovate and the 

 lower more or less cordate, acuminate, •'! to 7 inches long, all petioled: scales of the 

 involucre ovate or ovate-lanceolate, abruptly slender-acuminate : chaff of the recep- 

 tacle sin. iter than the flowers : akem-s in the wild plants appressed silky-pubescent, 

 l'! i" 1 lines long: pappus of 2 chaffy scales. — The wild plant, with peduncles 

 moderately if at all thickened, receptacle an inch or so in diameter, and even the 

 lower leaves not much cordate, is //. lenticularis, Dougl. in Lot. Peg. t. 1265. 



Banks of streams, and open places, in tin: eastern and southern part of the State, more common 



in Nevada, ami tie nee i" Nebraska and Texas. Seeds used fur feed by the Indians. In all prob- 

 ability this wild sunflower of the plains is the original of the long-cultivated if. annuus. A 

 specimen from Fort Tejuii, l.y Xantus, would lie referred to that species. 



2. H. petiolaris, Xutt. Slender, about 2 feet high, branching : leaves from ovate 

 in ovate-lanceolate, commonly almost entire, contracted at base into long and slender 



petioles : head rather small ; acuminate tip of the chaff of the receptacle nut longer 

 than the tlowers : akenes more or less appressed-pubescent. 



Occurs sparingly in the eastern and southern parts of the State and Nevada : common in Utah and 

 eastward almost to the Mississippi Seemingly passes into depauperate forms of the preceding. 



3. H. Bolanderi, Gray. Stem hirsute, branching, 2 feet or more high : leaves 

 ovate lanceolate or the lower rhomboid-ovate, acute or acuminate, very sharply and 

 coarsely serrate, en slender petioles: heads somewhat panicled, short peduncled : 

 involucre loosely hirsute ; its scales linear- laneenlate. attenuate-acuminate, loose, folia- 

 ceous, longer than the disk, mi stly equalling the lOor 12 rays : chaff of the recepi tele 



entile nr nearly so, tipped with all awn exceeding the dark-purple corollas : akenes 



silky-pubescent: pappus of 2 subulate chaffy awns. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. •"> I I. 



Lake County, at tin- (leysei -'./•. Also collected bj Bridges, but habitat unknown. 



Heads small. Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, on petioles of about half their length. 



■1. H. exilis, Gray, 1. c More or less hirsute : steins slendi r, branching, a fool 

 high: [eaves linear-oblong or lanceolate, nearly entire, obscurely 3-nerved at base, 

 tapering into a short petiole : heads very small, on slender sometimes leafy-bracteel 

 peduncles i scales of the involucre nearly as in the preceding : rays 5 to 8 : chaff of 

 the receptacle produced into an awn-like cusp which equals the dark-purple corollas: 

 akenes nearly glabrous : pappus nt' i' ovate lanceolate chaffy scales. 



Wet places around Clear Lake, Bolandttr. Long Valley, Mendocino Co., a larger form, one or 

 two feel high, Kellogg. Heads 4 to 6 lines high. A form, probably of this species, with 

 the upper leaves mostly opposite, scales of the involucre broader and erect, and the long hirsute 

 hairs mostly wanting, was collected in ''wens Valley by /v. Horn. 



* * Perennials: receptacL convex: dish dull yellow. 



.'">. H. Calif ornicus, 1 >< '. stem glabrous, rather slender, 2 to 6 feel high, 

 simple or branching : leaves alternate or some of them opposite, minutely 



