Tas. 4703. 
ERIOGONUM composirum. 
Twice-umbelled Eriogonum. 
Nat. Ord. Potyconr”%: Tribe Er1oGonE#.—ENNEANDRIA Monocynt. 
Gen. Char. Involucrum tubulosum, campanulatum vel cyathiforme, vix angu- 
latum, subaqualiter 6-dentatum, multiflorum. Receptaculum bracteolis intra 
pedicellos instructum. Perianthia exserta, profundep 6-fida. Benth. 
Ertoconum (§ Umbellatum) compositum ; foliis ad basin caulis approximatis 
longe petiolatis ovatis basi rotundatis cordatisve supra demum glabratis 
subtus dense albo-lanatis, pedunculo longissimo nudo apice breviter bium- 
bellato, involucris breviter pedicellatis campanulatis multifloris. Benth. 
ERIOGONUM compositum. Dougl. MSS. Benth. in Bot. Reg. t. 1774, and in 
Linn. Trans. v. 17. p. 410. t. 17. f. 10. (flowers and fruit only). Hook. 
Fl, Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 135. 
This is a plant which may be considered of botanical interest, 
rather than as possessing any beauty to recommend it to culti- 
vation. With the habit of an Umbelliferous plant, especially of 
some of the Cape species of Hermas, the individual flowers and 
fruit will be found to resemble a good deal those of Polygonee, to 
which natural family it belongs, but to a group or tribe chiefly 
distinguished by one or more flowers being included within a 
common monophyllous involucre, not much unlike that of £w- 
Phorbia. The genus, now found to be very numerous, is, with 
its allies (Hriogonee), confined to the extra-tropical regions of 
Western America, mainly California and the Oregon territory : 
some are found in Chili. The present species, one of the largest 
of the kind, was’ first detected by Douglas and Drummond on 
the Columbia or Oregon River and in New Albion. Our plants 
were raised from seeds sent from the Upper Pelouse River, be- 
tween Spokan and Kooskooskie,. by Mr. Burke, in the Royal 
Gardens of Kew, where they prove quite hardy, flowering in 
July, and requiring no particular care in the culture but a well- 
drained soil. Its large cordato-ovate leaves, dark above, white 
and woolly beneath, have rather a striking appearance, and 
MARCH lst, 1853. 
