172 Nelson — New Plants from Nevada. 



8-14 mm. long; bracts simple (except possibly the lowest), oval to oblong, 

 subcirrhate; sepals short, ovate, long-acuminate ; petals golden yellow, 

 narrowly elliptic, about 5 mm. long, much surpassed by the stamens; stipe 

 at length 15 mm. long, usually a little longer than the pedicel; style sub- 

 ulate, 2 mm. or less long; capsule rhomboidal, when fully developed 8 mm, 

 broad, a little less in length; seeds subspherical, 2-3 mm. long, straw- 

 colored, smooth. 



I would pronounce this Dr. Watson's C. longipes grandiflora if he had not 

 said that the seeds of that were dark colored and rugose or pitted. Mr. 

 W. H. Hillman, while he was professor of botany at the University of 

 Nevada, evidently studied the species verj"^ carefully. One of the sheets 

 bears excellent drawings of the floral parts with the note, "possibly a new 

 species." The sheet also bears the note, " common — giving the bright yel- 

 low to the hills in May." Nevertheless, of the four specimens at hand, all 

 but one are from Reno, by Hillman, by Cowgill, and by Jones, and dis- 

 tributed as C. longippn. Mr. Jones also collected it the same year (1897) at 

 Columbus, Nevada, but distributed it then as C. oblusifolia. 



Cleomella taurocranos sp. nov. 



Freely branched from a stout semiwoody tap-root, the main branches 

 again freely branching from near the base, the branches ascending and the 

 whole forming a subspherical plant 2-8 dm. in diameter; stems pale, nearly 

 smooth, floriferous nearly to the base; leaves short-hispid, pale-green, on 

 petioles as long or longer than the leaflets; leaflets oval to oblong or ob- 

 lanceolate, 5-10 mm. long; the stipules a small fascicle of bristles ; flowers 

 solitary-axillary, suiall ; sepals minute, terminatiug in a long bristle ; petals 

 oblong, 4-5 nun. long, narrowed to a short claw ; filaments not exceeding 

 the petals ; style about 2 mm. long ; the capsule smooth, about 4 mm. high 

 or long, 10 mm. broad ; the valves enormously produced laterally, the 

 broadly dome-shaped bases narrowed into the slightly deflexed horns ; the 

 fruiting pedicels about 8 mm. loug, somewhat exceeding the slenderer re- 

 curved stipe; seeds nearly spherical, smooth and pale. 



This strongly marked species is allied to C. obtusifolld but is at once recog- 

 nized by its remarkable resemblance to the common tumble weed Ania- 

 rnnlhus albns. In habit, color, general aspect of leaf and pubescence it is 

 strongly suggestive of that. In its remarkable fruits one can not fail to 

 recognize it. They are strongly suggestive of a bull or bison skull. The 

 broad bases of the valves forming the face, on either side of which are the 

 slightly depressed horns. But one sj^ecimen is known to me, Mr. C. R 

 Orcutt's No. 1484, from a clay hill, Colorado Desert, San Diego County, 

 California, June 23, 1888. Type in the Missouri Botanical Garden. 



Cleomella obtusifolia pubescens var. nov. 



Erect, 2-3 dm. high, branched from the crown of the tap-root, the main 

 branches bearing numerous divaricate branchlets, all striate and more or 

 less roughened with short fragile bristles ; leaves very numerous and 

 crowded, somewhat roughened with kinked viscid hairs, the petiole shorter 

 than the small leaflets ; the leaflets 5-8 mm. long, oval, ovate or oblanceo- 



