composite. 337 



This Expedition has brought to light three new and very interesting 

 species of Lessingia, which call for a revision and extension of the 

 generic character, as given above. The relationship of the genus 

 with Corethrogyne, among the Asterinece, is unquestionable and very 

 close. The principal differences are that the latter has true and 

 heterochromous ligules in place of the ampliate marginal flowers of 

 Lessingia, and sometimes a paleaceous receptacle. As already in- 

 dicated in the Plantee Hartwegianse, the genus divides into two marked 

 sections. The first, or Lessingia proper, has from 18 to 25 flowers in 

 the capitulum, the truncate tips of the branches of the style bear 

 a penicillate tuft of hairs, and one species has an obscure setiform ap- 

 pendage, which is obsolete, if it really exists, in L. Germanorum. The 

 second section — which would naturally be taken for a distinct genus 

 if L. ramulosa and L. nana were unknown, and which still remains 

 well marked — has cylindraceous and few-flowered capitula, the 

 corollas all alike, and regularly five-cleft, and the branches of the 

 style tipped with a long and slender appendage, the very hispid base 

 of which answers to the penicillate tuft of the typical species. 



1. Lessingia Germanorum, Cham. (Tab. 7, A.) 



Hab. Herba-Buena, near San Francisco, California. — A very much- 

 branched and diffuse, low herb, soon glabrate ; the branches slender. 

 Lower leaves spatulate, pinnatifid ; the upper small, linear or oblong, 

 sparingly toothed, more or less granulose-glandular, as are the squar- 

 rose, herbaceous tips of the scales of the obconical involucre, which 

 is similar to that of Corethrogyne. Heads paniculate, terminating the 

 filiform branchlets, about 25-flowercd. Marginal flowers mostly pal- 

 mate and explanate, forming a kind of raj 7 , yellow, or turning to 

 purple with age, sometimes, I believe, destitute of stamens. 



Plate 7, A. Lessingia Germanorum : plant, of the natural size. 

 Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Same with corolla laid open. 3. A stamen. 

 4. Style. 5. Branch of the same more magnified. [The tips incor- 

 rectly drawn.] Details more or less enlarged. 



