596 BORAGINACEAE 



44. Cryptantha flaccida (Dougl.) Greene. Flaccid Cryptantha. Fig. 4308. 



Myosotis flaccida Dougl. ex Lehm. Stirp. Pug. 2: 22. 1830. 



Eritrichium oxycaryum A. Gray, Proc. Araer. Acad. 10: 58. 1874. 



Krynitzkia oxycarya A. Gray, op. cit. 20: 269. 1885. 



Cryptantha flaccida Greene, Pittonia 1: 115. 1887. 



Cryptantha multicaule Howell, Fl. N.W. Amer. 487. 1901. Not A. Nels. 1900. 



Cryptantha Howellii A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 34: 30. 1902. 



Cryptantha Lyallii Brand, Rep. Spec. Nov. 24: 57. 1927. 



Stem strictly erect, ascendingly branched above, or sometimes from the base, 2-5 dm. high, 

 strigose with encrusted hairs. Leaves very narrowly linear to linear-oblanceolate, 2-6 cm. 

 long, 1-2 or rarely 3 mm. wide, strict or ascending, rather densely and finely strigose; spikes 

 solitary to quinate, naked, usually rather stiff, 4-8 cm. or as much as 16 cm. long; corolla 1-4 

 mm. broad; fruiting calyx oblong-ovoid, 2-5 mm. long, strictly and closely erect; mature 

 calyx-lobes linear-lanceolate, closely connivent above with the tips spreading, midrib armed 

 with spreading, coarse, encrusted, arcuate or uncinate bristles, margins ciliate or strigose, outer 

 lobe longest and most conspicuously bristly; only 1 nutlet maturing, ovate-lanceolate and 

 rostrate-acuminate, only slightly compressed, smooth; groove closed above, dilated at base 

 to form a very small areola; gynobase very low and scarcely manifest; style one-third to 

 one-half the height of the nutlet. 



Hillslopes, Arid Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones; Washington and adjacent Idaho to southern Cali- 

 fornia. Type locality: east of the Cascades in the Columbia River Basin. Collected by Douglas. April-June. 



45. Cryptantha sparsiflora Greene. Slender Cryptantha. Fig. 4309. 



Krynitskia sparsiflora Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. 1: 203. 1885. 

 Cryptantha sparsiflora Greene, Pittonia 1: 116. 1887. 



Stem very slender, with usually few ascending branches, 1-3 dm. high, sparsely strigose. 

 Leaves narrowly linear, 1-3 cm. long, about 1 mm. v^de, strigose, the lower often opposite; 

 spikes solitary or geminate, slender, becoming loosely flowered and 2-6 cm. long, bractless or 

 sometimes with 1 or 2 bracts near the base; corolla minute, less than 1 mm. broad; fruitmg 

 calyx 2-3 mm. long, ovate to ovate-oblong, ascending, early deciduous; mature calyx-lobes 

 linear-lanceolate, somewhat connivent, midrib armed with short, stout, uncmate hairs, margins 

 sparsely ciliate; ovules 4, only 1 maturing; nutlet 1, ovate, acute or short-acuminate, decidedly 

 compressed, smooth, 2 mm. long, low-convex dorsally, angled on the margin; groove closed 

 and broadly forked near the base; gynobase low; style one-third to one-half the height of nutlet. 



Rocky slopes, Upper Sonoran Zone; Inner Coast Ranges, Stanislaus and San Benito Counties and the foot- 

 hills of the Sierra Nevada from Mariposa County to Kern County, Calif onia. Type locality: possibly in the 

 Tehachapi Mountains. Collected by Mrs. Curran, but collecting data uncertain. April-May. 



46. Cryptantha affinis (A. Gray) Greene. Common Cryptantha. Fig. 4310. 



Krynitzkia affinis A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 270. 1885. 



Cryptantha affinis Greene, Pittonia 1: 119. 1887. 



Cryptantha geminata Greene, loc. cit. 



Cryptantha Eastwoodiae St. John, Fl. S.E. Washington 342. 1937. 



Stems usually with few ascending branches mostly above the middle or sometimes more or 

 less profusely branched from the base, 1-4 dm. high, pubescent throughout with short upwardly 

 curved hairs and also with scattered ascending or spreading hirsute-hispid hairs. Leaves nar- 

 rowly to broadly oblanceolate, mostly 3-6 mm. broad, obtuse or rounded at apex, rather sparsely 

 short-hispid and minutely pustulate ; spikes solitary or geminate, 2-8 cm. long or rarely longer, 

 usually with a few foliaceous bracts below, becoming loosely flowered; corolla minute, about 

 1 5 mm broad ; fruiting calyx 2 . 5-4 mm. long, and about as broad, compressed ; mature calyx- 

 lobes somewhat connivent, midrib little thickened, on the outer lobe especially sparsely hispid, 

 margins appressed-hirsute ; nutlets 4, similar, smooth and polished, ovate, obliquely compressed, 

 often mottled 2-2.5 mm. long, low-convex on the back, rounded on the sides; groove distinctly 

 eccentric, closed, simple or shortly forked at base ; style shorter or nearly as high as the nutlets. 



Usually in sandy or rocky soils. Arid Transition Zone; eastern Washington south, mainly east of the Cascades 

 to eastern Oregon, the North Coast Ranges, and in the Siskiyou Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada, south to the 

 Cuiamaca Mountams, California, east to Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming. Type locality: "E. side of the Cascades 

 near lat. 49°." Collected by Lyall. June-Sept. 



47. Cryptantha glomeriflora Greene. Truckee Cryptantha. Fig. 4311. 



Cryptantha glomeriflora Greene, Pittonia 1: 116. 1887. 



Stems erect with a few ascending branches, 3-10 cm. high, or commonly diffusely branched 

 and spreading, whitish strigose. Leaves 5-15 mm. long, linear-oblong to lanceolate-oblong, ap- 

 pressed-hispidulous ; flowers in glomerules or 2 or 3 in the axils of the leaves and at the ends 

 of the branchlets; corolla minute, the lobes ascending; mature calyx 1-1.5 mm. long, lobes 

 linear-lanceolate, hispidulous and bristly with stout straight bristles; nutlets solitary, ovate 

 below, more or less abruptly attenuate at apex, smooth, shiny, light gray more or less speckled 

 with brown, 1.5 mm. long, rounded on the back and somewhat keeled on the narrowed apex; 

 ventral groove a little off center, closed, opening at base into the sunken areola. 



Mountain meadows and slopes, upper Arid Transition and Canadian Zones; Sierra Nevada from Nevada 

 County to Tulare and Inyo Counties, also White Mountains, California. Type locality: "Borders of a pond 

 two miles below Truckee," Nevada County, California. Tune-Sept. 



