540 



COMPOSITE. 



high, pilose -pubescent; branches more or less peduncle-like, each 

 1-headed; leaves linear, entire or serrulate, 5 in. long or less; heads in 

 flower f in. high, in fruit expanding and forming a globose cluster 1£ 

 in. broad; paleie of the achenes also expanding or diverging rotately. 



Abundant in adobe soil of the plains and valleys: Sierra Foothills 

 (Amador Co., Knights Ferry); San Joaquin Valley; Sacramento 

 Valley; North Coast Eanges; South Coast Kanges (Contra Costa 

 Co., Berkeley, Livermore, San Francisco, Santa Clara Valley and 

 southward to Arroyo Grande and Southern California). Keadily rec- 

 ognized in fruit by its expanded heads of black achenes with their 

 silvery pappus. Mr. Geo. B. Grant sends us specimens from Sunol 

 Glen in which the ray-flowers are entirely absent. 



Tribe 7. Heliantheae. Sunflower Tribe. 

 56. ECLIPTA L. 



Low weak riparian herb with opposite leaves and white flowers. 

 Heads solitary in the upper axils, the peduncles long or very short. 

 Involucre broad, its bracts herbaceous and in about 2 series. Bracts 

 of the receptacle awn-like. Kays short. Disk-flowers perfect and 

 fertile, their corollas 4-toothed. Achenes thick, those of the ray 

 3-sided, those of the disk compressed. ' Pappus none or of a few short 

 teeth. (Greek ekleipta, wanting, on account of the absence of the 

 pappus.) 



1. E. alba Hassk. Eclipta. Decumbent, 1 or 2 ft. high; leaves 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sparingly serrulate, sessile or the 

 lower short-petioled, roughish with a strigose pubescence; disk- 

 achenes at length corky-margined. 



Shores of islands in the lower Sacramento River. Sept. 



57. BALSAM OR RHIZA Hook. Balsam Root. 

 Low perennials with thick terebinthine-scented roots, crowned by a 

 tuft of radical leaves and several naked or few-leaved stems, bearing 

 solitary heads of yellow flowers. Outer bracts of the broad involucre 

 foliaceous. Ligules with a distinct tube. Achenes destitute of 

 pappus, those of the disk 4-sided. (Greek balsamon, balsam, and 

 rhiza, root.) 



1. B. Hookeri Nutt. Herbage canescent with fine short hairs; 

 leaves 7 to 10 in. long, pinnately divided, the divisions serrate or 

 again pinnately divided; scapes equaling or exceeding the leaves, 

 bearing solitary heads; bracts of the involucre oblong-lanceolate; 

 bracts of the receptacle linear, acuminate, the outer with green tips; 

 heads 2 to 1\ in. broad, including the ample rays. 



A rare plant of the hilly districts from the Oakland Hills north- 

 ward through the Coast Ranges to Tehama Co. May. 



Two other species of the Sierra Nevada have entire or merely 

 serrate leaves, the radical ones cordate: B. deltoidea Nutt. 

 Flowering stems with small lanceolate leaves. B. Bolanderi Gray. 

 Flowering stems with 2 or 3 large subcordate leaves. 



