456 



record accompanying one is simply " California, Rev. A. Fitch/^ 

 while the other was collected by Dr, Parry when on the Mexican 

 Boundary Survey, "between 32° and 36° N. Lat., and Ii4°-I2i° 

 W. Long." 



Professor Trelease referred with some doubt, both the original 

 specimens of Mr. Nuttall and the later ones from California to his 

 Oxalis corniadata var. (?) macrantha^ which position, in the light 

 of recent material and our present knowledge of geographic dis- 

 tribution, cannot be maintained. The species is beautifully dis- 

 tinct, and in addition to other characters, the pod is diagnostic, as 

 Mr. Nuttall intimates,t differing from that of all other relatives in 

 its short conic form. As descriptions of the plant are not easy of 

 access I append the following : 



Oxalis Suksdorfii Trelease, Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 4: 89. 1888. 



Oxalis pumila Nutt. ; T. & G. Fl. N. A. i: 212, 183. Not 



D'Urv. 1826. 



Perennial by a slender horizontal or creeping woody rootstock, 

 caulescent, low and bushy or much elongated, somewhat pilose or 

 sparingly villous. Stems ascending or decumbent, .5-4 dm. long, 

 simple or nearly so ; leaves palmately 3-foliolate, 2-3 cm. broad, us- 

 ually glabra te except the ciliate edge; petioles slender, 3-8 cm. 

 long; stipules obsolete, or a narrow dilation; leaflets broader than 

 long, sharply notched, the lobes usually unequal, ciliate; peduncles 

 usually surpassing the leaves ; pedicels forming umbellate cymes, 

 commonly 2, subtended by linear-subulate bracts; flowers usually 

 bright yellow, about 2 cm. broad ; sepals oblong or oblong-lan- 

 ceolate, 4-5 mm. long, obtuse, villous, erect or ascending; petals 

 obovate, 12-15 mm. long, undulate; filaments pilose; capsule 

 conic, 8-1 £ mm. long, about twice as long as the sepals, usually 

 pubescent; seed oval in outline, nearly 2.5 mm. long, its tubercles 

 almost united into continuous transverse ridges. 



Oregon and California. 



The second species described by Mr. Nuttall in this connection, 

 under the name Oxalis pilosa is just as worthy of specific rank as 

 Oxalis Suksdorfii. It is apparently rarer ; however the scarcity of 

 it in our herbaria may be due to the fact that some collectors are 

 inclined to pass by apparently well-known species in the 

 field. The history of this species is shorter than that of Oxalis 



* Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, 4 : 88. 

 \T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1 : 212. 



