[Sidenote: =Blanket-flower, Gaillardia=
_Gaillàrdia pinnatífida_
=Yellow
Summer
Ariz., Col., Tex.=]
This is handsome and conspicuous, with a slender, rough stalk, about
a foot tall, dull green, stiff, rather hairy leaves, mostly from
the root, and beautiful flowers, an inch and a half across, with
golden-yellow rays, with three teeth, and a center of shaded maroon and
yellow, which is very velvety and pretty and becomes an attractive,
purplish, fuzzy, round head when the rays drop off. This grows on the
plains. _G. aristàta_, found throughout the West and as far east as
Colorado, is an exceedingly handsome kind, sometimes over two feet
tall, with beautiful yellow flowers, sometimes measuring four inches
across.
[Sidenote: =Arizona Gaillardia=
_Gaillàrdia Arizònica_
=Yellow
Spring
Arizona=]
A pretty little desert plant, from four to eight inches tall, with a
slender, downy flower-stalk, springing from a cluster of roughish,
light dull green leaves, more or less hairy and bearing a single
handsome flower, nearly two inches across, with a downy involucre and
three-toothed rays of an unusual and pretty shade of dull light yellow,
finely veined with brown on the back, surrounding a darker yellow,
fuzzy center.
[Sidenote: =Tiny Tim=
_Hymenathèrum Hartwégi_
=Yellow
Spring
Arizona=]
A neat little evergreen, shrubby plant, only about three inches high,
with branching stems, clothed with small, narrow, dull green leaves,
which look prickly but are actually not very stiff, though tipped with
tiny bristles. The flowers are three-eighths of an inch across, very
perfect in outline, with bright yellow rays and deeper yellow centers,
and the whole effect, of a tiny shrub sprinkled with flowers, is quite
attractive, growing on very dry ground along the roadside. The plant
has a pronounced smell, which is not unpleasant.
[Sidenote: =Tall Purple Aster=
_Machaeranthèra incàna (Aster)_
=Purple
Spring
Southwest, Utah, New Mex.=]
This looks a good deal like an Aster, a branching plant, from two to
nearly three feet high, with grayish-green, slightly downy leaves,
with very sharp teeth. The flowers are an inch and a half across,
with narrow, bright violet rays and bright yellow centers. This grows
abundantly in valleys.
[Illustration: Purple Aster--Machaeranthera incana.
Tiny Tim--Hymenatherum Hartwegi.
Blanket-flower--Gaillardia pinnatifida.