Tas. 6257, 
DOWNINGIA PULCHELLA. 
Native of California. 
Nat. Ord. CampanutacrEm.—Tribe Lopenins, 
Genus Downriver, Torrey. (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 550). 
Downrnera pulchella ; glaberrima, erecta v. diffuse ramosa, foliis carnosulis - 
lineari-lanceolatis acutis v. subobtusis integerrimis, floribus axillaribus 
sessilibus, calycis tubo elongato, limbi lobis linearibus, corollx tubo brev1, 
labii superioris 2-partiti segmentis ovato-lanceolatis, labii inferioris late 
quadrati 3-lobi lobis rotundatis, capsula lineari 1-14 pollicari. 
D. pulchella, Torr. in Pacif. Rep. vol. iv. p. 116. A. Gray in Bot. Geol. Surv. 
Calif. vol. i. p. 444, (1876). 
Cuintonra pulchella, Lindl. in Bot. Req. t. 1909; Don in Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. 
Ser. 2, t. 412. 
A very elegant little annual, a native of marshy places, river- 
banks, and springs in N.W. America, from British Columbia 
to California ; introduced by Douglas almost half a century 
ago, but long lost to cultivation. It has again been intro- 
duced by our excellent contributor, Mr. Thompson, of 
Ipswich, who flowered it in July, 1875, and to whom | am 
indebted for the specimen here figured. . 
The genus Downingia contains two supposed Western 
American species and a Chilian one. The other North Ameri- 
can species is the D. elegans, Torr. (Clintonia elegans, Lindl. in 
Bot. Reg. t. 1241, of which 0. corymbosa, A. DC. Prod. vol. vil. 
p. 347, is a form.) This I find it quite impossible to dis- 
tinguish by Herbarium specimen or drawingsfrom D. pulchella. 
Asa Gray, who is the last describer of the species, and whose 
authority on North American plants is so high that it almost 
compels acceptance of his views, keeps the two distinct in the 
recently published ‘ Flora of California,’ saying that they are 
very like one another, but that the leaves of pulchella 
are mostly narrower and obtuse, the divisions of its upper lip 
ovate-lanceolate or oblong (not lanceolate), and that the 
lower lip is much dilated and deeply 3-lobed with a large 
white or yellowish centre (that of D. elegans having @ 
broad white spot). : ; 
The Chilian species again is known only from dried speci- 
