82 West American Plants. [ZOE 
“tubercle” as a factor in determining specific differences. Another 
amusing instance is found under Diplacus stellatus. He says: 
** Shortly after having proposed the restoration of this species on the ground of 
its accredited stellate pubescence, I collected it anew, and seemed to find that the stel- 
late hairs on my own specimens as well as on those obtained by Dr. Veatch—hairs 
so extremely unlike what are found elsewhere in the genus, had been derived from 
an extraneous source.”’* 
The author’s previous statements concerning these ‘stellate — 
hairs’’ are here given in chronological order: 
“ D, stellatus Kell, Branches and under surface of leaves yellowish-tomentose, 
the pubescence partly stellate and partly dendroid. * * * The pubescence of | 
two different kinds is very plentiful in this plant, which is doubtless of a species 
distinct from all our mainland forms; although the dendroid hairs are on other 
species and even the stellate are not wanting elsewhere in the genus.”” Bull. Cal. 
Acad., i, 95., Feb., 1885. ; 
** Was found again by the writer on Cedros Island, last May. The corolla is 
like that of D. g/utinosus in form and color, but only half as large. The pubescence 
is chiefly a dense short yellow tomentum. The pod has the tuberculation. The 
species is, in my opinion, well confirmed.” |]. c., 210, August, 1885. 
** Species exceedingly well marked by its stellate pubescence and rather small 
corolla,” List of Cedros Plants, Pitt., i, 206; June, 1888. 
There does not appear in’ these notices any evidence that the 
author ‘‘seemed to find” the stellate hairs a doubtful possession 
and one is reluctantly driven to the conviction that in a moment ae 
of forgetfulness he imagined himself the writer of the following: ae 
“* D. stellatus Kell. has been described as having very small flowers, entire leaves lee 
and a stellate (whence the name) pubescence. The specimen from which the de- 
scription was drawn was badly dried and its characters “obscured, but another 
brought since from the original locality shows that the leaves are dentate and the 
flowers of the ordinary size and form. The stellate pubescence is probably derived 
from some neighboring plant, being loosely involved in the tomentum and having 
_ Mo apparent connection with its host.” Botanical Notes, by Mary K. Curran, 
Proc. Cal. Acad., ser. 2, i, 259, Dec. 11, 1888. 
The author still divides his so-called species into ‘‘Corollas buff 
or pale salmon-color,’ and “ Corollas blood-red or scarlet,” al- 
_ though Mr. Brandegee has collected specimens on Santa Cruz and 
Santa Rosa Islands with flowers of both colors on the same plant, | 
and the writer has collected and distributed specimens from near 
Alpine station, fifteen miles north of San Diego, in whichthe flowers 
vary on the same branch from pale-buff to deep-red . 
- 
‘ i 
*Pitt., ii, 155, Dec., 1890. 
