composite. 373 



65. M A C R R H Y N C H U S, Less. 

 1. Macrorhynchus troximoides, Torr. & Gray. 



Macrorhynchus troximoides, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 2, p. 491. 

 Troximon aurantiacum, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1, p. 300, t. 104. 



Hab. On the Cascade Mountains, Washington Territory; a species 

 of wide range and considerable diversity. 



2. Macrorhynchus retrorsus, Bentli, PL Hartw. 



Hab. Interior of Oregon ; probably gathered on the journey from 

 Willamette to California. Accords with Hartweg's and with Dr. 

 J. M. Bigelow's specimens. Beak of the achenium at length becoming 

 an inch long, springing abruptly from the truncate apex of the 

 achenium. 



3. Macrorhynchus Lessingii, Hook. & Am. 



Hab. Puget Sound, at Gray's Harbor, and Nisqually, Washington 

 Territory. Between the Willamette, Oregon, and California; and 

 near San Francisco. Yarious forms. — Unless the M. grandiflorus 

 proves permanently distinct by the short and broad, rather foliaceous 

 and denticulate exterior series of involucral scales (which are prob- 

 ably abnormal), it seems likely that M. Lessingii must include all 

 the perennial Macrorhynchi of our Pacific Coast, excepting the two 

 preceding species. That the foliage varies greatly is nothing extra- 

 ordinary. The size of the head appears to vary from that of the 

 largest dandelion to that of the smallest Leontodon autumncde, with a 

 monocephalous state of which Lessing compares his plant ; while the 

 specimen described by Hooker and Arnott, in Beechey's Voyage, is of 

 the larger-flowered sort. The achenium, moreover, is sometimes ob- 

 tusely, but strongly, ten-ribbed, sometimes acutely and alately ribbed ; 

 but it always tapers into the filiform beak, which is commonly three 

 or four times the length of the body of the achenium, yet sometimes 

 only double or even barely equal to its length. The leaves vary from 



94 



