VENEGASIA.
Venegasia carpesioides, DC. Composite Family.
Several feet high; leafy to the top. Leaves.—Alternate; slenderly petioled; cordate or ovate-deltoid; crenate; two to four inches long; thin. Flower-heads.—Large; two-inches across, including the rays; yellow; slender-peduncled; composed of ray- and disk-flowers. Rays.—Over an inch long; six lines wide; two- or three-toothed; fertile; about fifteen. Involucre.—Broad; of many roundish-green scales; becoming scarious inward. Hab.—Santa Barbara and southward.
This plant, with its ample thin leaves and large yellow flowers, would arrest the attention anywhere. It often grows under the shade of trees in cool cañons, where its blossoms brighten the twilight gloom. It is an admirable plant, and has but one drawback—its rather unpleasant odor. It is the only species of the genus which was named in honor of an early Jesuit missionary, Michael Venegas. It is especially abundant and beautiful about Santa Barbara.