34^ Pld^its of San Francisco. [zoe 



51. Lepigonum^ macrothecum F. & M. including van sca- 

 RIOSA Britt. Bull Torn Club, and T. pallida Greene 1. c. Com- 

 mon about the bluffs of the ocean shore. All the yean 



52. Lepigonum rubrum Fries. About the summits and slopes 

 of the Potrero and Presidio Hills. Although perennial, not to be 

 distinguished from specimens in the herbarium from Paris, France, 

 where, if not sometimes perennial, it evidently forms strong indurated 

 roots. It is apparently Tissa Clevelandi Greene, Fl. Francis. 127, 

 although the flowers are not usually " white." All the year. 



53. Lepigonw7i medium Fries. Low lands about the shores of 

 the bay. April— July. 



54. Spergula arvensis L. spec. 630. Common by roadsides and 

 in sandy places. January— July. " Corn-Spurrey.''' 



ILLECEBRACE^ . 



55 



Pei^tac^.na ramosissima (Weinm. Bot. Zeit. 608.) Com- 

 mon on the sea coast. April— September. 



56. Paronychia Chilensis DC. Prod. iii. 370. Common near Point 

 Lobos Creek and the Marine Hospital. April— September. 



The 



being antedated by Buda and Tissa, concerning the merits of which a somewhat 

 acrimonious discussion has recently appeared in botanical publications. Buda 

 bemg adopted in the sixth edition of Gray's Manual and by English botanists 

 generally, while Baillon, Pax, N. L. Britton and E. L. Greene have upheld the 

 claim of Tissa. Recently, however, Mr. Britton announces in Jour. Bot. xxix, 303 

 a still older name, Corion (Mitchell, 1748). In view of these facts the names in 

 commou use are retained until some agreement among botanists may be reached 



The species are of "difficult definition, "a phrase which in botany is apt to mean 

 that inconstant forms have been raised to specific rank. No two authors have 

 been able to agree as to the limits of the species. Dr. N. L. Britton revised the 

 North American forms in the Bulletin of the Torrey Club (vol. xvi, 125). Prof 

 Greene, in Flora Franciscana, agrees with him so little as to make a new species of 

 the plant which Dr. Britton considered to belong to the South American T. villosa 

 and to unite T. macrotheca var. scariosa Britt. with the type of his own T. pallida^ 

 which itself bears a suspiciously close resemblance to Spergularia rupicola Lebel. 



Lepigonum tenue Greene Pitt, ii, 63, although occurring immediately opposite 

 on the Alameda shore, has not been found in San Francisco. It is very near L. 

 gractk\Y&is.ou, and although described as apetalous and diandrous, often has 3, 4 

 or 5 stamens, and r, 2, 3 perhaps more minute included petals. 



