' COMPOSITAE tCOMPOSITE' famiLy) 589 



plumose above, naked on the lower thii-d. — In the desert areas of our range, 

 and westward. 



94. TRAGOPOGON L. Salsify. Oyster Plant 



, Tall and ereet perennial hertfs, with slender fleshy taproots, alternate grasp- 

 like flaccid leaves clasping at the base, and large heads pf purple or yellow 

 flowers which are open only during the morning. In volucral bracts in a 

 single series, united at the very base. Rays 5-toothed at the truncate apex. 

 Receptacle naked. Achenes muricate, S-lO-ribbed, long-beaked or the outer- 

 most beakless. Pappus-bristles connate at the base, plumose with inter- 

 webbed branches. 



1. Tragopogon ponifolius L. Sp. PL 789. 1753. Comnaonly 5-8 dm. high: 



Eeduncle strongly clavate-thickened and fistulous for! 5-8 cm. beneatl^ ;the 

 ead, which becomes 7-8 cm. high: flowers violet-purple, mostly surpassed 

 by the involucre: outermost achenes squamellate-muricate.- — Sparingly in 

 fields and near dwellings, as an escape from cultivation. 



T. pratensis L., very similar but with yellow flowers, the bracts not exceed- 

 ing the hgules, has been reported also as an escape froiii cultivation within 

 our range. 



96. KRIGIA Schreb. 



Low herbs, with rather large heads of yellow flowers on slender naked 

 peduncles or scapes. Oiu's belongs to the section Cynthia, in which the invo- 

 lucral bracts are 9-18 and thin, and pappus of 10-15 oblong scales and 

 15-20 slender capillary bristles. Achenes short-columnar, many-ribbed, terete 

 or somewhat angulair, with broad truncate summit. 



1. Krigia virginica (L.).iA. Nels, Caulescent, not tuberiferpus, glaucous; 

 stem 3-5 dm. high, 1-3-leaved, bearing one or two or few somewhat umbellate 

 heads on moderately long peduncles: leaves oblong or oval, oh.tuse, entire, 

 repand and denticulate, or radical somewhat lyrately lobed; these contracted 

 into wiQged petioles; the cauline partly clasping by a broad base. K. anvpUxi- 

 cavlis [Adopogon virginicum (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 304. 1891.] — In the 

 eastern border of our range to the Atlantic States. 



96. NOTHOCALAIS Greene 



Perennials, with linear-attenuate undulate or crisped radicalleaves marked 

 by white-tomentulose margins and monocephalous scapose peduncles. In- 

 volucre obloiig-campanulate; bracts in two series, narrowly lanceolate, mem- 

 branaceous, with thinner somewhat hyaline margins, nearly equal, none 

 calyculate. Receptacle flat, alveolate. Achenes fusiform, contractfed or 

 rostrate-attenuate at smnmit, lO-striate-ribbed. Pappus very white and soft, 

 of 10-30 scabrous-margined, narrow, unequal scales, with or without some 

 capillary bristles. — {Microseris \ Notkocalais Gray.) 



1. Nothocalais cuspidata (Pursh) Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad! 2: 55.' 1886. 

 Leaves hnear, long-acuminate, thick, pubescent or glabrate, 1-2 dm. long, 

 4-10 mm. wide, somewhat conduplicate, the margins conspicuously white- 

 tbmentose and crisped, or entire: scape stout, tomentose, at least above, 

 shorter than or equaling the leaves: head 3-5 cm. broad; involucre usually 

 quite glabrous, nearly 25 mm. high: achenes slightly contracted at the sum- 

 mit, a,bput 6 mm. long; pappus of 40-50 unequal scales and bristles, troximon 

 cuspidmum. — ^From Montana to Colorado and eastward to the Mississippi. 



97. PTILOCALAIS Greene 



(jlabrous perennials, with fusiform roqtsj stems mostly leafy at base with 

 laciniate foliage, and long-peduncled heads which are nodding in the bud. 



