354 BORAGINACEAE 



38. C. rostellata Greene. Stem slender, branching above, 4 to 9 inches high; 

 herbage strigulose ; leaves strictly ascending, the lower ones opposite or relatively 

 approximate, the upper alternate; leaf-blades oblanceolate or linear, 3 to 7 lines 

 long; spikes solitary or geminate, the flowers at length moderately discrete ; calyx- 

 lobes narrow-linear, appressed short-hirsute and densely short-bristly, the bristles 

 spreading, subequal, curved at tip, or the bristles on lower part of calyx longer 

 and spreading-tufted or deflexed-tuf ted ; corolla ^^ to % line broad ; fruiting calyx 

 1% to 1% lines long; nutlet 1, ovate-lanceolate, acute, truncate at base, smooth and 

 polished, high-rounded on back, the face flatfish or low-rounded, the ventral groove 

 forked at base, with a usually open areola. 



Dry hills, 200 to 3000 feet : inner North Coast Range, east slope from Colusa 

 Co. to Tehama Co. and the bordering rolling plain ; Sierra Nevada foothills from 

 Mariposa Co. to Siskiyou Co. North to Washington. Apr. -May. 



Tax. note. — Cryptantha rostellata is closely related to C. flaccida. The lower part of the calyx 

 in Cryptantha rostellata is sometimes tufted with deflexed or spreading bristles or as frequently 

 the bristles may be much reduced. With Cryptantha flaccida, the deflexed bristle tufts on the 

 lower part of calyx are long and very striking, but in some collections they are so reduced as to be 

 subobsolete. As so often, recourse for differentiae must be had by looking to the nutlets. In 

 Cryptantha rostellata the nutlet is quadratish-rostrate, truncate at base, the ventral groove forked 

 at base. In Cryptantha flaccida the nutlet is ovate-rostrate, rounded at base, the ventral groove 

 ■with a minute areola at base but not forked. Collections of Cryptantha rostellata are few and 

 represent scattered stations. As a species it may not become well stabilized until more ample 

 material is studied. 



Locs. — Inner North Coast Range f oothUls : sw. Colusa Co. ; Paskenta, sw. Tehama Co., Jepson 

 16,314; Crane Creek, w. Tehama Co., Jepson 21,114. Sierra Nevada foothUla: Coulterville, Mari- 

 posa Co., Hoover 3422; near Chico (probably foothills e.). Parry; Hornbrook, Siskiyou Co., 

 Howell 1386. When the bristles on lower part of calyx become fewer or subobsolete, then it is 

 var. spithamea (Jtn.) Jepson comb, n., corolla 1 line broad; a precarious variety, since resting 

 mainly on the instability of bristle features. This form belongs in Mariposa Co. 



Eefs.— Cryptantha rostellata Greene, Pitt. 1:116 (1897). KrynitzTcia rostellata Greene, 

 Bull. Cal. Acad. 1:203 (1885), type loc. "Lake and Colusa counties, 1884," Curran (that is, on the 

 Lake-Colusa boundary near Leesville, sw. Colusa Co.). Var. spithamea Jepson. C. spithamea 

 Jtn., Jour. Arn. Arb. 20:385 (1939), type loc. Coulterville (3 mi. nw.), Mariposa Co., Hoover 2169. 



39. C. sparsiflora Greene. Stem slender, loosely and widely branching, 5 to 

 10 inches high, the ultimate peduncular branches filiform, 2^/2 to 5 inches long, 

 each ending in a single spike; herbage thinly strigose; leaf -blades linear, 5 to 9 

 lines long; spikes few-flowered, at length loose (the discrete flowers mostly 3 to 7 

 lines apart) ; calyx short -bristly, the hairs mostly uncinate; calyx-lobes lanceolate, 

 the 2 or 3 larger ones membranous-margined below; corolla minute (^/i line broad) ; 

 fruiting calyx 1 line long ; nutlet 1, ovate, acute, smooth and polished, the lateral 

 angles acute, the ventral groove closed; pericarp thin and fragile, somewhat 

 bladdery. 



Gravelly or rocky slopes, 1000 to 4000 feet : chaparral belt of the ranges sur- 

 rounding the San Joaquin Valley, that is, in the inner South Coast Range in 

 Stanislaus Co. (east slope of foothills), and in the Sierra Nevada from Mariposa 

 Co. to Kern Co. May. 



Locs. — Inner South Coast Range: Puerto Canon, w. Stanislaus Co., Hoover 3370. Southern 

 Sierra Nevada: Mormon Bar, Mariposa Co. (Contrib. Gray Herb. 74:101) ; Coburn Mill, Fresno 

 Co., T. Brandegee; Bear Mt. (n. slope), Tulare Co., Hoover 3478 ; Havilah, Kern Co., T. Brandegee. 



Refs. — Cryptantha sparsiplora Greene, Pitt. 1:116 (1887). Krynitzlcia sparsiflora Gieene, 

 Bull. Cal. Acad. 1:203 (1885), coUected in 1884, Curran, "the locality uncertain." In that year 

 M. K. Curran collected on a trip from Arbuckle to Mountain House (Venado) in southwestern 

 Colusa Co., thence to Epperson road station (southwestern Colusa Co.) on east slope of Bear Mt., 

 thence to Hough Springs (northeastern Lake Co.). She also collected that year in the Teha- 

 chapi Mts. 



14. EREMOCARYA Greene 



Densely branching annual with almost filiform stems, the leaves mostly in a 

 basal rosette. Root imparting a purple stain. Racemes dense, spike-like, each 

 flower subtended by a leafy bract, the bracts regular and equal. Calyx 5-parted to 



