SUNFLOWER FAMILY. 



503 



white bristly chaff shining in the brownish or blackish involucre! 

 cups. 



2. C. solstitialis L. Yellow Star Thistle. Diffuse, branch- 

 ing from the base, 1 ft. high, cottony-pubescent; radical leaves pin- 

 natifid, the cauline linear, entire, rather closely ascending, decurrent 

 into long narrow wings; heads solitary at the ends of the branches, 

 ovoid-globular; bracts much like the preceding except that the spines 

 of the intermediate bracts are 1 in. long or less, and the innermost 

 bracts end in a small shining appendage; flowers very bright yellow; 

 achenes with pappus. 



Become common in recent years in the Bay Region: roadsides and 

 vacant lots at Vacaville (first noted in 1887); low cultivated fields. 

 Napa Valley; Shellville, Sonoma Co.; Oakland. Aug. -Sept. 



3. C. Calcitrapa L. Purple Star Thistle. Coarse and rigid, 

 forming dense bushy plants 3 ft. high, nearly glabrous; leaves pin- 

 nately divided into few linear or lanceolate lobes, or the uppermost 

 undivided, all serrulate, not decurrent; heads large, 1 in. high, on 

 short peduncles scattered along the branches, or in the forks, or 

 terminal; involucral spines very stout, £ to 1 in. long; flowers purple; 

 achenes brownish, over ] line long, destitute of pappus. 



Naturalized in but a few places: San Mateo; well established about 

 Vacaville (first noted in 1887). Aug.-Sept. 



4. C. Salmantica L. Escobilla. Roughish-hispidulous, the 

 stems nearly glabrous; leaves sinuately divided into triangular lobes 

 below the large terminal ovate- or oblong-lanceolate lobe, not decur- 

 rent; heads on long slender peduncles, under 1 in. high; involucral 

 bracts ovate, obtuse, not spine-tipped, the innermost with lanceolate 

 scarious appendage; flowers purple; achenes with 2 or 3 rows of 

 unequal bristles. 



Introduced European species: Healdsburg. Miss Alice Kim/, Julv. 

 1897. 



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 pinnately 

 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, braneh- 

 ing, 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. 



l!t. CARTHAMUS L. 



Ours an annual with rigid prickly pinnatifid clasping leaves. 



