LADY'S TOBACCO.
Gnaphalium decurrens, Ives. Composite Family
Viscid-glandular under the loose hairs. Flower-heads.—In densely crowded, flattish clusters. Involucre.—Campanulate; of very numerous, scarious, yellowish-white, oval scales. (Otherwise similar to Anaphalis Margaritacea.) Hab.—From San Diego through Oregon.
The common everlasting flower, or cudweed, is plentiful upon our dry hills, blooming in early summer, where its white clusters are conspicuous objects amid the drying vegetation. In our rural districts it is believed that sleeping upon a pillow made of these flowers will cure catarrhal affections.
G. Sprengelii, Hook. and Arn., may be known from the above by its densely gray, woolly herbage, which is not glandular-viscid. It is also common throughout the State.
The beautiful edelweiss of the Alps is a species of Gnaphalium, G. leontopodium.
CALIFORNIAN BUCKEYE.
CALIFORNIAN HORSE-CHESTNUT.
Æsculus Californica, Nutt. Maple or Soapberry Family.
Shrubs or trees ten to forty feet high. Leaves.—Opposite; petioled; with five palmate, stalked leaflets. Leaflets.—Oblong; acute; three to five inches long; serrulate. Flowers.—White; in a thyrse a foot long; many of them imperfect. Calyx.—Tubular; two-lobed. Petals.—Four or five; six lines or more long; unequal. Stamens.—Five to seven; exserted. Anthers buff. Ovary.—Three-celled. Nuts.—One to three inches in diameter; usually one in the pod. Hab.—Coast Ranges of Middle California; also the Sierra foothills.