124 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Collected by the writer near Tulare, in wet places on the 

 plains, March, 1884, but Mrs. Curran obtained it at Antioch 

 a year earlier, and specimens of P. Bigelovii are mixed with 

 hers. It is different from that species in its whole aspect, 

 being less fleshy, and producing from 20 to 30, decumbent 

 scapes, while those of P. Bigelovii are strictly erect and sel- 

 dom number more than 2 or 3. Its capsule is shorter, cir- 

 cumscissile much lower down, and has thrice as many seeds, 

 which are of only a third the size, and thicker in proportion 

 to their length. 



MIRABILIS. 

 M Froebelii. 



Stout, spreading, very viscid-pubescent, the foliage in age 

 somewhat scabrous: leaves thick, broadly ovate, the lower 

 cordate, slightly decurrent on the short petioles, 4 inches 

 long and nearly as broad: involucre 5-cleft about half way 

 down into rather acute lobes; 5 — 6-flowered: perianth fun- 

 nelform, 1J inches long, the limb an inch across, dull purple, 

 pubescent and viscid outside : fruit ovate-oblong, not tuber- 

 culate, light brown, marked by 10 lines of a lighter color. — 

 M. multiflora, var. pubescens, Watson, Bot. Cal. II. 2. Oxy- 

 baphus Froebelii, Behr, Proc. Cal. Acad. I. 69. 



Common at the base of the mountains in Kern and ad- 

 joining counties southward. Fine specimens were obtained 

 by Mrs. Curran, in July, 1884, from which this description 

 is drawn. Dr. Behr readily identifies it as his Oxybaphus 

 Frcebelii. 



The abundant viscid pubescence, the very stout stems, 

 shorter, broader perianth and very light-colored fruits dis- 

 tinguish the species well from all forms of 31. multiflora. It 

 is really more related to 31. Greenei of the northern part of 



the State. 



POLYGONUM. 



Descriptions of two proposed new species will best be in- 

 troduced by a careful delineation of the true characters of 

 one long known with which they are to be compared, and 

 have been confounded, namely: 



