completely coiled when mature; but on the same specimen we 
often find every form of coiling, reminding one very much of the 
appearance of a worm in various degrees of contortion. ‘The 
species seems peculiar to South California; Nuttall found it at 
San Diego ; yet the plant is perfectly suited to our summer cli- 
inate, where it ripens its seeds, or may be increased by cuttings. 
The curious stigma is characteristic of the section Spherostigma. 
Dzscr. Annual, pubescent, but not hoary. Svems simple or 
branched, subdecumbent, terete, green, tinged with red on one 
side. Leaves rather distant, lower ones shortly petiolate, lanceo- 
late, acuminate ; upper ones broader and sessile, gradually pass- 
ing into bracts, all of them dentate, the upper ones more deeply so, 
penniveined, /Yowers solitary in the axil of almost every leaf and 
bract, short-pedicellate (but the slender ovary has very much the 
appearance of a peduncle). Calya ; its long narrow four-angled 
tube adherent with the ovary, except the apex, which is infundi- 
buliform and free. Segments four, lanceolate, reflexed. Petals 
_ broadly cuneato-rotundate, spreading, full yellow, with small, 
deep blood-coloured spots at the base. Stamens cight, alternately 
shorter, and the tallest much shorter than the petals. Style as 
long as the stamens. Stigma very large, velvety, capitate, yellow. 
Fruit \inear, four-angled, one and a half to two inches long, four- 
angled, singularly contorted, and even twisted, as it advances to 
maturity. 
Fig. 1. Upper portion of the o ith cal t d stamens. 
2. Single petal :—magnified. ied Sn semaine ae rena 
