560 



COMPOSITE. 



Heads rayless, in a terminal corymbose cluster. Involucral bracts 

 coriaceous, closely imbricated, the tips herbaceous, but appressed. 

 Flowers yellow. Corolla-tube slender, the throat ventricose or 

 obliquely dilated, its segments erect or more or less connivent about 

 the style. Acbenes longitudinally striate or ribbed, the intervals 

 silky-pubescent or -hirsute. Pappus of numerous unequal bristles, 

 the inner longest and often distinctly flattened. (Greek isos, equal, 

 and koma, a tuft, the florets equal, not unequal as in Lessingia.) 



1. I. veneta (Gray) var. arguta. Herbage w T ith a rather close and 

 somewhat glandular indument, the stems villous-tomentose below, 

 tufted, erect and suffrutescent, 7 to 15 in. high; leaves broadly oblong 

 in outline, serrate at apex, more deeply toothed at base, sessile, 1 in. 

 long or less; heads in a dense terminal corymb, 4 to 5 lines high; 

 bracts of the involucre obtusely acute; achenes 3-angled or somewhat 

 flattened, pointed at base, rather less than 2 lines long; pappus of 

 rather rigid and unequal bristles. — (I. arguta Greene. Bigelovia 

 veneta Gray.) 



Subsaline plains of the Lower Sacramento: Morning Light and 

 base of the Pellejo Hills, Solano Co. 



Var. vernonioides (I. vernonioides Nutt). Leaves entire, or 

 serrulate at apex, and commonly with fascicled ones in the axils: 

 Southern California; Upper San Joaquin Valley; introduced at 

 Black Point, San Francisco. 



84. SOLI DAGO L. Golden Rod. 

 Perennial herbs with alternate leaves. Heads small, the raceme- 

 like clusters aggregated in a pyramidal or spike-like panicle or 

 thyrsus, or in one of our species the heads corymbose. Bracts of the 

 involucre narrow, thin or chartaceous, imbricated in 2 or more series. 

 Both ray- and disk-flowers yellow. Pappus a single series of scabrous 

 and mostly equal capillary bristles, usually dull white. Achenes 

 terete or angular, 5 to 10-nerved. (Latin solidus and ago, to unite 

 firmly, certain species reputed to have wound-healing properties.) 



Stems freely branching, the flower-clusters more or less distinctly corym- 

 bose; leaves linear, entire 1. 8. occidentalis. 



Stems simple; the flowers disposed in a terminal panicle. 

 Heads small (1^ to 3 lines high). 

 Panicle mostly pyramidal; leaves serrate or entire. 



Herbage grayish 2. S. Califomica. 



Herbage nearly glabrous 3. S. elongata. 



Panicle narrow and virgate; herbage glabrous; leaves entire 



4. S. semper vir ens. 



Heads larger (4 lines high); heads in a spike-like thyrsus; lower leaves 

 spatulate, serrate towards the apex o. S. spathulata. 



1. S. occidental is Nutt. Western-Golden Rod. Stems 3 to 

 5 ft. high, very leafy, freely and paniculately branching, the branches 

 terminated by more or less distinctly corymbose clusters of small 

 heads; herbage glabrous; leaves linear or nearly so, entire, sprinkled 

 with clear dots; heads 2 to 2\ lines high; bracts of involucre charta- 

 ceous, linear-lanceolate; rays 16 to 20; disk-flowers 8 to 14; achenes 

 turbinate. — (Euthamia occidentals Nutt.) 



