BORAGE FAMILY 583 



10. Cryptantha micromeres (A. Gray) Greene. Minute-flowered Cryptantha. 



Fig. 4274. 



Eritrichiutn micromeres A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 19: 90. 1883. 

 Krynitzkia micromeres A. Gray, op. cit. 20: 274. 1885. 

 Cryptantha micromeres Greene, Pittonia 1: 113. 1887. 



Stems simple below and erect, or branched from the base and branches ascending, 1-3 dm. 

 high divaricately short-hispid throughout. Leaves linear or oblong-linear, 1-4 cm. long, short- 

 hispid on both sides with ascending hairs, the upper side rather inconspicuously pustulate ; spikes 

 1-3 very slender, bractless, 2-8 cm. long; corolla minute, nearly tubular, about 0.5 mm. broad; 

 fruiting calyx barely over 1 mm. long, subglobose, early deciduous ; mature calyx-lobes ovate, 

 strongly connivent, slenderly hispid, the bristles in the midribs often minutely uncinate; nutlets 4, 

 triangular-ovoid, 0.7-1 mm. long, papillate on the odd slightly larger one, sometimes smooth; 

 style equaling or slightly surpassing the odd nutlet. 



Grassy hillsides. Upper Sonoran Zone; Marin and Amador Counties, California, to northwestern Lower 

 California; also on Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands. Type locality: Santa Cruz, California. April-July. 



11. Cryptantha maritima Greene. Guadalupe Cryptantha. Fig. 4275. 



Krynitzkia maritima Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. 1:204. 1885. 



Krynitzkia ramosissima Greene, op. cit. 203. August 1885; not A. Gray, January 1885. 



Cryptantha maritima Greene, Pittonia 1: 117. 1887. 



Stems loosely branched, 1-3.5 dm. high, rather sparsely strigose or sparsely hispid, brovvn 

 or reddish. Leaves narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate, acutish, hispid and conspicuously 

 pustulate; spikelets 1-6 cm. long, usually more or less crowded or glomerate at the ends of 

 the lateral branchlets, usually leafy-bracted throughout; corolla minute, tubular, 1.5-2 mm. 

 long, 0.5-1 mm. broad; fruiting calyx asymmetrical, 2-3.5 mm. long; mature calyx-lobes 

 linear-lanceolate, connivent, firm, three of the lobes hispid on the midrib and more or less 

 villous, especially on the margins; ovules 2; nutlets 1-2, heteromorphous, the odd nutlet fre- 

 quently the only one maturing, smooth, shining, and brownish, oblong-lanceolate, 1-2 mm. long, 

 persistent; consimilar nutlets, when present, grayish and muriculate, readily deciduous; style 

 about equaling consimilar nutlets. 



Dry washes and desert slopes, Sonoran Zones; Inyo County, California, south to Lower California, and 

 east to Nevada, Arizona, and Sonora. Type locality: Guadalupe Island, Lower California. April-May. 



Cryptantha maritima var. pilosa I. M. Johnston, Univ. Calif. Pub. Bot. 7:445. 1922. Calyx-lobes 

 densely white-villous. Same general range as the species. Type locality: Los Angeles Bay, Lower California. 



12. Cryptantha dumetorum Greene. Bush-loving Cryptantha. Fig. 4276. 



Krynitzkia dumetorum Greene ex A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 272. 1885. 



Cryptantha dumetorum Greene, Pittonia 1: 112. 1887. 



Cryptantha intermedia var. dumetorum Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 849. 1925. 



Stems becoming diffusely branched and at length sprawling or scrambling among low 

 bushes, very brittle, sparsely strigose. Leaves lanceolate, 2-4 cm. long, sparsely hispid, and 

 conspicuously pustulate ; spikes solitary or geminate, 5-10 cm. long, usually loosely flowered, 

 naked or sometimes with foliaceous bracts toward the base; corolla minute, limb about 1 mm. 

 broad ; calyx closelv appressed to rachis, 2-3 mm. long, asymmetrical, base very oblique ; mature 

 calyx-lobes connivent, the 3 outer deflexed-hispid on the thickened midrib; nutlets 4, granulate 

 and muriculate, heteromorphous, the odd one with base enlarged and distorting the calyx, 2-2) 

 mm. long, with a broad open groove, the 3 consimilar ones a little shorter, lanceolate and the 

 groove closed or very narrow ; style shorter or equaling the nutlets. 



Sandy valleys or hillsides, Sonoran Zones; western and central Mojave Desert, California, east to 

 southwestern Nevada. Type locality: Tehachapi Pass, Kern County. April-May. 



13. Cryptantha decipiens (M. E. Jones) Heller. Gravel Cryptantha. Fig. 4277. 



Krynitzkia decipiens M. E. Jones, Contr. West. Bot. No. 13: 6. 1910. 

 Cryptantha decipiens Heller, Muhlenbergia 8: 48. 1912. 



Stems 1-4 dm. high, slender, loosely branched, strigose and sometimes short-hispid. Leaves 

 few, linear, obtuse, 1-3 cm. long, strigose or short-hispid, pustulate; spikes slender, geminate 

 or rarely solitary or ternate, bractless, usually becoming loosely flowered, 4-10 cm. long; 

 corolla inconspicuous, less than 1 mm. broad; fruiting calyx ovoid to ovoid-oblong, strictly 

 ascending, 3-1 mm. long; mature calyx-lobes narrowly linear, connivent, with the tips usually 

 spreading, midrib thickened, usually conspicuously hirsute-hispid, margins strigose, the abaxial 

 lobe longer and more densely hirsute; nutlets 1 or rarely 2, next abaxial calyx-lobe, ovoid- 

 lanceolate. muriculate-granulate to tuberculate, usually brownish, convex on the back, rounded 

 on the sides, groove open or closed, dilated below into a definite areola; gynobase short, half 

 to a third as high as nutlet ; style very short, well surpassed by nutlet. 



Satidv or gravelly slopes. Lower Sonoran Zone; Mojave Desert, Kern and Inyo Counties, south 

 through the deserts to the southern boundary of the state, east to southwestern Nevada and western Arizona. 

 Type locality: Yucca, Arizona. March-May. 



