VOL. I. | Platystemon and Eschscholtzta. 279 
far as San Ignacio, the head of the lagoons. The coast form 
differs considerably from that of the interior, being more branch- 
ing, and generally prostrate - spreading ; the pubescence is harsher 
‘usually covering the carpels, and seeds are not rarely ma- 
tured in the cavity formed by the united carpels. At San Diego 
there grows about the bay a slender and dwarfed form, with the 
heads nodding in fruit; the soon separating carpels almost stellate- 
spreading. A similar but very low form was brought by Mr. Bran- 
degee from Santa Rosa Island. The peculiar form found at San 
Simeon has been described before.} It grows on the bluffs of the 
sea shore, and the prostrate branches are often two feet or more in’ 
length. At San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, and on the islands, 
the plants are similar to the last, but smaller, and the carpels usually 
seed-bearing. About Monterey the coast form makes a nearer ap- 
~ proach to that of the interior, being more condensed and upright 
in growth. The erect, very hirsute capsules often bear free seeds, 
the stigmatic portion is about as long as the rest of the carpel, and 
the petals usually persist till the ripening of the seeds.: In the 
vicinity of Castroville, fifteen miles to the north, were found the. 
largest examples of the species I have ever seen; a single plant 
would have filled dozens of herbarium sheets. Their unusual size 
was probably due to the stirring of the soil, as they grew about the 
railway embankments and cuttings. The petals of these plants 
were persistent, and of a bright rose-purple, a color still retained 
after eighteen months in the herbarium, the stigmas about equal 
in length to the rest of the carpel, and occasionally free seeds were 
matured in the capsular cavity. - 
_ Platystemon in the interior region is more erect, less branching, 
the pubescence of softer hairs, yellow at the base and sometimes 
for the whole length, often curled at the extremity, and very variable 
in quantity, even in neighboring plants. The alternate petals, either 
persistent or fugacious, are sometimes of a deeper color, as is usual 
in a related species, and they are frequently eight or twelve instead 
of the usual number, six. The carpels are erect, either glabrous 
or hirsute, and so far as I have observed never mature seeds in the 
o capsule. Specimens from Cahto, Mendocino County, have per- 
sistent petals, pubescence soft and white, stigmas very short. ae 
t Proc. Cal. Acad., ser. 2, i, 240. 
