Descriptive Flora 



245 



the outer ones opening first. Achenes slender, tipped by a tuft 

 of slender bristles. Bracts of the involucre green, unequal, in 

 several series, the outermost successively shorter, conspicuously 

 black-tipped. Flowers close shortly after being picked. In dry 

 soil. 



Lygodesmia texana (Torr. & Gray) Greene. Flowering Straw. 



Pink Dandelion. Milk Pink. 



(Lygodesmia aphylla var. texana Torr. & Gray) 



Pale plants, 6 to 18 inches high, with slender, brittle leafless 

 stems and few pale pinkish-lilac flowers about 1 inch across. 

 Stem leaves mostly reduced to mere scales. Basal leaves narrow, 

 4 to 6 inches long, the margins entire or varied with a few, re- 

 mote, short, linear lobes. Flowers composite similar to a 

 dandelion in structure, deep lavender, singly terminating the 

 long, naked stem or the equally naked branches. Corollas all 

 strap-shaped, over 1 inch long, finely 5-toothed at the square- 

 tips. Achenes narrow, tipped with a tuft of bristles. April to 

 July. Poor, dry, rocky hillsides. 



Lactuca virosa L. Prickly Lettuce. Compass Plant. 



Simple-stemmed, rigid, yellow-flowered, widely-branched 

 plants, 2 to 3 feet tall, with milky sap and leaves that twist at 

 their bases so as to point north and south like a compass. Leaves 

 simple, numerous. Blades 3 to 8 inches long, the main vein 

 underneath armed with very short spines. Margins variously 

 cut into large, downward curving lobes, the basal lobes prolonged 

 downward into pointed ear-like projections. Flowers composite, 

 yellow, less than y£ across, consisting of 6 to 12 strap-shaped 

 corollas, and blossoming anywhere on the many spreading 

 branches. Flowers followed by tiny, silky tufts of whitish hairs. 

 Achenes flattened, brown tipped by a tuft of silky hairs. May, 

 June and July. In waste places. Flowers close with the appear- 

 ance of the morning sun. Introduced from Europe. 



