SEA-DAHLIA.

Leptosyne maritima, Gray. Composite Family.

Leaves.—Alternate; sometimes six inches long; two or three times divided into rather sparse, linear divisions; quite succulent. Flower-heads.—Solitary; on naked peduncles from six inches to two feet long; large; three or four inches across; yellow; of disk- and ray-flowers. Rays.—Narrowly oblong; ten-nerved; three-toothed. Involucre.—Double; the outer part of several loose, leafy scales; the inner of eight to twelve, erect, more chaffy ones. Hab.—The seashore of San Diego and the islands.

On the cliffs overlooking the sea, where its merry yellow faces can watch the white-crested breakers as they chase one another ashore in never-ending succession, and where the pelicans sail lazily over in lines, and gulls circle and scream, the sea-dahlia flaunts its large yellow flowers. They closely resemble the yellow single dahlias of our gardens; but the foliage is cut into long lobes, and has the appearance of a coarse, very open lace. The odor of the flowers is not especially agreeable, but the plant merits a place in the garden for its beauty.

[YELLOW SAND-VERBENA—Abronia latifolia.]

FALSE LUPINE.

Thermopsis Californica, Wats. Pea Family.

Stems.—Two feet tall. Leaves.—With leafy stipules an inch long. Leaflets.—Three; obovate to oblanceolate; an inch or two long; somewhat woolly. Flowers.—Yellow; in long-peduncled recemes. Calyx.—Deeply five-cleft; the two upper teeth often united. Corolla.—Papilionaceous; eight lines long. Stamens.—Ten; all distinct. Ovary.—One-celled. Pod.—Silky; six- to eight-seeded. Hab.—Marin County and southward.

The false lupine very closely resembles the true lupines, but may be distinguished from them by the stamens, which are all distinct, instead of being united into a sheath. Its silvery foliage and racemes of rather large canary-colored flowers are common upon open hill-slopes by April.