512 



COMPOSITE. 



A. Annuals. 



Rays none; heads disposed to be sessile in clusters; involucre with small 

 black bracts at base vul arls - , 



Rays inconspicuous and recurved; flower heads stalked m loose corymbs; 



involucre naked at base 2. 8. sylvatocus. 



B. Perennials. 



Herbs. 



Heads with rays. . . 



Leaves more or less bipinnately dissected or incised; heads many . . 



3. S. eury cephalic. 



Leaves coarsely dentate; heads 1 to 3 4. 8. Greenei. 



Leaves entire; heads many to numerous o. S. Cleveland i. 



Heads rayless. , . . 



Herbage more or less woollv at least when young ; montane plants . . . 



6. 8. aronicoides. 



Herbage glabrous: plants of brackish marshes. . . . 7. 8. hydrophilus. 

 Suffrutescent plants; heads with rays; leaves divided into 3 to 7 or 9 linear 



lobes. 8 - s - Douglasit. 



Climbing plants; heads rayless; leaves with reniform stipules . . . . . . . 



& F 9. 5. mikanioides. 



1. S. vulgaris L. Common Groundsel. Slender erect branch- 

 ing annual. 6 to 12 in. high, glabrous or with a little loose tomen- 

 tutn; leaves pinnatilid with oblong lobes and dentate margin, sessile, 

 auricled; heads in terminal corymbs or clusters; involucre 4 lines 

 long, of about 20 equal black-tipped bracts (often penicillate at tip), 

 with several small black ones at base; achenes slightly hairy. 



Very common, naturalized weed. Feb. -Apr. Sometimes called 

 • • Old Man of Spring. 



2. S. sylvaticus L. Very similar to the preceding but the leaves 

 mostly linear to oblong, less pinnatilid. dentate, or nearly entire; 

 herbage nearlv glabrous; heads commonly looser in the corymb; 

 bracts of involucre not black-tipped, the small ones at base wanting 

 or minute; rays about 5, minute, recurved, or sometimes wanting; 

 achenes appressed-pubescent. — (S. aphanactis Greene.) 



Seldom seen or passed over for S. vulgaris: San Luis Obispo, 

 Brewer, 1861; Mare Island, Greene, 1874. 



3. S. eurycephalus T. & G. Stem leafy, often much branched at 

 the summit, 1 to 2f ft. high; herbage floccose-woolly when young, 

 and either glabrate or not glabrate at flowering time; leaves deeply 

 pinnatilid, the lobes cuneate-obovate, entire, coarsely serrate or 

 incisely cleft, or the terminal portion unsegmented; heads 5 lines 

 high, many in an ample corymb; involucre campanulate at base, 

 somewhat contracted above, its bracts linear-oblong, somewhat acute, 

 scarious-margined; ravs 7 to 12, the ligules 6 lines long. 



Open woods bordering the bases of low hills in the Coast Ranges: 

 Palo Alto; Mt. Diablo; Geysers, Sonoma Co., Bolander, 1864; 

 Atascadero Ranch, Santa Margarita Valley, Brewer, no. 512 ( = type 

 of S. Breweri Davy). 



4. S. Greenei Gray. Stem seldom 1 ft. high, bearing 1 to 3 

 short^peduncled heads; herbage lightly noccose-tomentose; radical 

 leaves roundish with abrupt or somewhat cuneate base, coarsely 

 dentate, barelv 1 or 2 in. long, 'on slender petioles; cauline leaves 



