ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Ill 



very numerous, free, golden filaments, with the lower third deep saffron-hued, 

 oblong anthers, spirally twisted, like short sections of fine cord; style exsert- 

 ed, simple, or altogether undivided. A very beautiful saffron-eyed species; 

 hence the specific name. 



Vice-President Edwards, seeing it stated in the Cal. Bot. that the Aralea 

 Calif ornica "had not been collected in mature fruit," brought a specimen for 

 record. The berries are deep purple, pulpy, symmetrically smooth, and 

 round as the largest shot, or very slightly oblate-spheroid, shortest diameter 

 the axis, consisting of five oblong, semi-oval, compressed seeds, somewhat 

 bluntly margined on the outer more curved edge. The ripe fruit is apt to fall 

 away, or, if retained, is so crushed that the color, form and character to an 

 extent is lost, which may account for the remark. 



In Dr. Eisen's collection is a small form of Madia glomerata, var. eglandu- 

 losa, K., worthy of note. Stem simple, 5-6 inches high, cymosely clustered 

 at the top, hirsute throughout, without glands; lower leaves opposite, rarely 

 alternate except above first and second pairs, subspatulate to linear, acute, 

 obscurely three-nerved, base cilliate, subsessile to sessile; heads turbinate, 

 rays 7-9, yellow, three-lobed or deeply three-toothed; disk florets, 7-10, tubes 

 naked, pappus of five or more long plumose awns, receptacle convex, fim- 

 brillate, pitted. 



Among Dr. G. Eisen's prairie collection, Fresno County, is an exceedingly 

 minute plant, which ought to belong to Helerocodon, although, as at present 

 characterized, it is quite at variance. 



Heterocodon minimum. K. 



Stem filiform, %-l inch high, simple or branching from the base, more or 

 less hirsute throughout; leaves alternate, general outline broadly fan-shaped, 

 three-lobed (save 1-2 of the lowermost round or oval, entire or crenate, often 

 opposite), principal leaves also subdivided into 2-3 lobules, or deeply cleft- 

 toothed, the middle larger lobe broadly cuneate, three-clerf-lobed, the lateral 

 lobes into mostly two lobules; petioles about as long as the lamina, upper- 

 bractoid leaves becoming cuneate fan-form 5-3-two-cleft-lobules, including 

 the confluent stipules, and subsessile to sessile; stipules large aduate to the 

 petiole, stem-sheathing, entire, or 1-3 coarse teeth on each side; flowers ax- 

 illary, or becoming so, 2-1 from the axils of each leaf, pedicels unequal, about 

 %-l line long, calyx superior (?), herbaceous lobes 3-4, subulate, entire, about 

 as long as the spheroidal tube or capsule; flowers none (hitherto seen); the 

 globose capsule densely hirsute, somewhat constricted at the origin of the 

 calyx segments, which are tipped like the lobules or teeth of leaves and stip- 

 ules by a long spinulose hair, one-seeded (more?), seed glabrous, pyrifbrm. 

 Rarely a leaf is seen somewhat pinnatifid; those tiny plants are found flower- 

 ing and fruiting only three-lines high. 



Another almost microscopic plant of the prairies of Fresno, collected by Dr. 

 Eisen, is a new 



Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. VII.— 8, 



