SUNFLOWER FAMILY. 423 



pubescent; heads mostly clustered, nodding; bracts of the involucre very broad, 

 almost 3 lines in width from the base to the abruptly acute apex, spreading or 

 recurved from near the middle, prickle-pointed; flowers dull white; anther-tips 

 acute. — (Carduus fontinalis Greene.) 



Crystal Springs, San Mateo Co., having the aspect of an introduced plant. 

 Bracts similar to C. quercetorum, but the long-attenuate innocuous inner ones 

 comparatively few. 



3. C. edule Nutt. Stem simple, robust but tender and succulent, Z\' 2 to 

 nearly 6 ft. high, pubescent and leafy to the top, the leaves thin; radical 

 leaves 8 to 10 in. long, narrowly oblanceolate, shallowly (rarely deeply) sin- 

 uate-pinnatifid, very prickly-ciliate but the prickles weak; cauline leaves similar 

 to oblong or narrower; heads depressed-globose, 1 to 1% in. high, few in a 

 terminal cluster, leafy-bracted at base; involucre conspicuously arachnoid- 

 woolly when young, nearly glabrate in age; bracts lanceolate-subulate, 

 setaceous; flowers dull purple or whitish, segments of the corolla shorter than 

 throat and with callous thickening at apex. — (Cnicus edulis Gray.) 



Common along creeks and gulches in the Coast Eanges: San Francisco 

 Peninsula; Oakland Hills; Marin Co. and northward. June. 



4. C. andrewsii (Gray) Jepson. Doubtless tall and slender, branching 

 at summit, the loose wool deciduous except from the heads; stem strongly 

 striate; radical leaves 16 in. long, deeply sinuate-pinnatifid in 3-cleft lobes 

 terminating in a stout spine, the outline oblong but the lobes toward the base 

 obsolete, resulting in a prickly-margined petiole about 4 in. long; upper leaves 

 laciniate-pinnatifid and with narrowly lanceolate prickly lobes; heads some- 

 what clustered or pedunculate, hemispherical, 1 to 1*4 in. high, leafy-bracted 

 at base; involucre arachnoid-woolly, becoming flocculent; bracts with coriaceous 

 oblong-ovate base, the short upper part greenish, and abruptly contracted into 

 an awn-like spine; corolla apparently whitish, its segments longer than the 

 throat. — (Cnicus andrewsii Gray.) 



Tennessee Bay, Eastwood; first collected by Dr. Andrews at some now un- 

 known station in California. 



5. C. crassicaule (Greene) Jepson. Stems 3 or 4 ft. high, very stout below, 

 hollow, 1 in. thick, striate, branching above, and bearing a panicle of 

 6 to 9 subsessile or short peduncled heads; herbage in the mature plant gray- 

 pubescent, especially the under surface of the leaves; leaves similar to the 

 preceding; heads iy± to rather less than 1 in. high; involucre turbinate- 

 campanulate, perfectly glabrous in age; proper bracts linear-lanceolate to 

 lanceolate-acuminate, entire and tipped with a rather long slender prickle; 

 leafy bracts with a few strong prickles or pectinate-spinescent, the inner 

 sometimes apparently passing into the proper bracts; flowers whitish or pink- 

 ish; segments about as long as the throat. — (Carduus crassicaulis Greene.) 



Eoadsides and low fields of the San Joaquin between Banta and Lathrop. 

 July. The glabrous involucre and the lanceolate-acuminate bracts will dis- 

 tinguish this species from the at present known forms of C. andrewsii, the 

 bracts of which are abruptly attenuate. Possibly not a native. 



6. C. hydrophilum (Greene) Jepson. Tall, freely branching above, 3% 

 to 6 ft. high, thinly pubescent, in maturity green and glabrate; leaves deeply 

 pinnatifid into mostly 3-lobed segments; heads 1 to 1% in. high, paniculate or 

 clustered at the ends of the branches; involucre ovate to campanulate, the 

 bracts appressed-imbricated, narrowly lanceolate with a glutinous ridge toward 

 the summit, tipped with a diverging prickle, perhaps the uppermost portion 

 of the very slender bracts also diverging. — (Carduus hydrophilus Greene.) 



