Part 45

There are several kinds of Encelia.

A handsome, desert plant, with rough, purplish stems, a foot and a half tall, dull-green, hairy leaves, and flowers over an inch across, in loose clusters, with bright golden-yellow rays, yellow centers, and woolly involucres. This makes fine conspicuous clumps of bright color on the pale desert sand.

A conspicuous shrubby plant, from two to four feet high, with many stout, branching stems, grayish, downy twigs, and large clumps of downy, gray-green leaves, from which spring the long, slender flower-stalks, bearing loose clusters of handsome flowers. They are each over an inch and a quarter across, with bright yellow rays and orange centers and are well set off by the rather pale foliage. This grows on hillsides among the rocks and gives a golden hue which may be seen at a distance of seven or eight miles.

Encelia frutescens.]

A handsome conspicuous shrub, two feet or more high, gray and downy when young but becoming smoother and greener, with downy, reddish twigs, dark green leaves, and numerous flowers, on long flower-stalks. They are two or three inches across, with three-toothed, bright yellow rays and very dark maroon or brown centers, specked with yellow, and velvety or hairy involucres. This grows on sea-cliffs, where it makes very effective masses of color, in fine contrast to the blue of the sea below and the sky above.

A rather straggling shrub, about two feet high, with whitish, woody stems, pale reddish twigs, and bright green leaves, which are roughened with minute prickles on the margins and under sides, but look quite shiny. The flower-heads are over half an inch long, in western Arizona usually without any rays, and are not especially pretty, like a starved Sunflower whose rays have shrivelled away in the dry heat of the desert, but the effect of the foliage, which suggests little apple leaves, is decidedly attractive in the arid sandy places it frequents.

There are many kinds of Helianthus, natives of the New World.

A handsome kind, with a rough stem, from two to ten feet tall, roughish leaves, more or less toothed, the upper alternate, the lower opposite, and a flower-head from two to four inches across, with bright golden-yellow, toothless rays, a maroon center, and a very dark green involucre, with stiff, overlapping bracts. This is larger in cultivation and is a very useful plant, for its flowers yield honey and a yellow dye, its seeds oil and food, the leaves are good for fodder, and the stalks for textile fiber. It is common nearly everywhere along roadsides, as far east as Missouri, and is found as a stray in the East.

Encelia frutescens.

Common Sunflower--Helianthus annuus.]

A handsome kind, forming a clump from two to four feet high, with several leafy, rough stems and harsh, rather shiny leaves. The fine flowers measure four inches across, with bright yellow rays, deeper yellow centers, and bronze, rough, rather resinous involucres. This is common around Reno and grows in dry mountain valleys as far east as Colorado.

A striking plant, quite handsome, with a hairy, pale, leafy stem, from six inches to two feet tall, and gray-green, rather velvety leaves, generally toothless. The flowers are an inch or more across, with bright golden-yellow rays and centers of the same shade, growing singly, or in a more or less crowded cluster at the top of the stalk. This is common in open ground and dry hills, up to an altitude of ten thousand feet, as far east as Alabama, and there are many varieties. The Greek name means "golden aspect."

A curious and pretty little desert plant, that looks as if it were trying to protect itself from cold rather than heat, as its pretty foliage and stems seem all made of silvery, gray velvet, forming a symmetrical rosette, dotted with the small, rayless, yellow flower-heads, like fuzzy buttons. The rosette is decorative in form, about a foot across, spreading flat and close to the ground, and is conspicuous on the bare sand of the desert. Only one of the branches is given in the picture.

This is a charming and quaint little plant, with close, downy rosettes of small, gray-green leaves and two or three, pretty, daisy-like flowers, all crowded together close to the ground. The flowers are over an inch across, with numerous, pale-pink rays, deeper pink on the under side, and a bright yellow center, and when they bloom in early spring, on bare rocky soil, they are exceedingly attractive.

There are a great many kinds of Erigeron, widely distributed, most abundant in the New World, easily confused with Asters, but usually with numerous and finer rays, so that the effect is more delicate.

Hairy Golden Aster--Chrysopsis villosa.

Sunflower--Helianthus fascicularis.]

This is rather pretty, with slender, brittle, downy stems, from six to eighteen inches tall, and small, narrow, rough, dull green leaves. The flowers grow singly, at the ends of short leafy branches, and are each less than an inch across, with rather few violet or pinkish-purple rays and a yellow center. This is common around Yosemite and looks a good deal like an Aster.

A rather odd-looking plant, with numerous, very slender, weak, branching stems, trailing on the ground, and very small, toothless, grayish-green, downy leaves, forming a rather dense, low bush, about two and a half feet across, the long sprays interlacing and dotted here and there with pretty little flowers, with numerous fine, white, pink-tipped rays and a yellow center. The sprays often take root at the tip. This grows in the Grand Canyon, and is found as far east as Colorado.

A rather attractive little plant, forming small clumps, about five inches high, with several very hairy stems and light dull green, very hairy leaves. The many flower-heads are less than half an inch across, deep yellow, without rays. This grows on dry plains and mesas, as far east as Colorado, and has a rather starved appearance.

A dear little common plant, from six to fifteen inches high, with several slender, branching, hairy stems, and soft, hairy, gray-green leaves, the upper ones small and narrow, without leaf-stalks and the lower ones sometimes with two or three lobes and with leaf-stalks. The flower-heads, several or many, on slender flower-stalks, measure nearly an inch across in spring, but are smaller in summer, and have numerous very narrow rays, white towards the center, shading to bright violet or pink at the tips, with a bright yellow center. This often grows in quantities on dry plains and mountain-sides, as far east as Texas, and is quite charming, the tufts of foliage, dotted with pretty delicate little flowers, not touching each other, but sprinkled over a large space, recalling the little flowers in early Italian pictures. E. pùmilis, of the Northwest and Utah, is much the same, with white rays.

E Breweri.

Whip-lash Fleabane--Erigeron flagellaris.

Rayless Fleabane--E. concinnus var. aphanactis.]

A large, handsome kind, abundant in the higher mountains and growing in moist places, as far east as Colorado. The stems are downy and leafy, from one to two feet tall, the leaves are smooth or slightly hairy, with bristle-like points, and the flowers are an inch and a half or more across, with bright yellow centers and clear bright lilac rays, not very narrow.

A little alpine plant, about three inches tall, with downy stems, thickish, gray-green leaves, covered with close white down and forming a mat of foliage on the rocks at high altitudes. The flowers are rather more than half an inch across, with a woolly involucre, dark yellow center, and deep yellow rays, an unusual color among Fleabanes.

Very cheerful, sturdy-looking flowers, with stout, hairy stems, four to ten inches tall, and stiffish, slightly hairy leaves, rather pale in color. The handsome flowers are an inch and a half across, with numerous violet, lilac, or pink rays and rather dark yellow centers. This grows near the sea and is common on cliffs and sandy shores, where it makes beautiful spots of bright color.

A pretty perennial, from one to three feet tall, usually soft and hairy, the slender stems usually branching above and most of the leaves toothed. The flowers usually form a loose cluster at the top, the buds drooping, and the heads are from half an inch to an inch across, with yellow centers and a very feathery fringe of pink or pinkish rays. This grows in fields and woods. There is a picture in Mathews' Field Book. E. Còulteri, the large White Mountain Daisy, is a beautiful kind, from six to twenty inches tall, with bright green leaves, often toothed, sometimes downy, and the flowers usually single, an inch and a half across, usually with pure white rays. This grows in Yosemite meadows and similar mountain places, in Utah, California, and Colorado. E. compósitus is a little Alpine plant, forming dense leafy mats, easily recognized by the broad tips of the leaves being cut into lobes, usually three. The flowers are an inch or more across, with violet or white rays. This grows on the granite peaks around Yosemite, and in other Alpine regions, as far east as Colorado.