152 POLYGONE^. 



concave, the inner lanceolate, plane, somewhat longer. — Plains of the 

 interior, from near Sacramento southward. 



38 ? E. gossypiuum, Ourran, Bull. Galif. Acad. i. 274: (1885). Stem 

 and branches scarcely woolly, obscurely angular, 1 — 2 ft. high, very 

 diffuse : lowest leaves oblong, tomentose beneath : pedicels filiform, 

 1 — 6 lines long : involucres turbinate, cleft to the middle, the lobes 

 oblong, obtuse, villous on the inside : fl. about 5 to the involucre, the 

 bractlets linear-spatulate, villous on the upper face ; sepals nearly linear, 

 the inner aciite, slightly longer than the outer. — Plains near Bakersfield, 

 Kern Co., Mrs. Curran. An ambiguous species, perhaps better referred 

 to Nernacaulis, especially if the achenes be as reported, "lenticular." 

 -1— -i- Panicle leafless. 



39. E. trichopodiim, Torr. in Emory's Rep. 151 (1848) ; Benth. DC. 

 Prodr. xiv. 20. Nearly glabrous, the stem and branches vivid green : 

 leaves round-cordate to oblong-ovate, l^ — 1 iu- long: peduncles branched 

 and occasionally somewhat inflated below the nodes ; branchlets and 

 pedicels filiform, the latter almost capillary : involucres minute ( ^s" line 

 long), turbinate-campanulate, glabrous : fi. few, },^ line long, yellowish, 

 Ijubescent. — San Benito Co., Hick)nau; otherwise a plant of the south- 

 eastern extremity of the State, where it is associated Avith E. itiflaluni, a 

 similar species not yet heard of as within our limits. 



7. OXYTHECA, N'uiiall. Slender annuals, glandular-pubescent (not 

 tomentose), with a rosulate basal tuft of leaves and a repeatedly dichoto- 

 mous paniculate inflorescence. Bracts of the flowering branches foli- 

 aceous, more or less connate. Invokicres small, few-flowered, more or 

 less distinctly ijedicellate, the lobes awn-tipped or unarmed. Perianth 

 6-parted, usually glandular-ptibescent on the outside, the segments alike. 

 Stamens 6. Achene commonly lenticular. — Apparently a natural genus, 

 though no absolute character has been shown by which it may be dis- 

 tinguished from Eriogomim. To name involucral awns as of such 

 value is altogether empirical ; and to draw the line there excludes plants 

 naturally inseparable from the Oxytheca type. 



* Brads united into a broad rounded concave disk. 



1. 0. perfoliata, Torr. & Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 191 (1870). Herb 

 rather rigid, glaucous, reddish, branched from the base, 3—8 in. high : 

 leaves 1 in. long or less, spatulate, ciliate : lowest bracts small, joined at 

 base only, the upper large and conspicuous, perfoliate, 3-awned, net- 

 veined : involucres almost sessile, narrowly turbinate, deeply 5-cleft, 

 1—1)4. lines long, with long awns, 4— 6-flowered : fl. white, 1 line long. — 

 Eastern base of the Sierra, beyond our limits, but to be sought in Mono 

 and Inyo counties. 



* » Bracts joined at tiase only, not enlarged. 

 ■i—Involucres ivilh awn-tipped lobes. 



