192 BORRAGINACE^E. Eritrichium. 



from a corresponding deep cavity of the side of the gyuobase, and persists 011 the 

 nutlet in place of the ordinary areola or scar (when only one nutlet matures it 

 becomes incumbent) : seed aniphitropous, attached above the middle of the cell : 

 herbage villous-hirsute : calyx in the original species at length circumscissile 

 above the base \--Playiubothrys, Fisch. & Meyer, Ind. Sern. Petrop. 1835, 46; 

 not well characterized, the fruit being probably immature. 



* (GEXUINA. ) Mature nutlets very concave ventrally ; the caruncle narrow and projecting,usually 

 oval, each fitting into an orbicular cavity of the globular gynobase : low annuals, with small 

 flowers, and villous or silky-hirsute but not hispid calyx. 



-1 Nutlets dull or slightly shining, cartilaginous or coriaceous; the lines or ribs narrow and ele- 

 vated, bounding depressed areola;; the dorsal keel more or less salient. 



E. fulvum, A. DC. A span to a foot high, slender, branched from the leafy base, loosely 

 hirsute or merely pubescent : leaves linear or the lower and larger lanceolate or spatulate ; 

 the upper sparse and small: spikes at maturity nearly filiform, bracteate only at base: 

 calyx, &c., densely clothed with dark-ferruginous and some merely fulvous hairs, circum- 

 scissile from the mature fruit ; the lobes narrow-lanceolate : limb of corolla 2 lines in 

 diameter: nutlets (a line long) rugose with broad and shallow areolations. Prodr. x.132; 

 Gray, 1. c. 57. Hyosotis ftdva, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 38 (the Chilian plant, which has 

 rather longer and narrower calyx-lobes), & 369. Playiolothrys ruftscens, Fisch. & Meyer, 

 1. c ; A. DC. 1. c. 134. P. canescens, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 397 (no. 411, Hall). Open 

 grounds, California and Oregon, toward the coast. (Chili.) 



E. canescens, Gray, 1. c. Stouter and generally larger than the preceding, leafy, vil- 

 lous-hirsute ; the pubescence whitish, even that of the calyx barely fulvous : leaves linear: 

 calyx larger and with broader lanceolate lobes, less closed over the fruit and hardly if at all 

 circumscissile: nutlets usually with more prominent transverse ribs. Plagioboihry& ca- 

 nescens, Benth. PI. Hartw. 326. W. California and north to the Columbia River. 



-t H Nutlets crustaceous, vitreous-shining or enamel-like at maturity ; the lines bounding the 

 long transverse and closely packed ruga: very slender and impressed: low plants, seldom a 

 span high: limb of corolla' a line or two in diameter: calyx hardly if at all circumscissile at 

 maturity. 



E. tenellum, Gray, 1. c. Hirsute with rather soft hairs ; those of the calyx more or less 

 fulvous or rusty-yellowish: stems slender and erect: radical leaves in a rosulate tuft, 

 oblanceolate or broadly linear; the cauline rather few and small : spike few-flowered and 

 interrupted, leafy only at base: calyx-lobes triangular-lanceolate: nutlets (a line long) 

 very shining, somewhat cruciate from the abrupt contraction at both base and apex, hol- 

 lowed on the ventral face, the close and straight transverse wrinkles either smooth or 

 sparsely and sharply muricate. E.fuh'um, Watson, Bot. King, 243 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 

 viii. 397, not A. DC. Myosotis (Dasymorpha) Icnella, Nutt. in Hook. Kew Jour. Bot. v. 295. 

 Northern California to. British Columbia, Nevada, and Idaho. 



E. Torreyi, Gray, 1. c. More hispidly hirsute, the hairs even of the calyx greyish, much 

 branched from the root : stems diffuse or decumbent, leafy ; the flowers mainly leafy- 

 bracteate : leaves broadly oblong : nutlets rather larger than in the preceding and less 

 shining, broadly ovate, not cruciate nor muricate but smooth (or next the margins obscurely 

 tuberculate), the straight wrinkles rather broader: caruncle not projecting. California, 

 Sierra Nevada, near Yosemite Valley, Torrey. Sierra Valley, Lemmon ; the latter a de- 

 pressed and very leafy form, with scattered flowers, accompanied throughout by leaves. 



# * (AMBIGUA.) Mature nutlets moderately incurved, affixed to the obtusely conical or pyra- 

 midal gynobase by a vertical narrow crest (answering to the caruncle) which occupies the middle 

 third of the concave face of the nutlet (terminating above in the sharp ventral keel which ex- 

 tends to the apex); the cavities of the gynobase oblong-ovate in outline : calyx, &c., more or less 

 setose-hispid. 



E. Kingii, Watson. Apparently biennial, villous-hirsute and more or less hispid : stems 

 a span or so high, rather stout : leaves from spatulate or oblong to spatulate-linear : inflo- 

 rescence at first thyrsoid ; the flowers in short spikes or clusters which are commonly leafy 

 at base : tube of the corolla not longer than the lanceolate calyx-lobes ; its limb 4 lines in 

 diameter, or sometimes one-half smaller : nutlets coriaceous, dull, irregularly rugose, not 

 distinctly carinate on the back, fully a line long. Bot. King, 243, t. 23 (in flower) ; Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. x. 60, & Bot. Calif, i. 528. Eastern portion of the Sierra Nevada, in Ne- 



