Troximon grandiflorum, Gray. Composite Family.
Herbs with woody tap-root and milky juice. Leaves.—All radical; lanceolate or oblanceolate; mostly laciniately pinnatifid. Scapes.—One to two and one half feet high. Heads.—Solitary; two inches or so across; of strap-shaped yellow rays only. Involucre.—Of several series of imbricated scales, the outer foliaceous and loose. Receptacle.—Mostly naked; pitted. Akenes.—Two lines long; tapering into a filiform beak six or eight lines long, surmounted by a tuft of silk. Hab.—Washington to Southern California near the Coast.
The common dandelion of the East has found its way into our lawns, but it never adapts itself as a wild plant to the vicissitudes of our dry summer climate. Nature has given us a dandelion of our own, of a different genus, which is quite as beautiful, though its flowers are not so vivid a gold. They are larger than those of the Eastern plant, and are borne upon taller stems. In early summer the large, ethereal globes of the ripened seed are conspicuous objects, hovering over our straw-tinted fields.
Mr. Burroughs writes of the dandelion:—"After its first blooming, comes its second and finer and more spiritual inflorescence, when its stalk, dropping its more earthly and carnal flower, shoots upward and is presently crowned by a globe of the most delicate and aerial texture. It is like the poet's dream, which succeeds his rank and golden youth. This globe is a fleet of a hundred fairy balloons, each one of which bears a seed which it is destined to drop far from the parent source."
If gathered just before they open and allowed to expand in the house, these down-globes will remain perfect for a long time and make an exquisite adornment for some delicate vase.
We have several other species of Troximon, but this is our finest.
Hosackia bicolor, Dougl. Pea Family.
Smooth throughout; erect; two feet high. Leaves.—With rather large, scarious, triangular stipules; pinnate. Leaflets.—Five to nine; obovate or oblong; six to twelve lines long. Peduncles.—Three- to seven-flowered; naked or with a small scarious, one- to three-leaved bract. Flowers.—Seven lines long. Calyx-teeth.—Triangular; half as long as the tube. Standard.—Yellow; wings and keel white. Stamens.—Nine united; one free. Pod.—Linear; nearly two inches long; acute. Hab.—Middle California to the State of Washington.
The yellow and white blossoms of this pretty Hosackia are quite showy, and are usually found upon low ground near the seaboard.