Steplumomeria. COMPOSITE. 413 



S. cichoriacea, Gray. 1 e. Perennial, 1 to 4 feet high, comparatively stout, when young 

 sometimes tomentulose leaves resembling those of Chiccory, lanceolate, sparsely denticu- 

 late to runcinate-laciniate involucre half-inch high: heads sessile along naked branches: 

 mature akenes short-linear, smooth, lightly and acutely 5-angled. — Rocky hills and canons 

 through the southern portions of California, Dr. Horn, Parish, Pringle. 



§ 2. Stephanomeeia proper. Heads 3-20-flowered : receptacle quite naked : 

 involucre slightly imbricated by having one or two intermediate bracts, espe- 

 cially in the earlier species, or only calyculate at base : pappus setose and plu- 

 mose throughout or only above the middle, the lower part of the bristle either 

 slender to base Qr sometimes paleaceous-dilated. — Gray, 1. c. 61. 



# Heads fully half-inch high, 10-20-flowered, somewhat corymbosely disposed, 

 +- Terminating leafy stems and branches: pappus sordid or grayish, of 10 or 12 rather long-plu- 

 mose bristles: akenes smooth and even, with slender ribs or angles: plants a span to a foot high 

 from perennial roots: involucre obscurely imbricated, 10-12-flowered. 



S. Parryi, Gray. Rather stout, widely branched from the base : leaves thickish, deeply 

 runemately pinnatifid ; those of the flowering branchlets rather numerous up to the head, 

 small, somewhat spinulose-lobed : pappus-bristles rather stout, naked (and often united in 

 twos or threes) at base. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 61. — Arid districts, near St. George, S. 

 Utah, Parry. Borders of the Mohave Desert, S. E. California, Palmer, Pringle. 



S. lactUCina, Gray. Rather slender, with erect branches, leafy up to the nearly naked 

 peduncles : leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate, entire or with a few salient teeth : pappus- 

 bristles slender and plumose to the base. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 552; Bot. Calif. 1. c. — 

 Woods of the Sierra Nevada, California, from Mariposa Co. to Shasta, Newberry, Brewer, 

 Bolander, &c. 



+- -)— Heads naked-paniculate : pappus bright white : involucre merely calyculate. 

 S.'Thvurberi, Gray. Simple-stemmed from a probably biennial root, a foot or two higli : 

 leaves mainly at and near the base, runcinate-pinnatifld, inch or two long ; those of the naked 

 stem and few corymbosely-panicnlate branches reduced to linear-subulate or inconspicuous 

 bracts: heads rather few: involucre narrow, 1 6-20-flowered . bristles of the pappus 20 to 30, 

 soft and slender, very plumose to base. — PI. Thurb. in Mem. Am. Acad. v. 325, & Bot. Mex. 

 Bound. 105. — New Mexico and adjacent Arizona, Thurber, Bigelow, Henry, Greene, &c. 

 S- elAta, Nutt. PI. Gamb. 173, — said to be probably perennial and blue-flowered, simple- 

 stemmed, 3 or 4 feet high, with very narrow linear leaves, about 10-flowered heads, involucre 

 (6-8-phyllous) and branches sprinkled with resinous dots, and plumose white pappus, coll. at 

 Santa Barbara, California, — remains quite obscure. 



# # Heads quarter to third inch high, or sometimes higher, narrow, mostly 5-flowered (flowers 

 from 3 to 6, occasionally 8 or 9), and with about the same number of involucral bracts : mature 

 akenes either smooth and even between the ribs, or rugose, or tubercular-thickened, sometimes 

 in the same species. — Jamesia, Nees, 1. e. 



+- Perennials, paniculately or fastigiately branched from thick and tortuous roots or a lignescent 



base, with striate and rush-like branches, small-leaved or nearly leafless above : pappus-bristles 



not at all squamellate-appendaged or dilated at base. 



S. rtmeinata, Nutt. Comparatively stout and rigid, a foot or two high, with spreading 



branches : heads mostly 4 or 5 lines high and scattered along 'the branches : lower leaves 



runeinate-pinnatifid, commonly lanceolate ; upper linear or reduced to scales : pappus dull 



white, plumose only to near the base. — Torr. & Gray, PI. ii. 472; Gray, PI. Fendl. 112. 



S. ntneinata & S. heterophylla, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c, at least in part and by char., 



but poor specimens, seemingly confused with next. Prenanthes runcinata, James in Long 



Exped. P.? pauciflora, Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 210. — Plains, Nebraska to Wyoming, 



N. W. Texas, Arizona, and S. California ; first coll. by James. 



S. minor, Nutt. 1. c. More slender and with ascending branches bearing usually terminal 



and smaller heads: cauline leaves all slender, often filiform: pappus white, very plumose 



down to base. — Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Prenanthes? tenuifolia, Torr. 1. c. Lygodesmia minor, 



Hook. Fl. i. 205, t. 103 A. Jamesia pauciflora, Nees in Neuwied Trav. 516 (16). — Plains 



and mountains, from borders of Brit. America to those of Texas, Arizona, the Sierra Nevada 



