ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 101 



Descriptions of New Californian Plants— No. I. 



BY PROP. ASA GRAY. 



Streptanthus Nutt. 

 & Breweri, n. sp. [$ Euclisia.] 



Wholly glabrous and glaucous, annual, branched from near the base ; cauline 

 leaves (except the lowest) strongly cordate-clasping, with a closed sinus, entire 

 or denticulate, the uppermost sagittate ; flowers purple, on very short ascend- 

 ing pedicels, the lowest often leafy-bracted ; the buds often a quarter of an inch 

 long, obtuse, or barely acute ; the sepals with scarious but blunt recurved tips ; 

 siliques narrowly linear, ascending or erect, straight or slightly incurved (l}4 — 

 2% inches long, less than a line wide,) compressed but torulose, the nerve of 

 the valves obscure ; seeds wholly marginless. 



This most resembles S. tortuosus Kellogg (which is S. cordatus Torr., in Bot. 

 Pacif. R. R. Whipple's Rep. but evidently uot of Nuttall), from which the above 

 character indicates the differences. 



There are three forms in the collection : 1. A dwarf state, in flower only, 

 from Mt. Shasta, at an altitude of 8,000 feet. 2. A very glaucous form, with 

 more numerous and rather smaller flowers, and with fruit, from the top of a dry 

 mountain of the Mt. Diablo Range, near head of Arroyo del Puerto, at an alti- 

 tude of 3,200 feet. 3. Another, in flower and fruit, with more naked and virgate 

 branches, a foot or two in height, from San Carlos Mountain, near New Idria, 

 5,000 feet altitude. This is remarkable for having the calyx hoary-downy, but the 

 plant is otherwise glabrous and glaucous. 



S. hispidus, n. sp. (§ Euclisia.) 



Very dwarf, (2-3 inches high, from an annual root,) hispid throughout, even 

 to the siliques; leaves cuneate or obovate-oblong, coarsely toothed or incised, 

 the cauline-sessile but hardly at all clasping ; raceme short and loosely flowered ; 

 pedicels spreading or at length recurved in flower (which is red or red-violet) 

 but the linear compressed siliques (1A< inch long, aline wide,) are erect ; stigma 

 almost sessile ; immature seeds winged. 



Mt. Diablo, dry places near summit. 



This ranks next to S. heterophyllus. 



Viola L. 

 V. ocellata, Torr. and Gray, var. 

 Glabrous, smaller ; leaves somewhat thickish ; peduncles elongated. Very 

 curious and distinct. From Tamalpais. 



Arenaria L. 

 A. brevifolia Nutt.? var. Calif ornica. 



Much branched or diffuse, cymosely many-flowered ; petals and sepals some- 

 what narrower. 



Leaves as in Nuttall's plant, thickish, plane, mostly obtuse and spreading 

 Valves of the capsule entire. Filaments opposite and twice the length of the 

 sepals, more dilated and glandular at the base. Seeds minute, minutely muri- 



