BORAGE FAMILY 575 



apex, 2 mm. long, strongly incurved, transverse rugae usually prominent, forming rectangular 

 finely papillate intervals; scar medial, annular, and usually slightly raised. 



Plains and hillsides, in gravelly adobe or even alkaline soils, Upper Sonoran Zone; Sierra Nevada foothills, 

 Siskiyou County, Sacramento Valley and the South Coast Ranges from Contra Costa County, southward to ban 

 Diego County and the Channel Islands, California. Type locality: "In arenosis vallis Sacramento. Collected 

 by Hartweg on his trip from Sacramento to Chico. March-May. 



10. Plagiobothrys Torreyi A. Gray. Torrey's Popcorn Flower. Fig. 4261. 



Eritrichium Torreyi A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 10: 58. 1874. 



Plagiobothrys Torreyi A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 284. 1885. 



Cryptantha Torreyi Rydb. Mem. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 331. 1900. 



Plagiobothrys Torreyi var. diffusa I. M. Johnston, Contr. Gray Herb. No. 68: 71. 1923. 



Stems slender, 1 to several from the base, sometimes few-branched and erect or ascending 

 but usually diffusely branched and decumbent, 5-20 cm. long, hirsute with spreading hairs. 

 Leaves linear-oblong to oblong or the uppermost oblong-ovate, sessile, 5-20 mm. long, the basal 

 narrowed at base often longer, green, rather sparsely hirsute-hispid on both sides ; flowers soli- 

 tary in the axils of foliaceous bracts; calyx 2.5 mm. long in fruit, hirsute and sparsely hispid; 

 corolla 1.5-2 mm. long, equaling or exceeding the calyx-lobes; nutlets shining, broadly ovoid, 

 abruptly pointed at apex, keeled on the back but faintly so below the middle, the sides with 

 about 7 low ridges with narrow sinuses between them, smooth or with few scattering whitish 

 tubercles. 



Usually in moist soils, open woods or edges of mountain meadows. Arid Transition and Canadian Zones; 

 central and southern Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains, California. Type locality: Yosemite Valley. 

 May-Aug. 



11. Plagiobothrys shastensis Greene. Shasta Popcorn Flower. Fig. 4262. 



Plagiobothrys shastensis Greene ex. A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 285. 1885. 



Stems erect, 1 to few arising from the tuft of basal leaves, simple or branching above, 1-3 

 dm. high, pilose. Basal leaves linear-oblanceolate, 1-3 cm. long, rather thinly appressed-hirsute 

 above, or rather densely so near the margin, the hairs pointed at apex, pustulate at base, lower 

 surface glabrous or nearly so; cauline leaves linear, sessile, 5-10 mm. long, rather densely ap- 

 pressed-hirsute; spikes often geminate, loosely flowered, 1-10 cm. long, bracteate throughout; 

 calyx cleft to the middle, about 4 mm. long in flower, 6-7 mm. in fruit, hirsute, often ferruginous 

 when voung; corolla 2.5 mm. broad, lobes 1 mm. long, ascending; nutlets broadly ovoid, some- 

 what 4-angled, abruptly acute, 2-2.5 mm. long, shining, keeled on the back and on the lateral 

 angles, the intervals between the keels marked by broad flat transverse ridges separated by 

 narrow line-like grooves. 



Open hillsides and gravelly flats or washes. Upper Sonoran and Arid Transition Zones; a rather uncommon 

 species occurring on both sides of the Cascades, southern Oregon to northern Inner Coast Ranges and Sierra 

 Nevada foothills to Merced County, California. Type locality: "California, in valley at the base of Mount Shasta, 

 E. L. Greene, coll. 1876." An apparent duplicate of the type in the Dudley Herbarium is labelled in Greenes 

 handwriting "Shasta River, Siskiyou Co. June 10, 1876." May-July. 



12. Plagiobothrys tenellus (Nutt.) A. Gray. Slender Popcorn Flower. Fig. 4263. 



Myosotis tenella Nutt. ex Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. 3: 295. 1851. 



Plagiobothrys tenellus A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 283. 1885. 



Plagiobothrys parvulus Greene, Pittonia 3: 261. 1898. 



Plagiobothrys asper Greene, op. cit. 262. 



Plagiobothrys echinatiis Greene, loc. cit. 



Plagiobothrys colorans Greene, loc. cit. 



Plagiobothrys humifusus M. E. Jones, Contr. West. Bot. No. 13: 7. 1910. 



Plagiobothrys tenellus var. parvulus subvar. humifusus Brand, Pflanzenreich A^'': 108. 1931. 



Stems slender, erect, freely branching from the base or sometimes simple, 5-25 cm. high, 

 soft-villous with spreading and reflexed hairs. Leaves of the basal rosette oblong-lanceolate or 

 oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse or acutish, villous, 1-2.5 cm. long, cauline distinct, the lower ones 

 linear-oblong, the upper becoming lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, gradually reduced in size; 

 spikes elongated in age and loosely flowered, only the lowest flowers bracteate; calyx densely 

 short-villous with whitish or more often rufous hairs, about 3 mm. high in age; corolla-limb 

 about 2-3 mm. broad; nutlets 1.5-2 mm. long, thick-cruciform, light-colored, sharply ridged 

 dorsally and on the margins, the ridges commonly tuberculate. 



Grassy slopes and meadows. Arid Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones; British Columbia and Idaho south 

 to northern Lower California, Utah and Arizona. Type locality: "Sunny rocky slopes of the mountains along 

 the valley of Coeur d'Aleine River," Idaho. March-June. 



20. EREMOCARYA Greene, Pittonia 1 : 58. 1887. 



Small, hirsute-canescent, densely branched annual, the root imparting a deep purple 

 stain. Leaves forming a rosulate basal tuft, the numerous racemose branches repeatedly 

 dichotomous and leafy-bracted. Flowers in dense leafy-bracted racemes, with short fili- 

 form pedicels. Calyx 5-parted to the base, campanulate in fruit and persistent. Corolla 

 white. Style persistent, becoming enlarged in fruit and broader than the capitate stigma. 

 Gynobase columnar and simulating the style. Nutlets 4, erect and uniform, attached their 

 whole length; groove open, little dilated at base. [Name Greek, meaning desert and 

 nutlet.] 



A monotypic genus of the arid southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. 



