52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



The plant is of most diminutive size, but of much botanical interest 

 and no small beauty. From the Sagina-Wkc tuft of foliage at the 

 surface of the ground rises a multitude of tiny peduncles or scapes, 

 each tipped with a bright white flower which lasts for many days ; the 

 petals (barely two lines long) opening at sunrise, and at sunset 

 closing over the ovary, and at length permanently over the capsule, 

 into a globular form, which the discoverer likens to a pearl. The 

 most unexpected anomaly in this order of a persistent (instead of ca- 

 ducous) corolla is shared by Arctomecon, native of the same district, 

 as Dr. Parry himself ascertained upon rediscovering that exceedingly 

 rare plant in the spring of the preceding year. There are other 

 Papaveraceous plants which hold their petals for a day or two, notably 

 Sanguinaria in which they open and close for four or five days before 

 falling; but in these two peculiar genera they become scarious, re- 

 maining permanently in Arctoniecon, and up to the full maturity of the 

 capsule iu Canhya. 



The two genera, although closely related, differ in some important 

 points of floral structure as well as in aspect. The most marked differ- 

 ence is in the stigmas, which in Canhya are perfectly sessile, long, 

 entire, and divergent to the utmost, so that their backs are closely 

 applied to the surface of the rounded top of the ovary, directly over 

 the placentae, and the upper or ventral face papillose-stigmatic ; while 

 Arctomecon has a short style, the indistinct lobes of which bear extrorse 

 and two-lobed stigmas, which are alternate with the placentae, and 

 are closely appressed or even partly united in a kind of head. The 

 capsule of the one is membranaceous and dehiscent to the base; of 

 the other, coriaceous and apparently dehiscent only to the middle. 

 The seeds and the stamens are likewise different. The wretched figure 

 of Arctomecon in Fremont's Report exhibits none of these characters, 

 and it led Bentham and Hooker to conjecture that plant might be 

 only a Papaver, allied to P. nudicaule. Dr. Parry's specimens were 

 received in time for a partial, reconsti-uction of the generic character 

 in the Botany of California ; but the position of the stigmas and the 

 presence of a j^rominent crest of the seed have not before been noticed. 

 A full character of that genus is therefore here given, along with that 

 of Canhya. 



ARCTOMECON, Torr. 



Sepala 2, raro 3 ? Petala 4, latissime obovata, persistentia, demum 

 tenuiter scariosa. Stamina indefinite plurima: filamenta sursum parum 

 dilatata, antheris brevi-linearibus lougiora. Ovarium obovoideum: 



