Lygodesmia. COMPOSITE. 4_Q 



slender glabrous peduncles : leaves oblong or oblong-spatulate, often denticulate or 

 repand-toothed, sparsely or the lower thickly beset with long and spreading villous- 

 hispid bristles, as is the base of the stem: involucre narrow, about 20-fiowered, 

 smooth and glabrous or beset with some scattered long bristles, not glandular: 

 corollas white. — IT. argutum, !Xutt. 1. c. (?), from Sta. Barbara. 



Open woods ; common through the State from San Diego Co. northward, and in the foot- 

 hills of the Sierra Nevada ; extending to British Columbia and eastward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Involucre 3 to 5 lines long. Akenes a line and a half long, evenly and strongly striate- 

 ribbed. 



5. H. triste, Willd., var. gracile, Gray. Slender, a span or two high: stem 

 I — 2-leaved or sometimes nearly leafless, bearing few heads, tomentose-puberulent 

 or almost glabrous below : the summit or peduncles and involucre villous or hirsute 

 with lung and blackish hairs: leaves oblong-spatulate, entire or denticulate, taper- 

 ing into a slender petiole : corollas yellow. — //. gracile, Hook. 1. c. ; Fries, Symb. 

 & Epicrisis llierac. 



Var. detonsum, Gray. A form destitute or nearly so of the dark soft hairs 

 even on the involucre, or with scattered and more bristly and sometimes glandular 

 ones in their place ; the heads rather smaller. 



Ebbett's Pass, Sierra Nevada, at S,000 feet {Brewer), the var. detonsum; also in the Rocky 

 Mountains and in < iregon, accompanied by and passing into the black-headed form of the northern 

 Rocky .in 1 Cascade Mountains, //. gracile, Hook. This in turn clearly passes into the Alaskan 

 //. triste ; which has very long and dense dark gray hairs to the heads, shorter stems, and hir- 

 sute upper leaves. 



122. LYGODESMIA, Don. 



Head few-flowered. Involucre cylindrical or cylindraceous, of 4 to 8 narrow 

 membranaceous scales in a single series, with a few short calyculate ones at base, or 

 rarely more unequal and imbricated. Eeceptacle flat, naked. Akenes linear, terete, 

 5-striate or ribbed (the ribs mostly broad and low, separated by narrow grooves), 

 often tapering at summit, but not truly beaked, the callus at base hollowed at the 

 insertion. Pappus of copious barely scabious capillary bristles, either rather sofl or 

 rigid, dull white or sordid, persistent. — Low perennials (rarely annuals or bien- 

 nials), pale and glabrous; with -lender and rather rigid either rush-like or divari- 

 cate striate branches, narrow entire or laciniate-pinnatifid leaves, the upper mostly 



reduced to subulate scales u|- bracts, and small or middle .-i/,d heads of rose-Colored 



flowers. — Benth. & Hook. (leu. l'l. ii. -ViU; Uray, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. i!l". 



\ genus of live or si\ *p. i ies, n itives of the dry interior region, except ilmi one species inhab- 

 its Texas and Florida ; in the Bowers and general as| t resembling Stephanomeria, but with a 



imple scabrous pappus. One species has lieen collected just within the 1 lera of the State : 



another approaches bo nearly that it may claim admission. 



1. L.juncea, Don. Perennial, copiously and corymbosely branched from the 

 base, about a fool high, rigid : Lower leaves linear-subulate, an inch or two in length, 

 entire, the upper all reduced to little scales or bractlets : heads 5-flowered, half an 

 inch long, erect at the summit of the simple branchlets : ligules oblong: pappus 

 fine and soft. 



Unionville Valley, Nevada (JFatson), thence eastward to the Missouri River. Involui 

 scales and a few calyculate ones .it base, as in .ill the spei ies except the next 



-. L. spinosa, Mutt. Perennial, or possibly biennial, the pool or crown sur 

 mounted bj a dense tuft of wool: stems divergently and often tortuously much 

 It. i tie I,., i, rigid, and the branches spinescenl : lower leaves linear, entire or slightly 

 toothed; npper ones subulate and on the la an. hlets reduced to minute scales: heads 

 3 — 5-flowered, small, on shorl lateral peduncles or .-purs i Involucre of few unequal 



