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VOL. II.] Notes on Calif ornian PUdUs, 321 



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serration of the leaves and tlie size and form of the corolla lobes. 

 To one of these species, P. Whitlavia, our plant must be referred, 

 not from any characters of its own, but purely for the geograph- 

 ical reason that it was found in the territory of that species, for it 

 might with equal propriety be placed with the other, P, campamt- 



laria, had it come from the desert region to which the latter species 

 is confined. 



\ 



m 



But even this disposition would be unsatisfactory if, instead of 

 dealing wnth a stray plant or two, the variation had become fixed 

 and was abundantly propagated, and dififused, so that they might 

 be collected by the thousanc^. There could be no hesitation in 

 considering it a valid species, and a new section w^ould be required 

 for its reception, and the generic character must be modified ; or 

 with a less conservative view, it might be made the type of a 

 *new genus.- Should the increased number of some of the floral 

 organs remain constant, even the ordinal definition would need 

 changing. And thus fitted into a regular place in systematic clas- 

 sification, it would cease to be an example of the antholysis of a 

 corolla normally entire and must be described as a plant with a 

 corolla normally deeply lobed. And all these apparent changes 

 w^ould be du^ not to any characters inherent in the plant itself, 

 but solely to a difference in numerical abundance. 



My specimen is from the mountains near San Bernardino, where 

 it was found by Mr. E. D. Palmer. Similar flowers, without leaves 

 or other parts of the plant, are in the Gray herbarium, collected 

 by Rev. J. C. Nevin, near Lang Station, on the Southern Pacific 

 Railway, In this plant, Mr. Nevin informs me, the floral branches 

 were fasciated, showing that the force of variation, which in Mr. 

 Palmer's plant was manifest only in the leaves and flowers, had here 

 modified other parts of the structure. 



III. PSEUDO-CAUDEX OF Ca?rx BarbarcB dewev. 



This sedge is found along stream banks in the lower foothills of 

 the San Bernardino Mountains, and also in open swampy ground 

 in the adjoining valley. In the former situations it forms robust 

 tussocks, but in the latter the bases of these are often elongated in 

 such a way as to present the appearance of trunks. These are 

 from four to six feet high, so that in collecting specimens one fre- 

 quently has to reach up to gather the flower stems. They are 



