UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



BOTANY 



Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 41-50, pis. 8-9 Issued June 13, 1914 



VARIATION IN OEXOTHEBA OVATA 



BY 

 KATHARINE LAYNE BRANDEGEE ^ 



This plant was brought to notice in the first volume of Torrey 

 and Gray's Flora of Xorih America, published in the year 1840. The 

 text is here given because to many botanists the book is not readily 

 accessible : 



§8. Stigma capitate or subclaA-ate: tube of the calj'x filiform, very long 

 (tardily deciduous), slightly dilated at the summit: stamens erect; the alternate 

 filaments usually shorter: anthers linear, fixed near the middle: acaulescent: 

 flowers rather small vellow. Perennial: flowers unchanged in fading. — Primu- 



LOPSKS. 



Oe. ovata (Nutt.! mss.): stemless, pubescent; leaves ovate or oblong, erose- 

 denticulate, tapering into a slender petiole; tube of the calyx nearly as long as 

 the leaves; the segments oblong-lanceolate, shorter than the roundish entire 

 petals; stamens almost equal; anthers linear, nearly as long as the filaments, 

 fixed near the middle; stigma small, somewhat clavate. 



In moist plains in the immediate vicinity of Monterey, California: common. 

 March. — Leaves almost exactly those of Viola primulae folia. Flowers bright 

 yellow, about an inch in diameter. Ovaries radical, obtuse: the capsules un- 

 known. Stigma somewhat clavate. Nutt. — Mr. Nuttall justly remarks, that the 

 present plant shows the insertion of the anthers and the relative length of the 

 filaments to be of less consequence in this genus than has been supposed. 



Mr. Nuttall collected the i)laiit in 18;](j. so carlv in the vear that 

 its most important characters were uiuleveloped. but though extending 

 along the coast from central California to southern Oregon, its im- 

 perfect description appears in later works, with little improvement, 

 even by local botanists living in its abundance. 



The species appi'ars to be confined to a narrow strip along the 

 seaboard. Tt has been occasionally reported from far inland, but in 

 such cases as I have seen, Oc. kcterantha, a plant of similar habit, had 

 been mistaken for it. 



