PRIMROSE FAMILY 71 



lumbia Eiver). Pratten's plant is not in the Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences at 

 Philadelphia. Nuttall's species, however, in the mind of Nuttall, rested on his own plant from the 

 Columbia River, and though not mentioned first by Durand, should properly be taken as the type. 



7. D. hendersonii Gray. California Mosquito Bills. Sailor Caps. Scapes 

 red or reddish, 9 to 14 inches high, from a strong cluster of fleshy-fibrous roots; leaf- 

 blades roundish-obovate to elliptic, the margin more or less crisped, 1 to 3 inches 

 long, on petioles I/2 to 2 times as long; umbels 3 to 13-flowered, the pedicels % to 3% 

 inches long; flowers 5 or sometimes 4-merous; calyx cleft into ovate-lanceolate 

 lobes; corolla-lobes oblong, 6 to 7 lines long, % to l^/^ (or 2) lines wide, pink-crim- 

 son, with a transverse yellow zone at base, which is edged above by white and 

 bounded below by a black-purple band; filament- tube black-purple, commonly 

 broader than long, sometimes slightly longer than broad; anthers linear or clavate, 

 2 lines long; capsule oblong or sliort-cylindric, circumscissile well below the sum- 

 mit, then valvate. 



Low slopes to high ridges in the foothills, 25 to 3000 feet : San Bernardino Mts; 

 Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo Co. to Siskiyou Co.; Sierra Nevada foothills 

 from Tulare Co. to Shasta Co. North to Oregon. The most common species in 

 California. It rarely occurs as high as 6700 feet. Feb. -Apr. 



Biol. note. — The very short perennial root-cro^vn in Dodecatheon hendersonii is somewhat 

 corm-like. It bears a cluster of fleshy-fibrous roots as in our other species generally and also pro- 

 duces tuberous rootlets or elongated fleshy bulblets which are borne on the sides, often in great 

 quantity. These bulblets are cast off in the autumn and in the next season each gives rise to a 

 single leaf, forming distinct plants, which do not flower, however, until the second or third year. 

 The bulblets are white and suggestive of the "rice-grain" bulblets of the Checker Lily (FritiUaria 

 lanceolata). The corolla not infrequently varies to white. 



Locs.— S. Cal.: Bear Valley, San Bernardino Mts. (Bull. S. Cal. Acad. 22:10). Coast 

 Ranges: Pozo Range, se. San Luis Obispo Co., Jepson 11,989; Monterey, N. E. Berg; Los Gatos, 

 Seller ; Smith Creek, Mt. Hamilton, Jepson 4197; Mt. Diablo, Jepson 9848; Mill Valley, Marin 

 Co., Jepson 14,584; Vaca Mts., Jepson 14,586; St. Helena, Jepson 14,587; Ukiah, Furdy ; Hupa 

 Mt., Tracy 8061; Cold Spr., 3 mi. sw. of Peanut, Trinity Co., Jepson 16,643; Quartz Valley, 

 Siskiyou Co., Butler 1230. Sierra Nevada foothills: betw. Oak Flat and Badger, Tulare Co., 

 H. P. Kelley; Columbia, Tuolumne Co., A. L. Grant 629; Jackson, Hansen 986; Pilot Hill, Eldo- 

 rado Co., Jepson 18,590 ; Shasta Creek, Shasta Co., BlanJ:inship. 



Refs.- — Dodecatheon HENDERSONn Gray, Bot. Gaz. 11:233 (1886), type loc. Tualatin plains. 

 Ore., Henderson. Meadia hendersonii Ktze-jBev. Gen. F\. 2:398 (1891). D. meadia var. hender- 

 sonii K. Brandegee, Zoe 1:20 (1890). D. meadia var. irevifolium Gray, Bot. Cal. 1:467 (1876), 

 "warmer parts of the state." D. cruciatum Greene, Pitt. 1:213 (1888), type loc. San Francisco, 

 Greene; (single individuals may bear both 4 and 5-merous flowers). D. hendersonii var. cmei- 

 atum Greene, Pitt. 2:75 (1890). D. hendersonii var. hansenii Greene, Erythea 3:71 (1895), 

 type loc. Sierra foothills in Amador Co., Hansen; leaves entire, narrower than in the species; 

 androecium shorter; anthers with spreading tips (ex char.). D. sanctarum Greene, Pitt. 5:113 

 (1903), type loc. s. Santa Lucia Mts., E. A. Plaskett, perhaps belongs here. 



2. PRIMULA L. 



Perennial herbs with basal leaves and scape-like stems bearing involucrate 

 umbels. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla salverform, its lobes obcordate or emarginate. 

 Stamens 5, included, the filaments short. Capsule 5-valved at the top, many- 

 seeded. — Species about 200, North America, Europe and Asia, and southern South 

 America. (Latin primus, first, because of the early flowering. ) 



1. P. suffrutescens Gray. Sierra Primrose. (Fig. 320.) Scape 2 to 4 inches 

 long, bearing an umbel of several flowers; leaves thicldy crowded on creeping stems, 

 % to 11/4 inches long, the blades cuneate-spatulate, toothed at apex, narrowed be- 

 low to broad petioles; corolla red, its tube surpa.ssing the calyx, its limb 1/2 inch 

 broad with spreading lobes. 



Crevices of rocks and open slopes, alpine, 7000 to 13,500 feet : Sierra Nevada 

 from Pluma.s Co. to Tulare Co.; Trinity Co. July. 



Locs. — Mt. Pleasant, Plumas Co., ace. P. G. Haddock; Castle Peak, Nevada Co., Sonne 214; 

 Clouds Rest, Chesnut 4- Drew; East Branch North Fork San Joaquin River, Kennedy; Minarets, 



