84 GENTIANACEAE 



Locs. — Shasta Co.: Redding, BlanhinsMp ; Olinda, Blankinship ; Anderson, Alice King. 

 Tehama Co.: HenlejTille (10 mi. w. of Corning), Virginia Bailey. Coast Eanges: Hydesville, 

 Humboldt Co., Tra'ci/ 3583; Dobbyn Creek, Bloeksburg region, Humboldt Co., Tracy 13,902; 

 Mendociuo-Noyo coastal plain, Bolander 4726; Ukiah, Lemmon; Corte Madera, Marin Co., Eeller 

 7368; Martinez, Chesnut # Drew ; Pt. Richmond, Contra Costa Co., Davy 6516; Thousand Oaks, 

 Berkeley, Jepson; Santa Cruz, Anderson. Sierra Nevada foothills and their bordering rolling 

 plains: Kentucky House, South Fork Calaveras River, Jepson 10,040; Copperopolis, Calaveras 

 Co., Tracy 5591 ; Oakdale (4 mi. s.). Hoover 491 ; Snelling, Merced Co., aec. Hoover. 



Refs. — MiCROCALA QUADRANGUi^ABis Griseb. ; DC, Prodr. 9:63 (1845) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. 

 Cal. 380 (1901), ed. 2, 321 (1911), Man. 761 (1925). Gentiana quadrangularis Lam., Diet. 2:645 

 (1790), type loc. Lima, Peru, Donibey. 



2. CENTAURIUM HUl. 



Low erect leafy annuals with sessile leaves. Flowers 5 or sometimes 4-merous, 

 in cymes. Calyx deeply parted, its lobes narrow, carinate. Corolla salverform, 

 pink or rose-color, the stamens inserted on its throat. Filaments slender; anthers 

 twisting spirally after shedding their pollen and commonly exserted. Style fili- 

 form, deciduous; stigmas oblong to fan-shaped. Capsule oblong-ovate to fusiform, 

 1-celled, but the seed-bearing edges of the valves more or less approximate in the 

 center. Seeds oblong or spherical, reticulate-pitted. — Species about 20, North and 

 South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. (Latin centum, a hundred, and aurium, 

 gold piece, certain species valued medicinally.) 



Basal leaves in a dense tuft; outer North Coast Range 1. C. umhellatum. 



Basal leaves not tufted. 



Anthers oblong ; corolla-lobes % to % as long as the tube. 

 Flowers all on pedicels. 



Corolla-lobes oblong, 1 to 2 lines long ; pedicels slender ; cismontane S. Cal. (infre- 

 quent) and transmontane deserts 2.C. exaltatum. 



Corolla-lobes ovate to broadly oblong, 2 to 3 lines long ; pedicels stoutish ; coastal 



(Mendocino Co. to Santa Barbara Co.) 3. C. muMenhergii, 



Flowers in the forks sessile or subsessile, the others sessile or shortly pediceled ; corolla- 

 lobes 1 to 2 lines long; North Coast Ranges, Sacramento Valley and n. Sierra 



Nevada foothills 4. C. fioribundum. 



Anthers linear ; corolla-lobes mostly 3 to 7 lines long, % to nearly as long as the tube ; flowers 

 pediceled to subsessile. 

 Stigmas spatulate-fanshaped; style very shortly branched; S. Cal. and Sierra Nevada.... 



5. C. venustmn. 

 Stigmas short, not spatulate; style not branched; Coast Ranges 6. C. trichanthum. 



1. C. umbellatum Gilib. European Centaury. Stems erect, strictly branched, 

 10 to 16 inches high, the branches ending in dense cymes; basal leaves in a dense 

 tuft, the blades broadly oblong, 1 to 1% inches long, 5 to 8 lines wide; blades of the 

 cauline leaves mostly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, % to IV2 inches long; flowers 

 numerous, nearly sessile; corolla rose-color, its lobes ovate, obtusish or subacute, 

 214 to 2% lines long, about % a.s long a-s tlie tube; stigmas oval. 



Introduced European species, naturalized on dry flats or sand bars, 10 to 500 

 feet : near the coast, Mendocino Co. to Del Norte Co. July-Aug. 



Locs. — Little Lagoon, Big River, Mendocino Co., Jepson 17,800; Fort Bragg, IF. C. Mathews 

 143 ; Dobbj-n Creek, Bloeksburg region, Humboldt Co., Tracy 13.347 ; Myers, South Fork Eel 

 River, Jepson 12,361; Bull Creek, South Fork Eel River, Jepson 16,424; Blue Slide, Van Duzen 

 River, Tracy 9610; betw. Willow Creek and Hupa, Jepson 2022; Wakefield, 4 mi. n. of Crescent 

 City, Jepson 9386. 



Refs. — Centauritjm umbellatum Gilib., Fl. Lithuanica 1:35 (1781). Gentiana centanrium 

 L., Sp. PI. 229 (1753), type from Europe. Erythraea centanrium. Pers., Syn. 1 :283 (1805). 



2. C. exaltatum Wight. Desert Centaury. Stem very slender, very strict, 

 (3 or) 8 to 14 inches high; blades of the basal leaves oblong, 4 to 15 lines long, those 

 of the cauline lanceolate to linear, 5 to 12 lines long; flowers on elongated ( Y^ to 2^^ 

 inches long) pedicels in a loose cyme; corolla pale pink, 6 to 7 lines long, its lobes 

 1 to 2 lines long. 



