512 compositjE. 



A. Annuals. 

 Bays none; heads disposed to be sessile in clusters; involucre with small 



black bracts at base , ■ v ^ ^"- ""'»<="■««■ ^ 



Rays Inconspicuous and recurved; flower heads stalked m loose corymbs; 

 involucre naked at base . . . . . 2. S. sylvaUcua. 



B. Perennials. 

 Herbs. 

 Heads with rays. 

 Leaves more or less bipinnately dissected or incised; heads many . . . 



3. S. eurycephalus. 

 Leaves coarsely dentate; heads 1 to 3 . , . 4, &'. Greenei. 



Leaves entire ; heads many to numerous . . 5, S. Clevelandi. 



Heads rayless. 

 Herbage more or less woolly at least when young; montane plants . . 



6. S. aronieoides. 

 Herbage glabrous; plants of brackish marshes .... 7. S. hydrophilus. 

 Suffrutescent plants; heads with rays; leaves divided into 3 to 7 or 9 linear 



lobes 8, S. Douglasii. 



Climbing plants; heads rayless; leaves with reniform stipules 



9. S. mikanioides. 



1. S. vulgaris L. Common Groundsel. Slender erect branch- 

 ing annual, 6 to 12 in. high, glabrous or with a little loose tomen- 

 tum; leaves pinnatitid with oblong lobes and dentate margin, sessile, 

 aurioled; heads in terminal corymbs or clusters; involucre 4 lines 

 long, of about 20 equal black-tipped bracts (often penicillate at tip), 

 with several small black ones at base; acbenes slightly hairy. 



Very common, naturalized weed. Feb. -Apr. Sometimes called 

 "Old Man of Spring." 



2. S. sylvaticus L. Very similar to the preceding but the leaves 

 mostly linear to oblong, less pinnatitid, dentate, or nearly entire; 

 herbage nearly glabrous; heads commonly looser in the corymb; 

 bracts of involucre not black-tipped, the small ones at* base wanting 

 or minute; rays about 5, minute, recurved, or sometimes wanting; 

 achenes appressed-pubescent. — (S. aphanactis Greene.) 



Seldom seen or passed over for S. vulgaris: San Luis Obispo, 

 Brf.toer, 1861; Mare Island, Greene, 1874. 



3. S. eurycephalus T. & G. Stem leafy, often much branched at 

 the summit, 1 to 2f ft. high; herbage floecose-woolly when young, 

 and either glabrate or not glabrate at flowering time; leaves deeply 

 pinnatitid, the lobes cuneate-obovate, entire, coarsely serrate or 

 incisely cleft, or the terminal portion unsegmented; heads 5 lines 

 high, many in an ample corymb; involucre campanulate at base, 

 somewhat contracted above, its bracts linear-oblong, somewhat acute, 

 scarious-margined; rays 7 to 12, the ligules 6 lines long. 



Open woods bordering the bases of low hills in the Coast Ranges: 

 Palo Alto; Mt. Diablo; Geysers, Sonoma Co., Bolander, 1804; 

 Atascadero Ranch, Santa Margarita Valley, Bn-n.vr, no. 512( = type 

 of S. Breweri Davy). 



4. S. Greenei Gray. Stem seldom 1 ft. high, bearing 1 to 3 

 short-peduncled heads; herbage lightly floccose-tomentose; radical 

 leaves roundish with abrupt or somewhat cuneate base, coarsely 

 dentate, barely 1 or 2 in. long, on slender petioles; cauline leaves 



