SUNFLOWER FAMILY. 435 



ovate; rays as many or fewer, with oval ligules shorter than the width of the 

 disk; pappus of about 4 slender awns and as many or more numerous very 

 small paleae, or seldom none. 



Plains from Solano Co. southward. Mar. -Apr. Involucres nearly caneseent. 



3. B. tenella (Nutt.) Gray. Erect, sparingly branching, 5 to 8 in. high, 

 somewhat caneseent; leaves linear and entire or some of the lowest laciniate; 

 rays 6 to S, oval or oblong, little or not at all exceeding the disk; paleae and 

 awns each usually 2 or often wanting. 



Plains of eastern Contra Costa Co. Apr.-May. 



4. B. uliginosa (Nutt.) Gray. At length loosely branched and diffuse, 9 

 to 12 in. high, villous-tomentose when young, commonly glabrate; leaves linear- 

 ligulate, laciniate-pinnatifid (especially above the middle) or the upper some- 

 times entire, the larger 4 to 10 in. long, the undivided (or ligulate portion) 

 often 4 lines broad and conspicuously nerved; involucral bracts and oblong 

 exserted rays ID to 13; awns 3 or 4, with about 6 short intervening paleae, 

 or pappus sometimes none. 



Low grounds, San Francisco Peninsula south to Santa Barbara. Apr.-June. 



5. B. carnosa Greene. Stems about 9 in. high, simple or branched from 

 the base, slender and wiry, very sparsely clothed with a fine deciduous wool; 

 leaves somewhat succulent, all filiform and entire; bracts of involucre fleshy, 

 about 7, with a single strongly earinate midrib; pappus of 4 or 5 ovate paleae, 

 each bearing a subulate awn; achenes roughish. 



Salt marshes at Yallejo, Greene. Too near the next. 



6. B. platycarpha Gray. Stems purplish and wiry, branching 5 to 8 in. 

 high; leaves narrowly linear, some pinnatifid into filiform divisions; bracts of 

 the involucre 6 or 7, manifestly 3 -nerved at base, the middle nerve at length 

 carinately thickened; pappus-paleae bright white, 5 to 7, slender-awned, the 

 awn as long as the achene. 



Alkaline plains of the interior: Byron, etc. Apr. 



7. B. microglossa (DC.) Greene. Very slender and but a few in. high; 

 leaves scarcely 1 line wide, entire ; heads few-flowered, very narrowly cylindrical, 

 the rays very short and inconspicuous and thus apparently rayless; bracts of 

 the involucre 3 or 4, narrowly oblong; achenes fusiform-linear; pappus-paleae 

 2 to 4, attenuate-subulate. 



South Coast Eange valleys: Mt. Diablo; San Francisco Bay and southward 

 to Southern California. 



8. B. chrysostoma F. & M. Gold Fields. Stems slender, simple or freely 

 branching, 5 to 11 in. high; herbage hirsutulous; leaves narrowly linear, 1 line 

 wide or less, entire; heads 3 or 4 lines high; rays and bracts of the broad in- 

 volucre 7 to 15, or in depauperate plants often fewer; ligules 3 or 4 lines 

 long; achene linear-clavate, smooth and shining, or papillate; pappus typically 

 none. 



Lower foothills and valley plains, southward to Southern California and 

 north to Southern Oregon. Everywhere abundant, often coloring leagues of in- 

 terior hills. Yar. gracilis Hall. Achenes linear, truncate, more or less strigose- 

 pubescent; pappus of 3 or 4 awns from small lanceolate paleae, sometimes 

 Middle California to Southern California (B. gracilis Gray). 



9. B. hirsutula Greene. Often branching very freely, '■'< to 4 in. high, 

 hirsute-pubescent; haves broadly linear, often with saliently projecting teeth, 

 the lower connate, sheathing the stem; involucral bracts obovoid, acutish; rays 

 oblong; achenes compressed, scabrous with short sharp points; pappus of 2 

 to 5 brownish awn-like bristles or none. 



