[Sidenote: =Xylorrhiza=
_Xylorrhìza tortifòlia_
=Lilac
Spring
Southwest, Utah, Col.=]
A handsome plant, growing in clumps over two feet high, with prickly
leaves and beautiful flowers, two inches and a half across, with rays
shading from bright lilac to nearly white and yellow centers. This is
common in the Grand Canyon.
There are a good many kinds of Arnica, natives of the northern
hemisphere. This is the ancient name and a European kind is much used
medicinally.
[Sidenote: =Heart-leaved Arnica=
_Árnica cordifòlia_
=Yellow
Summer
West, except Ariz.=]
A handsome mountain flower, with a hairy stem, from six inches to
two feet tall, and velvety leaves, coarsely toothed, the lower ones
usually heart-shaped. The flower-heads are usually single, over two
inches across, with bright yellow rays, an orange center, and a hairy
involucre. This is common in rich moist soil in mountain valleys, as
far east as Colorado.
[Sidenote: =Broad-leaved Arnica=
_Árnica latifòlia_
=Yellow
Summer
Northwest=]
A handsome kind, sometimes a foot and a half tall, with pretty flowers,
about two inches across, with very bright yellow rays. The bright green
leaves are thin in texture and practically smooth, the lower ones more
or less roundish, with leaf stalks. This grows in mountain woods.
There are many kinds of Artemisia; herbs or shrubs, usually bitter and
aromatic, widely distributed.
[Sidenote: =Common Sage-brush=
_Artemísia tridentàta_
=Yellow
Summer, autumn
West, etc.=]
This is the characteristic sort, often immensely abundant and found
as far east as Colorado, often tinting the landscape for miles with
its pale and beautiful foliage and one of the dominant shrubs in the
Great Basin. It is very branching, from one to twelve feet high, with a
distinct trunk and shreddy bark, and the twigs and alternate leaves are
all gray-green, covered with silvery down, the upper leaves small and
toothless, the lower wedge-shaped, with usually three, blunt teeth. The
small yellow flowers have no rays and grow in small, close clusters,
forming long sprays towards the ends of the branches. Sagebrush is a
"soil indicator" and when the prospective rancher finds it on land
he knows at once that it will be good for even dry farming, as the soil
contains no salt or alkali.
[Illustration: Xylorrhiza tortifolia.]
[Illustration: Heart-leaved Arnica--A. cordifolia.