336 DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES 



immediately seated upon the uppermost leaf; involuci'um small and ovate, composed of two rows 

 of ovate, acuminate sepals, the tips somevi^hat herbaceous and projecting. Rays oblong, about 

 eight, feminine, slightly three-toothed, longer than the narrow disk; discal florets tubular, cyathi- 

 form, the summit five-cleft. Stigma lanceolate, pubescent; achenium narrow, slightly pubescent 

 when mature, linear-subcylindric ? Pappus short, scanty, scabrous, brownish. 



*PENTACH^TA. 



Capitulum heterogamous, many-flowered, hemispherical. Rays feminine in 

 two or three series, oblong. Discal florets tubular, oblique, ringent and five- 

 cleft at the summit. Receptacle punctate, naked, convex. Involucrum 

 loosely imbricate; scales linear, flat, acute, with broad .membranaceous mar- 

 gins, in two or three series. Achenium turbinate, angular, hirsute; pappus 

 consisting, in ray and disk, of five scabrous bristles, united at the base, which 

 is not deciduous. — A small and slender annual of Upper California, branch- 

 ing from the base, branches divaricate, one-flowered, fastigiate. Leaves al- 

 ternate, entire, nearly glabrous and filiform. Flowers wholly bright yellow; 

 the rays slightly three-toothed. — (The name alludes to the pappus of five 

 bristles.) 



Pentacliceta aurea. 



Hab. In dry plains near the sea, in the vicinity of St. Diego, Upper California. Flowering in 

 April. A very elegant, though often minute plant, from two or three inches to a foot high, branch- 

 ing usually from the base in an umbellate manner, the branches one-flowered. Leaves, on their 

 margin, as well as the upper part of the stem, somewhat sparingly pilose, the hairs rather long and 

 soft. Flower about the size of a Daisy, almost orange-yellow, with twenty to fifty rays, much 

 longer than the disk. Involucrum that of the true Aplopappus, the scales exactly similar with 

 each other, linear-lanceolate and sharply acuminate, membranaceous, and somewhat lacerate on the 

 margin, the centre green and one-nerved. Anthers without setae at base. Discal florets somewhat 

 curved and ringent, or deeper cleft above. Stigmas filiform, very hirsute, acute or acuminate, at 

 length much exserted. Stigmas of the rays long and smooth; the ray simple, or not labiate. In 

 habit this plant appears to approach some of the Chilian species of Chsetanthera. It seems, also, 

 though remotely, allied to Chaetopappa, but is wholly distinct from all the other ChrysocomevE, with 

 which it is associated. Allied to the Mittisiace^, but with the stigma of Aster. 



