SUNFLOWER FAMILY. 421 



most with lanceolate scarious appendage; flowers purple; achenes with 2 or 

 3 rows of unequal bristles. 

 Healdsburg, Alia King. 



18. CNICUS L. 



Annual herb with pinnatifid or mostly sinuate-dentate leaves with spiny or 

 prickly teeth. Heads solitary at the ends of the branches, subtended and 

 almost concealed by the upper leaves. Bracts of the involucre imbricated in 

 several series, the outer ovate and tipped by a simple spine, the inner lanceolate 

 and ending in a, strong pinnatcly branched spine. Flowers yellow. Achenes 

 many-nerved, 10-toothed at the summit, and bearing a pappus of awns in 2 

 series; outer series long, naked, yellow; inner hispidulous, white. (Latin name 

 of the Safflower, applied to thistles.) 



1. C. benedictus L. Blessed Thistle. Pubescent, branching, 1 or 2 ft. 

 high ; leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, thin, upper clasping, lower petioled ; 

 heads 1 in. long. 



Plains of the San Joaquin (Lathrop) and of the Sacramento; Napa; 

 Healdsburg. 



19. CARTHAMUS L. 



Ours an annual with rigid prickly pinnatifid clasping leaves. Flowers yellow. 

 Eeceptacle with linear bristle-like paleae. Outer bracts of the involucre termi- 

 nating in foliaceous appendages like the stem-leaves; inner bracts more rigid, 

 appressed, ending in a spinescent tip. Achenes obpyramidal, with a crenulate 

 margin at the truncate summit. Pappus-paleae of 2 kinds, the outer unequal, 

 ciliate, in several series, the inner in one series and much shorter; or pappus 

 quite wanting in the outer row of achenes. 



1. C. lanatumDC. Distaff Thistle. The outer and inner involucral bract 

 differ very much. 



Native of the Mediterranean Eegion: spontaneous at San Francisco. 



20. CYNARA Vaill. 



Stout perennial herb with ample pinnatifid or bipinnatifid leaves with spine- 

 tipped segments. Flowers blue. Heads very large, solitary on the ends of 

 the branches. Bracts of the involucre broadly ovate, obtuse or emarginate, 

 coriaceous. Eeceptacle fleshy, finibrillate. Pappus of many series of plumose 

 bristles. Achenes obovate, somewhat 4-angled. (From the Greek kuon, a dog, 

 the spines of the involucre being likened to a dog's teeth.) 



1. C. scolymus L. Artichoke. One to 2y 2 ft. high; herbage more or 

 less tomentose. 



Garden-plant, found by waysides at Napa and Alameda and in old fields 

 near Benicia. 



Arctium lappa L. Burdock. Coarse biennial weed; leaves very large, 

 unarmed, roundish or ovate, mostly cordate; involucral bracts hooked at the 

 tip; flowers purple; pappus short, of numerous rough bristles. — Bottom lands 

 of the Eel Eiver near Ferndale; introduced from the Eastern United States. 



21. CIRSIUM Scop. Thistle. 

 Stout mostly biennial herbs. Leaves alternate, prickly or spiny, commonly 

 toothed or pinnatifid. Heads with numerous crimson, white or yellowish flowers, 

 perfect and all alike. Corolla tubular, its segments linear-filiform. Involucre 

 spherical to campanulate, ovoid or cylindrical, its bracts imbricated in many 

 ranks, at h-ast the outer tipped with a spine or prickle, rarely innocuous. 

 Receptacle thickly clothed with soft bristles or hairs. Achenes obovate or 



