New Plants from Wyoming. VII 



liY AVKN Ni:i-SON 



For the past several years I have been observint^ the species of 

 Paronychia with sonic care, and a large series of specimens have 

 been secured to illustrate those credited to this region. Among 

 those secured are authentic specimens of Paronychia dcprcssa 

 (T. & G.) Nutt. That Nuttall's plant deserves specific rank I 

 think can hardly be questioned by one familiar with it in the field. 

 Nuttall, in selecting the name dcprcssa, must have fully understood 

 it<^ habit, but it seems that no one since has appreciated the ap- 

 propriateness of the name. The descriptions of it that arc current 

 are all misleading. Height is a.sslgned to the .stems but they are 

 absolutely prostrate-spreading, forming close mats upon the sur- 

 face of the ground, a fact that herbarium specimens fail to show. 



This will at once separate it from that species with which it has 

 been associated, though they are also otherwise very different. To 

 place it' on record a little more fully than has heretofore been done 

 the following characters may be noted ; 



Prostrate-spreading, forming close mats, the very numerous 

 dichotomous stems springing in a cluster from the summit of a 

 woody root, all but the herbaceous portion buried in the loose soil, 

 silvery, this appearance due to the large scarious stipules and the 

 short, silvery, scabrous pubescence : leaves linear, exceeding the 

 internodcs, cuspidate or mo.stly bristle pointed, the lanceolate 

 stipules more conspicuous than the leaves (which they nearly 



equal) and with them closely clothing the short stems : flowers 

 singly in the axils or in small cymes, nearly sessile, surpassed by 

 the subtending leaves and bracts: sepals with a cone-shaped tip 

 half as long as the rest of the sepal, awn about equaling the tip, 

 at the base of which the arch at the inner face is borne : filaments 

 very short, exceeded by the slender staminodia. 



This I have secured but once and I am sure it is not common. 

 My no. 461 has been compared with the type in Torrey Herb, at 

 Columbia, by Dr. Rydberg, who says it is a very close duplicate 

 of Nuttall's specimen. 



Of frequent occurrence in Wyoming is Paronychia 



( 230 ) 



•M, 



