BORAGE FAMILY 329 



Peak, Hoover 4454. It is closely allied to Oreocarya nubigena, the nutlets of which are essentially 

 similar in shape, surface features and general appearance. Comparison with fully mature ma- 

 terial of O. nubigena, when collected, will have decisive effect on the status of 0. crymophila. 



Eefs. — Oreocarya crymophila Jepson & Hoover. Cryptantha crymophila Jtn., Jour. Am. 

 Arb. 21:65 (1940), type loc. Red Peak, Alpine Co., Hoover 4193. 



3. 0. humilis Greene. Stems few, erect or ascending, leafy, 3 to 9 inches liigli, 

 arising from the densely leafy root-crown; herbage (especially the leaves) silky- 

 tomentose and also spreading-hispid throughout ; leaves % to 1% inches long, the 

 blades obovate to spatulate, obtuse, drawn down to petioles 1 to 2 times as long; 

 flowers in a spike-like or c.ylindric thyrse, leafy-braeteate below ; calyx-lobes ovate- 

 lanceolate, densely hispid ; corolla white, 4 lines long, the limb 3 lines broad and 

 crests prominent, its tube not exceeding or little exceeding the calyx ; nutlets 

 crowded dorsally with fine tubercles or fine short rugae or both. 



Montane ridges and caiions, 5000 to 8000 (or 10,400) feet: Sierra Nevada (east 

 side or easterly summits) from Mono Co. to Modoc Co. and eastern Siskiyou Co. ; 

 North Coast Ranges in southwestern Siskiyou Co. East to Nevada, north to Oregon. 

 June-July. 



Geog. note. — Oreocarya humilis, mainly transmontane or essentially so in the central Sierra 

 Nevada and northward, is mostly high montane. It occurs at 9900 feet on the slopes east of Blue 

 Lake, Virginia Lakes basin, western Mono County (Peirson 11,184), at 10,400 feet near Moat 

 Lake in the same region (Peirson) and in Sonora Pass (D. R. Goddard 1418) at about 9500 feet. 

 Thence northward as follows: bctw. Truckee and Tahoe, Placer Co., Sonne 391; Conner Pass, 

 Nevada Co., Kellogg; Castle Peak, Nevada Co., Sonne; Diamond Mt. (sw. of), ne. Plumas Co., 

 Stebbins 4" Jenkins 22(57. More northerly stations (North Fork Parker Creek, Warner Mts., 

 Taylor # Bryant; Deep Creek, Warner Mts., L. S. Smith 1114; Caldwell Butte, e. Siskiyou Co., 

 Applegate 9486; Mt. Eddy, sw. Siskiyou Co., ace. Jour. Arn. Arb. 20:394, — 1939) represent 

 Cryptantha (Oreocarya) subretusa Jtn., a newly proposed unit. Apparent differences between 

 Oreocarya humilis Greene and C. subretusa Jtn. would seem to be as follows: the nutlet of 

 Oreocarya humilis, perhaps a little triangular-ovate, has, when mature, a thickened or lineate 

 margin not extending around base, whereas the nutlet of 0. subretusa, perhaps ovate-lanceolate, 

 gives the appearance of a thinner slightly broader vring extending around the base. Such possible 

 differentiae do not, however, even on the basis of present material, seem sound. The wing of the 

 nutlet apparently varies in breadth with age, tending to become narrower towards maturity as 

 the embryo grows. Young nutlets usually have a more obvious wing than fully matured ones. 

 One may consider the collection from Sonora Pass {Brewer 1887), here unhesitatingly referred to 



0. humilis: the nutlets are distinctly ovate-lanceolate and have a rather broad wing but are very 

 young. No available material of C. subretusa has fully ripe nutlets. Indeed, all of the above- 

 cited collections, including those cited for O. humilis, are in flower ; although some have very 

 3'oung fruits and a few full-sized fruits, only one collection has mature fruits. All of the available 

 California material, which is here thought to represent C. subretusa, is like 0. humilis in habit, 

 in size of plant, in leaves and distribution of leaves, in pubescence, inflorescence and flowers. 



Refs. — Oreocarya humilis Greene, Pitt. 3:112 (1896). Eritrichium glomeratum var. hu- 

 mile Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 10 :61 (1874), no precise locality given, but by a process of restriction 



1. M. Johnston (Contrib. Arn. Arb. 3:87) has logically defined the type locality as Summit sta. 

 (that is, Donner Pass, Nevada Co.), Bolander. Cryptantha humilis Payson, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 14:278 (1927). 0. ecWnoide« Mcbr., Contrib. Gray Herb. 48:31 (1916), (excluding Utah plants) ; 

 Jepson, Man. 845 (1925) ; not Krynitzkia echinoides Jones, Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 2, 5:709 (1895), 

 type loc. Pahria Canon, Utah, Jones 5279p. Cryptantha subretusa Jtn., Jour. Arn. Arb. 20:393 

 (1939), type loc. Crater Lake, Ore., Thompson 12,206. 



4. 0. tumulosa Payson. Stems 1 to several from the root-crown, erect, 4 to 8 

 inches high ; herbage puberulent and also hispid throughout with spreading tawny- 

 yellow or white hairs, the ones on lower part of plant often discoid-dilated at base ; 

 leaves mostly in a basal tuft, a few cauliue, 1 to II/2 inches long; leaf -blades obovate, 

 attenuate to a petiole 1 to 2 times as long; panicle subcylindric, often somewhat 

 dense, 2 to 4 inches long ; corolla white, 2 lines long, the tube about equaling the 

 linear calyx-segments; nutlets ovate or pyriform, rather flattened, narrowly and 

 sharply margined, sparingly and coarsely tuberculate or rugose dorsally, I^/q to 

 2 lines long. 



Gravelly ridges of desert ranges, often in the piiion belt, 4500 to 6000 feet: 

 eastern Mohave Desert. May-June. 



