OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 251 



PsORALEA Califouxica. Stems very short and clustered, from 

 tul)eroiis (?) roots : pubescence short, silky, appressed : leaves digi- 

 tately 5-foliolate, the leaflets broadly oblanceolate, acutish, 9 to 15 lines 

 long ; stipules lanceolate, scarious and deciduous : peduncles shorter 

 than the petioles : flowers on slender pedicels, in a short raceme : calyx 

 silky-villous, half an inch long, the linear acuminate lobes a little ex- 

 ceeding the persistent petals : pod very thin, somewhat villous, beaked : 

 seeds smooth, compressed and rather thin, 2 to 2.V lines long. — At 

 McGinuis' Ranch, near head of Salinas River, 25 miles from San Luis 

 Obispo, California; collected by Dr. Edward Palmer, July, 1876, in 

 mature fruit. Resembling in habit P. esculenta of the eastern plains. 



Lythrum breviflorum. Much branched, with the habit of nar- 

 row-leaved forms of L. alatum, the long slender branches flower- 

 bearing their whole length : calyx strongly striate, nearly 2 lines long 

 in fruit, exceeding the narrow bracts, shortly pedicellate : petals 6, pur- 

 ple, a line long or more : stamens 6 or 8 : seeds minute, round-ovate, 

 somewhat compressed. — L. alatum, var. (?) hrevijiorum. Gray in PI. 

 Lindh. 187 (n. 609 Lindheimer, 1847, in part). On damp rocks in 

 the Guadalupe River, Texas. The seeds of L. alatum are linear- 

 oblong and twice longer. 



Q^xoTHERA (Taraxia) Palmeri. A dwarf cespitose annual ; 

 branches very short, stout, covered with a loose white epidermis : 

 leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, an inch or two long, pubescent, 

 ciliate, entire or nearly so : calyx-tube filiform, nearly equalling the 

 leaves : petals yellow, 2 lines long : capsules crowded, ovate, 3 or 4 

 lines long, quadrangular at base, acute and strongly winged above, 

 dehiscing along the truncate upper edge of the wings : seeds lanceolate- 

 ovoid, terete, | line long, nearly smooth. — Collected in Arizona by Dr. 

 Edward Palmer, 1876. 



Qj^NOTHERA TRILOBA, var. (?) PARViFLORA. Flowers Very small, 

 not more tlian an inch or two long, fertilized in the bud, and rarely 

 fully opening : fruit abundant, forming at length a densely crowded 

 hemispherical or cylindrical mass, nearly 2 inches in diameter and often 

 2 or 3 inches high. — A curious form of this very va'riable species, or 

 possibly distinct, frequent in butfalo-wallows in the neighbourhood of 

 Ellis, Kansas, where it has been collected by Dr. Louis Watson. It 

 is also found in previous collections, and is probably common on the 

 plains of Kansas and Nebraska in like localities. Under cultivation 

 in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, it has retained its peculiarities 

 as respects the manner of flowering. It is strictly an annual, coming 

 early into bloom. The capsules are rarely over a half inch long, 



