158 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



shaped, attached to the border of the semi-circular disk: 

 anthers tAvo, the posterior large, fertile, extrorse, the 

 anterior petaloid, nearly equal in length, slightly exceed- 

 ing the pistil which it embraces: filament about as long 

 as the anther: stigma dilated, cup-shaped; ovary clavate, 

 6-10 mm. long, 4-celled: capsule opening at the top by four 

 localicidal teeth: seeds numerous, clavate-oblong, minutely 

 'scabrous, ventrally attached below the middle, apex down- 

 ward. — Base of Cliffs, Comondu Canon. 



Baillon in Histoire des Plants, vol. vi, unites with Lopezia 

 both Semeiandra and Riesenhachia , and his views are strength- 

 ened especially in regard to the last genus, by this species, the 

 fruit of which is almost exactly that of Presl's figure. The 

 flower, however, is that of Lopezia, and less irregular than 

 the typical species explains in a measure their structure. 

 " The claws of the posterior petals glandular at the apex," 

 being here united as a semicircular disk adnate to three of 

 the sepals, are plainly to be regarded as a modification of 

 the disk which in many of the Oiiagraceae lines the calyx- 

 tube. The stamens show none of the tendency to unite in 

 a tube about the pistil, which in some of the species 

 approaches them to Semeiandra. 



Gaura, sp. Three feet high, annual: leaves broadly-lan- 

 ceolate, repandly toothed or entire, pubescent. — Gardens 

 of Comondu. 



GoNGYLOCARPQS FRUTicuLOSUs (Benth.). (Plate v). G.fru- 

 esce^is Ourran, Proc. Cal. Acad., Ser. 2, i. Gaura? fridiculosa 

 Benth., Bot. Sulph. 15; Walp. Kep. v, 670. Mr^. Bentham 

 considered the remarkable method of fruiting in this, as well 

 as in the allied species, to be the result of injury or disease 

 — an opinion which, it is needless to say, can no longer be 

 held. The fruit certainly persists for many years; how long 

 it is difficult to determine. Dead plants retain in the woody 

 envelopes apparently all the seed ever perfected. The 

 small spreading or decumbent bushes are 2-3 feet high in 



