BORAGE FAMILY 357 



Throughout this genus and throughout the larger genera of this family, it is necessary ever, 

 then, to be on guard against the use of such technical features as result in setting up artificial 

 entities. The advantages of caution herein may be happily illustrated by the case of a minor 

 variant of Allocarya austbiae, a species of the northern Sierra Nevada foothills. This species is 

 endowed wdth a very remarkable nutlet. The dorsal keels of the nutlet, both the median and the 

 lateral, are armed with stout scattered barbed spines. If, now, a nutlet be stripped of its remark- 

 able armed organs it is still determinable as belonging to Allocarya austinae, for the simple reason 

 that it is so distinctive — the remarkable quadratish shape of the body of the nutlet, its truncatish 

 base, the well-marked thin high dorsal keel, the peculiar obcompressed or somewhat fin-like apical 

 beak, make it unmistakable. Now this nutlet, thus artificially denuded, is exactly matched in 

 nature by a variant of Allocarya austinae recently made known, which has smooth nutlets, that 

 is, spineless nutlets. This form was discovered by E. F. Hoover on the margins of the south limits 

 of the species and named by him var. nuda. Intermediate states between it and the species have 

 been established. Failing such comparative analysis, so striking a technical character as a smooth 

 imarmed nutlet could readily be used as the basis for a species which would be quite artificial. 



A. Perennials: herbage with a dense cover of long soft hairs. 



Nutlets gray, the dorsal side coarsely and irregularly rugose, the rugae forming an imperfect 

 reticulation with small or minute areolae, the lateral angles weakly keeled; n. Sierra 

 Nevada (mostly transmontane) 1. A. vwllis. 



Nutlets bro^vn, the dorsal side rather regularly reticulate, with fine ridges and large areolae, the 

 lateral angles rounded; s. Sonoma Co 2. A. vestita. 



B. Annuals. 



1. Scar lateral on the ventral side and reaching the base of nutlet or sometimes exactly iasal, not 



excavate or not deeply so. 



Keel on ventral side of nutlets lying in a groove. 



Nutlets smooth and shining, whitish or light-colored; valleys bordering or near Mayacamas 



Range 3. A. lithocarya. 



Nutlets roughened, drab or brownish; along or near the coast line 4. A. chorisiana. 



Keel on ventral side not lying in a groove or indistinctly so. 

 Stems erect or laxly diffuse; calyx symmetrical. 



Scar of nutlets exactly basal, circular, usually separated from the body of nutlet by a 

 constriction ; calyx-tube with 5 ribs. 



Stems slender; nutlets rugulose dorsally; low places, widely distributed 



5. A. stipitata. 

 Stems fistulous; nutlets only slightly rugulose dorsally; salt marshes or alkaline 



flats, Santa Clara Valley 6. A. glabra. 



Scar of nutlets lateral or rarely obliquely basal ; calyx -tube not ribbed. 



Nutlets not bristly or spiny (commonly rugulose or tuberculate or sometimes finely 

 murieulate). 

 Scar of nutlets linear (or lanceolate in no. 9). 



Stems with spreading hairs ; pedicels readily deciduous in age ; transmon- 

 tane deserts 7. A. cooperi. 



Stems strigose or ascending-hirsute or subglabrous; pedicels firmly per- 

 sistent. 

 , Stems diffuse; rugae of nutlets smooth; scar not excavate; cent, and 



s. Cal 8. A. undulata. 



Stems erect; rugae of nutlets rough; scar slightly excavate; upper 



Napa Valley ; 9. A. stricta. 



Scar of nutlets ovate or oblong ; calyx-tube not ribbed. 

 Rugae of nutlets smooth. 



Nutlets ovate, the rugae not crowded, usually forming reticulations; 



scar lateral ; mostly along coast line 10. A. calif ornica. 



Nutlets ovate-lanceolate, the transverse rugae crowded into close 

 wrinkles, not forming reticulations; scar obliquely basal; 



interior and back of coast line 11. A. cusickii. 



Rugae usually sharp and dentate; scar lateral; mostly interior 



12. A. trachycarpa. 

 Nutlets minutely or microscopically bristly or scabrous; montane, mostly middle 



altitudes 13. A. hispidula. 



Stems prostrate or widely diffuse; calyx 5-ribbed on lower part, the lobes in fruit turned to 



one side. 



Calyx moderately accrescent, in fruit 2 to 3 Unes long; nutlets not bristly; scar circular, 



exactly basal, separated by a slight constriction from the body of the nutlet; 



Great Valley, South Coast Ranges and cismontane S. Cal 14. A. leptoclada. 



