296 HYDROPHYL.LACEAE 



14. ROMANZOFFIA Cham. 



Low and delicate perennial herbs with the aspect of some species of Saxifraga. 

 Stems slightly scapelike, the leaves mostly basal, with the eauline few and alternate. 

 Leaf-blades round-cordate, creuately lobed, long-petioled. Flowers loosely race- 

 mose, sometimes with a few reduced bracts. Calyx 5-parted into nearly distinct 

 calyx-lobes. Corolla white, broadly funnelform. Stamens unequal, inserted on 

 the base of the corolla-tube. Style filiform, entire; stigma small. Capsule 2-ceUed 

 or nearly so, the thickened placentae meeting or approximate in the center. Seeds 

 numerous. — Species 5, Pacific North America and Asia. (Count Nikolai von 

 Romanzoff , promoter of the Russian voyage of Kotzebue which visited the Califor- 

 nia coast in 1816 ; dedicated to him by Adelbert von Chamisso, the German poet 

 and botanist, who accompanied the expedition.) 



Plants with a cluster of fleshy tubers at the base of the stem ; petioles not dilated at base. 



Herbage glabrous; racemes soon loose, the fruiting pedicels spreading, 3 to 8 (or 13) lines 

 long ; calyx % to nearly % as long as corolla, its lobes wingless ; valves of capsule 



splitting at apex in age 1. B. californica. 



Herbage villous; racemes moderately dense, the fruiting pedicels suberect, 1% to 2 (or 4) 

 lines long ; calyx % to % as long as corolla, its lobes in fruit mth a very narrow 



median wing; valves of the capsule slightly retuse at apex, not splitting in age 



2. B. tracyi. 

 Plants destitute of tubers; petioles bulbous-dilated at base of basal leaves 3. B. sitcliensis. 



1. R. californica Greene. Stems slender, 4 to 10 inches high, arising from a 

 filiform rootstock bearing a conspicuous cluster of tubers, the tubers fleshy, scale- 

 like, matted-hairy ; herbage glabrous ; leaf-blades ^/o to 1% inches broad, on petioles 

 1 to 4 inches long; pedicels spreading, soon longer than the flowers; calyx-lobes 

 linear or lanceolate, i g to nearly % as long as the corolla and exceeded by the cap- 

 sule ; corolla 4 to 6 lines long ; capsule oblong, 2 to 4 lines long. 



Moist rocks in shady places near the coast line, 50 to 2500 feet : Santa Cruz Co. 

 to Siskiyou Co. Apr.-May. 



Biol. note. — At the base of the stem in EomanzofBa californica there is borne a conspicuous 

 cluster of fleshy tubers, — two or three to seven in number. These tubers are flattish, ovatish or 

 orbicular in outline, 3 to 6 lines long and are covered ^vith a rather dense or matted coat of brown- 

 ish hairs. They are morphologically fleshy bud scales. It would seem as if the rootstock structure, 

 though very slender but thus associated with so heavy a cluster of tubers, must represent a plant 

 of perennial duration. The flowers of the raceme, especially the lower ones, are often replaced 

 by bulblets which serve for vegetative reproduction. 



Our California plant, as cited below, has been hitherto, in Californian floras, referred to 

 Eomanzoffia sitchensis Bong. It is found in ranges near the coast and does not occur anywhere 

 in the inner Coast Range. 



Loes. — Governors Camp, Big Basin, Santa Cruz Mts. ; Crystal Springs Lake, San Mateo Co., 

 Bloomer ; San Bruno, Kellogg ; Mt. Tamalpais above Eoss Valley, Jepson 20,997; Cataract Gulch, 

 Mt. Tamalpais, Virginia Bailey; Kneeland Prairie, Humboldt Co., Tracy 6196; Willow Creek 

 Caiion, n. Humboldt Co., Tracy (3645; Trinidad, n. Humboldt coast, Tracy 2970; Prairie Creek, 

 Humboldt Co., Tracy 8424; Somes Bar, Siskiyou Co., Tracy 16,269. 



Eefs. — EoM.iNZOFPiA CALIFORNICA Greene, Pitt. 5:39 (1902), "San Mateo Co. [Cal.] to per- 

 haps Oregon." B. sitchensis Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 440 (1901), ed. 2, 343 (1911), Man. 835 

 (1925) ; not Bong. E. mendoeina Greene, Pitt. 5:40 (1902), type from Mendocino Co., Vasey. 

 B. spergulina Greene, Pitt. 5:41 (1902), type loc. Pilarcitos Creek, San Mateo Co., Davy 1065. 



2. R. tracyi Jepson sp. n. Stems few or several from the base, ascending, 2i/2 

 to 7 inches long, arising from a cluster of compressed tubers, the tubers matted- 

 hairy; stems and petioles, and also the pedicels, calyces and capsules villous, the 

 stems often densely so, the upper parts slightly glandular; leaf-blades thinly 

 pubescent, 3 to 9 lines broad; racemes terminal on the stems and branches, mod- 

 erately dense, I/2 to 2 inches long in fruit; fruiting pedicels 1% to 2 (or 4) lines 

 long ; calj'x-lobes lanceolate, Y-2 to % as long as the corolla, in fruit accrescent, the 

 midrib developing a very narrow vertical wing ; corolla 2V2 to 3 lines long ; capsule 

 elliptic, 3 lines long, the valves obscurely retuse at apex. — (Caules a basi pauei vel 



