A large family, of wide geographic distribution, resembling the
Sunflower Family and by some authors included in it. They are herbs,
rarely trees, almost always with milky, acrid, or bitter juice; the
leaves alternate or from the root; the flowers small and crowded
in heads, with involucres, the bracts in one or several rows; the
receptacle flat or flattish, sometimes naked or smooth, sometimes
scaly, pitted or honeycombed; the flowers all perfect; the calyx-tube
without pappus, or with pappus of scales or bristles, sometimes
feathery; the corollas not of two sorts, like those of the Sunflower
Family, but all with a strap-shaped border, usually five-toothed, and
a short or long tube; the anthers united into a tube around the style,
which is very slender and two-cleft or two-lobed; the ovary one-celled
and inferior, developing into an akene.
There are several kinds of Ptiloria, of western and central North
America.
[Sidenote: =Flowering-straw=
_Ptilòria pauciflòra (Stephanomeria runcinata)_
=Pink
Spring
West, etc.=]
In the desert this is a very strange-looking, pale plant, forming a
scanty, straggling bush, about two feet high, with slender, brittle,
gray stems, most of the leaves reduced to mere scales, and delicate,
pale pinkish-lilac flowers, less than half an inch long. This grows
on the plains, as far east as Texas, and is not always so leafless
as in the picture, which is that of a desert plant, but has some
coarsely-toothed leaves.
[Sidenote: =Desert Pink=
_Ptilòria Wrìghtii (Stephanomeria)_
=Pink
Summer
Ariz., New Mex.=]
Much like the last, but not a queer-looking plant, with pale green
foliage and larger, prettier flowers, three-quarters of an inch long,
giving the effect of tiny, pale pink carnations. This grows at the
Grand Canyon.
[Illustration: Flowering-straw--Ptiloria pauciflora.