Eastwood: Undescribed Paronychia from California 289 



While engaged in identifying the plants collected by the author 

 at Bodega Port, the error was discovered. On consulting the 

 original description the Californian specimens were found to be 

 dissimilar. An inspection of the herbarium disclosed two different 

 species both marked P. Chilensis DC. and both from the Province 

 of Aconcagua, Chili. Specimens were sent to the Gray Herbarium 

 but they were unable to look into the matter though they kindly 



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sent some scraps of the species collected by C. Gay, the author of 

 a Flora of Chili. This only served to deepen the mystery, so 

 specimens were sent to the Royal Herbarium at Kew. 



The following note from Dr. Otto Stapf clears the whole mat- 



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ter. " Of the two Chilian specimens named P. Chilensis, the one 

 having smaller flowers and submuticous sepals is the true P. 

 Chilensis DC. It agrees very well with a specimen from Con- 

 cepcion (the locus classicus of this species) in our herbarium and 

 corresponds to the description in DC. Prodr. 3 : 370, with the 



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exception that it is more pubescent. 



" The other specimen which, in my opinion, is identical with the 

 plant from San Francisco is P. Chilensis, C Gay, nan DC. Rohr- 

 bach pointed out Gay's mistake in Fl. Bras. 14 2 : 254; but he 

 was wrong in referring it to P. Brasiliana DC, although it is cer- 

 tainly nearly allied to it. I am not aware of any distinct name for 

 it. Lechler distributed it as P. Chilensis var. setigera Fenzl, but 

 Fenzl does not seem to have published a description of it. I 

 might perhaps mention that there is a Herniaria setigera Gill., 

 which is a true Paronychia, and certainly distinct from P. Chilensis 



G Gay." 



