Part 51

Desert Dandelion--Malacothrix Fendleri.]

This is a straggling plant, from one to three feet tall, a perennial, with a long, deep tap-root, stiff, branching stems, and leaves irregularly slashed into toothed lobes and chiefly from the root. The pretty flowers are from an inch to an inch and a half across, much like those of Desert Chicory, but very brilliant blue, occasionally white. This plant has escaped from cultivation and is now very common in waste places and along roadsides in the East and often found in the West. The ground-up root is used as a substitute for coffee. There is a picture in Mathews' Field Book.

There are several kinds of Microseris, rather difficult to distinguish.

This is about a foot tall, with smooth, hollow flower-stems, smooth leaves, and rather small yellow flowers, not particularly pretty. The "gone-to-seed" flower-heads are, however, very conspicuous, for they are nearly an inch and a half across, and each seed is tipped by a little silvery paper star, the effect before the wind carries them away being exceedingly pretty, a good deal like a Dandelion puff. This grows in the Grand Canyon on the plateau.

There are many kinds of Sonchus, natives of the Old World.

A common weed, from Europe, found across the continent, coarse but decorative in form, with a stout leafy stem, from one to four feet tall, and smooth leaves, with some soft prickles on the edges, the upper ones clasping the stem and the lower ones with leaf-stalks. The pale yellow flowers are three-quarters of an inch or more across.

There are several kinds of Taraxacum, natives of the northern hemisphere and southern South America.

This is a weed in all civilized parts of the world, growing in meadows, fields, and waste places. It has a thick, deep, bitter root, a tuft of root-leaves, slashed into toothed lobes, and several hollow flower-stalks, from two to eighteen inches tall, each bearing a single, handsome, bright yellow flower, from one to two inches across, which is succeeded by a beautiful silvery seed puff. This plant has many common names, such as Blow-ball, Monk's-head, Lion's-tooth, etc.

Silver-puffs--Microseris linearifolia.]

There are a great many kinds of Crepis, natives of the northern hemisphere.

This is a pretty plant, for the gray-green foliage sets off the yellow flowers. It is from six to eighteen inches high, more or less hairy or downy all over, with one or several, stout, branching, leafy stems, and thickish leaves, variously cut, mostly jagged like Dandelion leaves, with crisp margins, dark bluish-green in color and often covered on the under side with obscure white down, the root-leaves narrowed to leaf-stalks at the base. The flower-heads are about an inch across, with bright yellow rays, the involucre sprinkled with short, dark hairs. This grows on dry plains, as far east as Colorado.

This is a weed from Europe, growing in fields and waste places, in the East and on the Pacific Coast. It is a smooth plant, from one to two feet tall, with green leaves the shape of Dandelion leaves, chiefly in a bunch at the root. The many, small, yellow flowers, each about a quarter of an inch long, are in a loose cluster at the top of the stem. This is very variable.

A handsome and conspicuous plant, often forming large clumps, from one to three feet tall, with dull green, downy, rather leathery leaves, irregularly slashed and cut, and large clusters of light bright yellow flowers, each about three-quarters of an inch across. This grows on hillsides and on high dry mesas.

Hawksbeard--Crepis acuminata.]

INDEX.

Abronia, 102.

Abronia latifolia, 106.

Abronia maritima, 104.

Abronia salsa, 104.

Abronia umbellata, 104.

Abronia villosa, 104.

Achlys triphylla, 156.

Aconitum, 136.

Aconitum Columbianum, 136.

Actaea, 140.

Actaea arguta, 140.

Actaea viridiflora, 140.

Actinolepis lanosa, 554.