[Sidenote: =African Senecio=
_Senècio élegans_
=White and mauve
Spring
California=]
A handsome plant, which is noticeable on account of its unusual
coloring. The stout, smooth stem is two or three feet tall, with
smooth, slightly thickish leaves, the margins rolled back, a very
peculiar shade of light bright yellowish-green. The handsome flowers
are an inch and three-eighths across, with bright deep yellow centers
and white rays shading to mauve at the tips, and form a large
flat-topped cluster. This is a native of Africa and is not yet common
in this country, but grows on the sand dunes near San Francisco.
There are many kinds of Baccharis, all American, chiefly shrubs.
[Sidenote: =Groundsel-tree Chaparral Broom=
_Báccharis pilulàris_
=Whitish, yellowish
Autumn
Cal., Oreg., Wash.=]
A branching evergreen shrub, from two to five feet high, with smooth
dark green, leathery leaves, an inch or less long, rather wedge-shaped,
usually coarsely toothed. The flower-heads are very small, without
rays, and are crowded at the ends of the twigs. Some plants have only
staminate flowers and some only pistillate ones, and the effect of the
two sorts is very different, for the staminate flowers are ugly, but
the pistillate ones are provided with quantities of long, white, silky
pappus, giving a beautiful, snowy appearance to the shrub. This is very
variable, being a fine shrub in favorable situations, and is common
along the coast on the sand dunes, on low hills and on high mountain
slopes.
There are a great many kinds of Aster, most abundant in North America,
difficult to distinguish, the flowers never yellow. Though there are
some fine ones in the West, they are not so numerous or so handsome as
in the East.
[Sidenote: =Aster=
_Aster Chamissónis_
=Purple
Summer, autumn
Cal., Oreg.=]
This is one of the commonest kinds and is quite handsome, from two to
five feet high, with leafy, branching stems and alternate, lance-shaped
leaves, from two to five inches long, usually toothless, without
leaf-stalks. The many flowers are an inch or more across, with yellow
centers and white, violet, or purple rays, the bracts of the involucre
in several rows, with short and rounded tips. This is rather variable.
_A. radulìnus_, Broad-leaf Aster, has stiff, rough leaves, sharply
toothed towards the broad tips, and usually many flowers, an inch or
so across, with whitish rays. This is rather common on dry hills in
California and Oregon, blooming in summer and autumn. _A. Andersóni_,
of Yosemite, has toothless, grasslike root-leaves and one beautiful
flower, an inch across, with purple rays.
[Illustration: African Senecio--S. elegans.]