41-4 COMPOSITAE. 



achenee Blender, 2 to -'i lines long; pappus-bristles 3 to 4 lines long, not ob- 

 viously dilated at base, slender, fragile or deciduous. 



Contra Costa Co. to Southern California. Var. TENELLA Gray. Pappus- 

 bristles commonly but 2 or 3, with a manifestly ovate palea at base. — Xapa 

 Valley; lower Sacramento Valley and southward. Occasionally destitute of 

 pappus ace. to Greene. Var. ixdivisa Jepson. Scapes strictly erect; leaves 

 oblanceolate, entire, or a few toothed or pinnatifid; outer row of achenes silvery- 

 silky; pappus-bristles 4 to 5 lines long, the paleae triangular. — Plains of Solano 

 Co. Apr. -.May. 



3. M. elegans Greene. Scapes slender, decumbent at base, commonly 4 to 

 7 in. high; heads in fruit less than io in. high; achenes little more than 1 line 

 long, tapering gradually from the summit to the base; paleae of the pappus 

 ovate-deltoid, either obscurely emarginate or more attenuate into a slender awn 

 about 4 times as long, the paleae and the summit of the achene sometimes 

 minutely villous. 



Plains of the lower Sacramento Valley to Contra Costa Co. and Southern 

 California. 



4. M. douglasii Gray. Scapes 8 to 17 in. high; leaves in the rosulate radi- 

 cal cluster many, pinnatifid; heads broadly ovoid, or in age hemispherical, 9 

 to 10 lines high; achenes oblong-turbinate, thickish, obviously contracted under 

 the summit, nearly 2 1 / £ lines long, the outermost usually white-villous ; paleae 

 of the pappus ovate to orbicular, 2 lines long and nearly as broad, scarious, 

 commonly imbricated or convolutely overlapping, abruptly acute or retuse at 

 the apex, y 2 to % as long as the awn, glabrous or villous externally. 



Common from Solano Co. and Napa Valley to Berkeley and southward. Apr.- 

 May. Specimens from the Montezuma Hills show central achenes with only 

 1 or 2 paleaceous awns. 



5. M. bigelovii Gray. Often 1 ft. high or more; leaves entire or pinnatifid; 

 heads broadly ovate, y 2 i n - high; involucre disposed to be somewhat imbricated; 

 achenes oblong-turbinate, 2 lines long, not contracted under the truncate sum- 

 mit, the outermost sometimes villous; pappus brownish or almost rusty, the 

 paleae oblong- to ovate lanceolate, commonly glabrous, varying in size, only 

 1 _. to V:\ as long as the awn. — (M. intermedia Greene.) 



Oakland, San Francisco and northward along the coast in sandy soil. 



6. M. acuminata Greene. Scapes few, decumbent at base, 9 to 12 in. high; 

 leaves deeply pinnatifid into slender lobes; heads narrowly oblong, in maturity 

 turbinate, about 1 in. high; achenes glabrous, slenderly fusiform and widest 

 above the middle, 3 lines long; pappus 7 or 8 lines long; paleae narrowly 

 lanceolate, gradually attenuate into an awn which is shorter than the palea. 



Valleys and hills of the North Coast Ranges: Santa Rosa; Napa Range; 

 Tehama Co. Also Sierra Nevada foothills. Well marked species. 



10. SCORZONELLA Nutt. 

 Perennial herbs, with the leaves mainly in a radical tuft, the stems naked 

 above, L-headed, and more or less scape-like. Root fusiform. Leaves pinnatifid 

 with Linear and mostly salient lobes, or entire. Heads large, ovoid-cylindric, 

 codding in the bud. showy as compared with the two preceding genera, the 

 dowers yellow and Ligules elongated. Bracts of the involucre mostly thin- 

 herbaceous, imbricated in several series. Achenes eylindric or Biightly tapering 

 downward, ribbed and obscurely angled. Paleae L0 or more. firm, tipped with 

 ;i rather long Bubplumoee or barbellate awn. (So named because of the general 

 aspect <>!' Scorzonera.) 



