PARSLEY FAMILY. 343 



ing stems, prickly involucres and often prickly leaves. Leaves oppo- 

 site,, or the upper sometimes alternate, simple, commonly oblanceolate 

 and spinulose-serrate or incised, or the radical, when growing in 

 water, with fistulous petioles and the blade more or less obsolete. 

 Flowers greenish white or bluish, condensed in heads, terminal on 

 the branches or on short peduncles in the forks; bracts spinose, con- 

 spicuous; bractlets usually spino.-e-tipped. Calyx-lobes persistent on 

 the fruit. Fruit covered with whitish thin scales; ribs obsolete. Oil- 

 tubes none. (Greek name used by Dioscorides.) 



Heads greenish. 

 Calyi-lobes in fruit longer than the styles. 

 Bracts and hractlets entire, callous-marginecl . . . . 1. E. armatum. 

 Bracts and bractlets spinulose, at least toward the base . ... 



2. E. Vaseyi. 



Calyx-lobes in fruit shorter than the styles 3. E. Californicum. 



Heads very blue . . . A. E. articulatum. 



1. E. armatum C. &. R. Point Reyes Eeynqo. Ditfusely 

 branching, the stems 3 to 5 or 10 in. long;, leaves broadly oblanceo- 

 late, incised or merely serrate, the teeth spinose; bracts and bractlets 

 very prominent, broadly lanceolate, strongly spi nose-tipped, with an 

 entire callous margin, sometimes scarious-winged at the very base, 7 

 lines long or less; calyx-lobes longer than the styles, narrowed at apex 

 into a sharp point or cusp. 



Lowlands near the coast from Monterey to Berkeley; Marin Co.; 

 and Petaluma. Very abundant on Point Re\c^, the tough spiny 

 plants covering hundreds of acres and therefore in disfavor with the 

 dairymen. 



2. E. Vaseyi C. & R. Vaset's Bkyngo. Stout, erect, more or 

 loss branching, commonly 8 to 13 in. (or sometimes 2 ft.) high; lower 

 and radical leaves narrowly oblanceolate, spinulose, somewhat incised 

 or bearing small lanceolate lobes below, 4 to 8 in. long, or the upper 

 cauline much shorter; bracts spinose, spinulose toward the base, 6 to 

 10 lines long, much surpassing the bractlets; bractlets surpassing the 

 flowers, similar; fruit with abruptly cuspidate calyx-lobes longer than 

 the short styles. 



Very common in low places on the plains of the Sacramento Valley. 

 Doubtless also in the San Joaquin. May-June. 



3. E. Californicum. Plants growing in shallow vernal pools, the 

 earliest leaves fistulous, jointed at intervals (k to 2 in.), sometimes 

 with a short dilated tip, 19 in. long or less; fistulous leaves mainly 

 disappearing with the gradual drying up of the pools and flowering 

 branches arising; stems slender, freely branching, IJ to If ft. high; 

 lowest and upper^ cauline leaves oblanceolate, spinulose, sometimes 

 incised, narrowed at base to a slender spinulose petiole; heads IJ to 3 

 or 4 lines broad, surpassed by the bracts; bracts about 5 to 10 lines 

 long, with few short bristles at base; bractlets with a broad scarious 

 margin at base, not spinulose; calyx-lobes oblong or lanceolate, cus- 

 pidate, much shorter than the long styles. — (E. petiolatum of Ameri- 

 can authors, doubtless not of Hook.) 



Rather common in the Coast Ranges: Alameda Co.; Napa A'alley, 

 etc. Fistulous leaves appearing in Apr. Fruit ripe July-Sept. 



