344 BORAGINACEAE 



woody ; branches and leaves appressed-hispid and spreading-bristly, or the branches 

 sometimes not bristly; leaf -blades linear, acuminate, Y2 to 1 inch long ; inflorescence 

 loosely racemose-paniculate, the flowers on spreading pedicels, the pedicels I/2 to 1 

 (or 3) lines long; calyx in fruit 1 line long, the segments lanceolate, spreading- 

 bristly and appressed-hispid; corolla 1 line broad, constricted at throat; nutlets 

 ovate-lanceolate, unequal, 1 larger (though sometimes abortive), 3 smaller and 

 becoming free from the gynobase earlier, i/^ line long, brown, the back sparsely 

 white-dotted with tubercles and bordered by a narrow or white-lineate margin, the 

 ventral groove open below the middle and gradually widening to base. 



Gravelly washes, sandy plains or rocky walls of desert canons, 100 to 4000 feet : 

 Inyo Co. ; Colorado Desert. South to Lower California, east to western Arizona and 

 Nevada. Apr. -June. 



Field note. — Cryptantha racemosa is coarsely woody at base. It forms a diminutive bush in 

 which the main stems become % to % inch in diameter and the numerous branches are very closely 

 interlaced, fully as closely and densely intertwined as those of Eriogonum heermannii. Sometimes 

 this species is biennial but in California more frequently perennial. And by perennial is meant 

 that the individual produces flowers in more than one season, a fact determinable by one who 

 studies much the desert caiions. In its most extreme or well-developed form, Cryptantha racemosa 

 is a depressed-globose plant which in aspect has a marked resemblance to some species of Galium. 

 The older stems often display a papery bark which exfoliates and recalls Coldenia, while the 

 branches are armed with small bristles which to the skin of the botanical explorer are penetrating 

 and painful, suggesting the minute spicules of cacti. 



Locs. — Inyo Co.: Inyo, T. Brandegee ; Argus Range (n. end), Jepson 19,563; Titus Caiion, 

 Grapevine Mts., Jepson 19,856 ; Funeral Mts., Jepson 6911 ; Surprise Canon, Panamint Bange, 

 Jepson 7138; Johnson Caiion, Panamint Range, Jepson 19,742. Colorado Desert: Morongo Wash, 

 Parish 3337 ; betw. Piiion Well and County Well, n. of Indio, Jepson 6013 ; Painted Caiion, Mecca 

 Hills, Jepson 11,675; Cottonwood Spr., Eagle Mts., Jepson 12,580; Borrego Sprs., e. San Diego 

 Co., T. Brandegee ; San Felipe Narrows, e. San Diego Co., Jepson 12,525; Devils Caiion, e. San 

 Diego Co., C. V. Meyer 421; Myers Creek bridge, w. Imperial Co., Jepson 11,797. 



Refs. — CRYPTANTHARACEMOSAGreene, Pitt. 1:115 (1887); Jepson, Man. 847 (1925). Eritri- 

 chiuin racemosum Wats.; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 17:226 (1882), type loe. Mesquite Canon, above 

 Mesquite sta., ne. Imperial Co. (formerly in San Diego Co.), S. B. Parish 775 ("W. F. Parish" 

 also cited but did not go on this trip ace. S. B. Parish). Krynitzkia racemosa Greene, Bull. Cal. 

 Acad. 1:208 (1885). K. ramosissima Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 20:277 (1885), change of name. 

 JohnstoneUa racemosa Brand; Fedde, Bepert. Sp. Nov. 21:249 (1925). C. racemosa var. lignosa 

 Jtn., Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. 7:445 (1922), type loc. Panamint Caiion, Inyo Co., EaU # Chandler 

 7034. JohnstoneUa racemosa var. lignosa Brand, I.e. C. suffruticosa Piper, Proc. Biol. See. Wash. 

 32:42 (1919), type loe. Camp Muchacho, Colorado Desert, Orcutt 2070. 



18. C. costata Bdg. Stems many from the base, freely branched, conspicu- 

 ously leafy and densely white-hirsute when young, forming a roundish or bushy 

 plant 3 to 10 inches high ; herbage gray, appressed-hispid and with scattered spread- 

 ing bristles; leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate-attenuate or coarsely filiform, i/o to 

 3 inches long, often surpassing the spikes ; spikes dense, bracteate towards base, 

 V2 to 1 inch long or reduced and head-like; flowers minute, the bracts and sepals 

 closelj^ beset with long rigid white or yellowish bristles with softer shorter hairs 

 between ; calj^s-lobes narrowly linear-lanceolate, sparsely set with long spreading 

 bristles and thinly short-hirsute ; corolla 1/2 to 1 line broad ; nutlets 4, light-brown, 

 oblong-lanceolate, the back rounded and obscurely and very minutely papillate but 

 the papillae shining, the angles sharp, obscTirely whitish-lineate ancl slightly revo- 

 lute so as to make on the smooth ventral side a shallow hollow on each side of the 

 ventral groove ; groove dilated from the middle downward. 



Gravelly hillslnpes and benches and in sand dunes, -250 to 1200 feet : Inyo Co. ; 

 eastern Mohave Desert; Colorado Desert. East to Arizona. Feb.-May. 



Locs. — Inyo Co.: Furnace Creek ranch, Death Valley, J. Grinncll. Mohave Desert: Rasor, 

 Mohave River sink, Jepson 6869 ; Needles. Colorado Desert: Blythe jet.. Mum &■ Harwood 3587 ; 

 betw. Seaview and Salton Sea, Clary 2066; Mecca (sandhills ne.). Parish 8465; Borrego Sprs. 



Refs. — Cryptantha cosT.iTA Bdg., Bot. Gaz. 27:453 (1899), type loc. Borrego Sprs., w. 

 Colorado Desert, T. Brandegee ; Jepson, Man. 847 (1925). C. seorsa Mcbr., Contrib. Gray Herb. 

 48:46 (1916), type loc. Needles, Jones 3841. 



