97 



BECKWITHIA, A NEW GENUS OF RANUNCULACE^E. 

 By Willis L. Jepson. 



Beckwithia. Acaulescent herbs, the scapes and divided leaves 

 from perennial root stocks. Flowers large, solitary, terminating 

 the naked scapes. Calyx regular, of five distinct sepals, persistent. 

 Corolla not known. Receptacle globose. Pistils numerous, becom- 

 ing large utricular flattened achenes. Seed elongated-linear, borne 

 near the base of the ovary. Embryo slender, in the lower part of 

 the seed, embedded in abundant endosperm. 



B. Austinae. Low glabrous herb, the foliage somewhat glaucous. 

 Root stock stoutish, 1 inch long or less, densely covered with fleshy- 

 fibrous roots; scapes 2h to 3 inches high, exceeding the leaves, 

 sheathed at base (i. e., below the surface of the ground) with the 

 dark-brown persistent leaf-bases of previous seasons; leaves orbicu- 

 lar or cordate in outline, 1 to 1^ inches broad, 3 times ternately 

 divided into oblong, acute, entire or sparingly-toothed segments; 

 petioles 1 or 2 inches long; calyx § to 14; inches in diameter; 

 sepals orbicular or elliptic, + inch long, greenish, with many parallel 

 nerves and with scarious margins; petals and stamens unknown; 

 achenes follicle-like structures, with membranaceous pericarp, broadly 

 obovate or elliptic, the ventral margin nearly straight, 5 lines long; 

 style persistent, recurved, and hook-like ; seed occupying but a small 

 portion of the cavity, 2 lines long, anatropous, the hilum just above 

 the slender base of the seed. 



Collected by Mrs. R. M. Austin, who has for many years devoted 

 her leisure to botanizing in northeastern California, and Mrs. C. C. 

 Bruce, in decomposed lava on the western treeless slope of Lake City 

 Pass, Modoc County, California, June, 1898. No. 21 34. A single 

 specimen in fruit was sent to the Herbarium of the University of 

 California in the latter part of June, by Mrs. C. C. Bruce, and 

 early in October the writer was favored with additional material 

 in the shape of a full sheet of fruiting specimens. 



When the plant, a single specimen, first came to us in June last, 



Contributions from the Botanical Laboratories of the University of Cali- 

 fornia, No. 1. 



Erythea, Vol. VI, No. 10 [24 October, 1898]. 



