196 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



saxatilis var. tenuifolia, Gra5 r , Syn. Fl. 423. But for the 

 fact that this mountain plant is there separated into two 

 species, 31. saxatilis and 31. tenuiflora are best defined in 

 that excellent old book, Torrey and Gray's Fl. N. Am. vol. 

 ii. p. 446-7. 



Nemacladus capillaris. 



A span to a foot broad and high, very diffuse, the 

 branches almost capillary, glabrous throughout: radical 

 leaves spatulate-oblong; cauline linear-subulate, minute: 

 pedicels capillary, divaricate or a little recurved : calyx-tube 

 slender, long-turbinate, adnate to the lower half of the 

 ovary, teeth ovate, obtuse, half as long as the tube, a little 

 surpassed by the rounded summit of the 7 — 12-seeded cap- 

 sule: corolla very minute, white: stamineal tube distinct: 

 seed oblong-oval, 10-striate, with numerous transverse lines 

 forming distinct, elongated reticulations. 



Mohave Desert, 1884, Mrs. Curran; also a single speci- 

 men from Mr. Cleveland, probably from Lake County, 1882. 



In this largest, yet most finely capillary species, the ma- 

 ture calyx and capsule are pyriform, and do not exceed a 

 line in length. The stamineal tube though permanent is 

 short, to correspond with the exceeding minuteness of all 

 the other floral organs. It is clear, however, that the fila- 

 ments in this, as in each of the following new species, and 

 in the N. longiflorus, Gray, are long-monadelphous, that is, 

 united for nearly their whole length into a filiform tube. In 

 the original N. ramosissimus, Nutt. , they are joined firmly, 

 for a very short distance only, just beneath the anthers. In 

 N. rigidus, Curran, they are similarly united, but so slightly 

 that the earliest growth of the ovary forces them asunder, 

 so that before falling away they become entirely distinct 

 and free. The seeds in all the species appear to furnish 

 good characters. I have described them as seen under a 

 magnifying power of about twenty diameters. 



