10 



SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



You iiiaj' recognize in the picture on this page the 

 likeness of one of our most troublesome native 

 weeds. The jellow flowers are often smaller than 

 here represented, and the upper leaves are generally 

 narrower. Indeed, this plant, along with many 

 others of this coast, is provokinglj' variable in its 

 appearance. Pull oflf a corolla, and a single un- 

 divided style is uncovered. Follow this down into 

 the calyx, and you discover that it grows from be- 

 tween four seed-like ovaries. These are more easily 

 seen in an older calyx, as shown at a. Xow it hap- 

 pens that this peculiar compound ovary, together 

 Avith the coiled inflorescence, belongs only to plants 

 of the order Borraginaces. A coiled inflorescence 

 and a pistil with a divided style is found only in 

 plants of the order Hydrophyllaceie. Any plant 

 with a four-parted ovary and regular flowers may 

 be sought under the former order. Creeping Helio- 

 ti'ope or Blue Weed {HeUotropium t'ura^-'^afirum) is 

 a Borraginaceous plant with ovaries merely 4-lobed. 

 The Mint Family has fruit similar to that of the 

 Borrages (see d and e in the figure on p. 11), but the 

 flowers are irregular. The Verbenas are distin- 

 AmBinckialycopsoides. a. Calyx spread igi^e^i from the Mints by nearly regular flowers 

 apart to ehow the ripe akenes. , , , i t i ■ i - . t • 



and a 4-lobed ovary, which tloes not spht into parts 



until quite ripe. (See a in the left-hand figure on page 11.) 



The plant figured at the top of the opposite page is common in open woods throughout 

 the Coast Eanges and the foot-hills of the Sierra Xevada. Tlie flowers are white, tinged 

 with purple. Each of the tliree incur\-ed petals is covered with hairs on the inner side, 

 and is marked near the base by a depression which is seen upon the outside as a project- 

 ing boss. This is called a gland, and is one of the characteristic niarks of the genus. 

 Since the three-cornered ovary is superior, we at once refer the plant to the order 

 Liliaceae. where we again read the characters given in each of the three series. The 

 stamens in this plant are hypogynotis, not perigj^nous, and the anthers are extrorse. 

 Therefore, Series I is passed. Series III is excluded, because the anthers in this plant 

 are not versatile. Evidently the name is to be sought under Series II, which is divided 

 into three sections. You now see why you should have dug up one of the plants. How- 

 ever, you can decide tlie genus without knowing tliat the plant is bulbous. It can not 

 belong to § 3, since one of the two genera under it has uml>ellate flowers, and the other 

 solitary flowers. In § 2, the perianth segments are similar. Our plant tlien must be sought 

 in § 1, and under the head "* * Perianth segments unlike," which leads to Calochortus, 



