The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits

by Mary Elizabeth Parsons

BRASS BUTTONS.

Cotula coronopifolia, L. Composite Family.

Stems.—Six inches to a foot long. Leaves.—Alternate; lanceolate or oblong-linear; pinnatifid or entire. Flower-heads.—Solitary; yellow; three to six lines across; without rays. Involucre.—Of two ranks of nearly equal, scarious-margined scales. Hab.—Common everywhere.

These little weeds are natives of the Southern Hemisphere, but are now common everywhere. They affect wet places, and their little flowers, like brass buttons, are very familiar objects along our roadsides. The foliage when crushed gives out a curious odor, between lemon-verbena and camphor.