TIDY-TIPS. YELLOW DAISY.
Layia platyglossa, Gray. Composite Family.
Stems.—A foot or so high; loosely branching. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; the lower linear and pinnatifid, the upper entire. Flower-heads.—Solitary; terminal; of disk- and ray-flowers. Disk-flowers.—Yellow, with black stamens. Rays.—Bright yellow, tipped with white; six lines long; four lines wide; three-lobed. Hab.—Throughout Western California; in low ground.
Among the most charming of our flowers are the beautiful tidy-tips. In midspring, countless millions of them lift themselves above the sheets of golden Bæria on our flower-tapestried plains. The fresh winds come sweetly laden with their delicate fragrance. Were they not scattered everywhere in such lavish profusion, we would doubtless cherish them in our gardens.
[FALSE TIDY-TIPS—Leptosyne Douglasii.]
![[FALSE TIDY-TIPS—Leptosyne Douglasii.]](#3624944100741987669_f052.png.id-5394805876394381304.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
[TIDY-TIPS—Layia Platyglossa.]
![[TIDY-TIPS—Layia Platyglossa.]](#3624944100741987669_f052.png.id-7693354552285543830.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Growing among these blossoms is often found another flower, somewhat similar to them. This is Leptosyne Douglasii, DC., the false tidy-tip. It has not the clean, natty appearance of Layia platyglossa; for the gradual blending of the light tips into the darker yellow below gives it an indefinite, unattractive look. There is a difference in the involucre, which has two series of bracts, and there are no touches of black among the disk-flowers.