550 



COMPOSITE. 



capitate clusters. Receptacle hemispherical or conical, its summit or 

 center bearing a cluster of fertile and sterile flowers with rather 

 copious capillary pappus and surrounded by a series of scarious or 

 chaff-like bracts. Base of receptacle bearing several pistillate flowers 

 with filiform tubular corollas, the achenes of each enfolded in a con- 

 cave or boat-shaped bract, and destitute of pappus. (Latin filum, a 

 thread, in allusion to the cottony pubescence.) 



Leaves oblong, tapering toward the base, abruptly acute at apex, the upper- 

 most subtending and often not surpassing the heads . 1. F. Californica. 



Leaves subulate with broadish base, the uppermost subtending and conspic- 

 uously surpassing the heads 2. F. Gallica. 



1. F. Californica Nutt. Erect, 4 to 9 (or sometimes 15) in. high, 

 leafy throughout, the leaves j to f in. long; heads ovate, 2 lines 

 long; receptacle convex, rough or somewhat bur-like; marginal 

 bracts 8 to 10, very woolly, deeply boat-shaped and somewhat 

 incurved at apex, spreading stellately at maturity; inner bracts 

 oblong, plane or merely concave; marginal achenes smooth; central 

 achenes dotted with shining papillae. 



Dry hills: St. Helena; Mt. Tamalpais and elsewhere in the western 

 part of the state. May- June. 



2. F. Gallica L. Five or 6 in. high; leaves mostly exceeding 

 h in., those involucrate to the heads soft but straight and, in appear- 

 ance, rigid; receptacle nearly flat; heads conical and somewhat 

 5-angled; marginal achenes completely enclosed in the at length 

 indurated base of the bract. 



St. Helena, Jepson, June, 1896. Introduced from Europe. 



72. GNAPHALIUM L. Cudweed. 

 Woolly herbs with entire sessile or decurrent leaves. Heads dis- 

 coid, white, yellowish, or rose-tinted, disposed in panicles, corymbs, 

 or spikes. Receptacle flat or convex, not chaffy. Bracts of involucre 

 scarious, imbricated. Pistillate flowers in several series with filiform 

 corollas. Central flowers perfect, with tubular o-lobed corollas. 

 Pappus a single series of capillary bristles. (Greek gnaphalon, a 

 lock of wool, these plants floccose-woolly.) 



A. Pappus-bristles united at base, falling away in a ring. 



Inflorescence spike-like; leaves white-woolly beneath, green above 



1. G. purpureum. 



B. Pappus-bristles not united at base, falling separately. 



Involucre imbedded in loose wool, its scarious-tipped bracts rather incon- 

 spicuous and dull colored; low branching annual . 2. G. palustre. 

 Involucre woollv only at base, its bracts mainly scarious or silvery. 

 Herbage in age becoming green (at least the upper surface of the leaves), 

 more or less glandular. 

 Inflorescence corymbose; bracts pearly white; herbage balsamic- 

 scented : var Californicum of 3. G. decurrens. 



Inflorescence paniculate; bracts white or rose-tinged; herbage sweet- 

 scented 4. G. ramostssimum. 



Herbage persistently woolly, not glandular or scarcely so. 

 Involucre bright white; inflorescence paniculate . .5. G. microcephalum. 

 Involucre greenish-yellowish, becoming rusty; heads in capitate clus- 

 ters or the clusters somewhat open-paniculate . 6. G. Chilense. 



