BORAGE FAMILY 335 



Nutlets most commonly ovate, at least half as broad as long. 



Spikes % to 1 inch long, regularly set with many small bracts; nutlets 1 (or 2) ; 



coastal S. Cal. and transmontane deserts 30. C. maritima. 



Spikes bractless or with a few bracts near base ; nutlets 4 or 3. 



Corolla IV2 to 2% lines broad; nutlets truncate at base; calyx-lobes linear; 



s. Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mts 31. C. mohavensis. 



Corolla % to % line broad (1 to 1% lines in var. of no. 32); nutlets mostly 

 rounded at base. 

 Lateral angles of nutlets obtuse; calyx-lobes linear; Sierra Nevada and 



North Coast Kanges 32. C. torreyana. 



Lateral angles of nutlets sharply acute or with a lineate margin ; calyx- 

 lobes lanceolate; high montane in White Mts 33. C. watsonii. 



b. Hairs on upper part of calyx retrorse; nutlets 1 to 4, ovate-lanceolate or -attenuate; spikes 

 subfiliform; inner Coast Ranges and Tehachapi Mts 34. C. nemaclada. 



2. Ventral groove excentric; corolla minute (Ys to Vi line wide). 



Nutlets 4; plants 3 to 20 inches high; spikes in Is, 2s or 3s, 1 to 5 inches long; widely distributed, 



mts. of cismontane Cal 35. C. affinis. 



Nutlet 1; plants 1 to 5 inches high; spikes very short (1 to 1% lines long) in terminal glomerules 



and in the leaf -axils; east side or high easterly meadows of the Sierra Nevada 



36. C. glomerifiora. 

 II. Hairs on calyx falcate-kecurved or falcate- detlexed ; nutlet 1. 



Nutlets ovate or lanceolate, high-rounded on back, low-rounded or flattish on face; calyx-lobes on 



upper half beset with short spreading curved hairs, at base armed with a tuft of long 



deflexed or spreading bristles or sometimes the bristles extremely reduced or the lobes 



merely short-hispidulose ; stem erect, branched. 



Fruiting calyces appressed to rachis ; base of nutlet rounded or subacute ; ventral groove not 



forked, ending in a small areola; cismontane, widely distributed 37. C. flaccida. 



Fruiting calyces spreading from rachis; base of nutlet truncate; ventral groove forked at 

 base, with a large areola; inner North Coast Range and cent, and n. Sierra Nevada 



footliills 38. C. rostellata. 



Nutlets ovate, acute, flattened on both faces (compressed) ; calyx-lobes uniformly beset with short 

 curved hairs ; stem diffusely branched, the branches very slender or filiform ; foothills 

 surrounding the San Joaquin Valley 39. C. sparsiflora. 



1. C. hooveri Jtu. Stems several from the base, ascending, 3 to 6 inches high ; 

 herbage ascending-hirsute; leaf -blades linear or filiform, 5 to 11 lines long, the 

 lower opposite; spikes very short and dense, borne on short branches and racemosely 

 disposed so as to make a cylindric panicle, only the lowest flowers in each spike 

 developing fruits, the abortive flowers crowded ; calyx-lobes linear, a little lanceo- 

 late-dilated at base, densely ascending-hirsute and with long spreading bristles, 

 214 to 3 lines long; corolla minute (i/4 line broad), somewhat concealed behind the 

 bristly calyx-tips ; nutlets 4 (sometimes 3 or 1), triangular-ovate, acute, truncate 

 at base, thickly tuberculate on the low-rounded back, convexly 2-planed ventrally, 

 the lateral angles sharply defined but a little obtuse, the ventral groove widely 

 forked at base and making a broad areola. 



Dry sandy flats, 10 to 250 feet : lower San Joaquin Valley from eastern Contra 

 Costa Co. to Madera Co. May. 



Locs. — Antioch, K. Brandegee ; Waterford (13 mi. e. at Gobin ranch), Stanislaus Co., Hoover 

 2137; Chowchilla (8 mi. w.), Madera Co., Hoover 1247. 



Ref. — Cryptantha hooveri Jtn., Jour. Arn. Arb. 18:23 (1937), type loc. Chowchilla (8 mi. 

 w.), Madera Co., Hoover 558 (isotyp. vidi). 



2. C. ambigua Greene. Stem much branched from the base, erect, I/2 to 1% 

 feet high, ascending-hirsute or strigulose and spreading bristly-hirsute; herbage 

 roughly spreading-hirsute throughout; leaf-blades linear, 1 to IY2. inches long, 

 thinly hirsutulose and conspicuously bristly-hirsute, the bristles with pustulate- 

 dilated bases ; spikes commonly loose below, 1 to 2% inches long, borne in a corym- 

 bose panicle; calyx-lobes linear-lanceolate, densely and divaricately long-bristly 

 and ascending-hirsute (especially on lower part) ; corolla 1 line broad; nutlets 4 

 or 3, ovate-rostrate, usually flattish on back, thinly tubei-culate on a microscopically 

 tessellate-papillate ground, the lateral angles obtuse, the ventral side convexly 

 2-planed. 



