EPILOBIACE^. 211 



which widens gradually from the globose base : capsules sessile : seeds 

 somewhat pyriform. — An obscure plant of the Sierra Nevada, only once 

 or twice collected : inflorescence peculiarly strict and virgate. 



3. ttlNOTHEBA, Linmens (Evening Primbose). Herbs exceedingly 

 diverse in habit. Leaves alternate. Flowers yellow, white or purplish, 

 axillary, spicate or racemose. Calyx-tube prolonged above the ovary, 

 mostly deciduous ; segments commonly coherent after as before the 

 expansion of the corolla save as parting by a single one of the four sutures 

 to liberate the expanding petals. Petals 4, mostly vespertine as to 

 time of opening, and evanescent, usually obcordate or flabelliform. 

 Stamens 8, equal, or those opposite to the petals shorter; anthers various. 

 Ovary 4-celled, oo -ovuled ; style filiform ; stigma 4-lobed or capitate. 

 Capsule from membranaceous to woody, more or less perfectly 4-valved 

 and dehiscent, or indehiscent. Seeds in 1 or 2 rows in each cell, hori- 

 zontal or ascending, naked, often slightly margined. — A complicated 

 genus, by Spach and others divided into several, perhaps with good reason. 

 * Calyx greatly prolonged beyond the ovary, deciduous from it; stamens 



nearly equal, anthers versatile; stigma-lobes linear; capsule coriaceous. 



•i— Flowers yellow, in a leafy spike, erect in bud, vespertine; tips of the 



calyx-lobes free; capsule narroivly oblong, sessile, straight; seeds 



in 2 rows in each cell. — Genus Onagba, Tourn., Spach. 



++ Coarse annuals or biennials. 



1. (E. Hookeri, T. & Q. Fl. i. 493 (1840). Biennial ; stem red, stout, 

 angular, 3—6 ft. high : herbage canescently pubescent and somewhat 

 villous : leaves lanceolate, sessile, acute, obscurely denticulate : calyx- 

 tube 114 ill- loii^i the segments nearly as long : petals nearly IJ^ in., 

 obcordate, very pale yellow, turning to rose-color : filaments slender, 

 elongated ; stigma-lobes yellow, spreading : capsule ^4 in. long, sessile, 

 quadrangular, with plane sides, canescent throughout with a fine close 

 pubescence : seeds chestnut-brown, only 1.3 li^i^ long, not wing-angled, 

 delicately striate. — Common in river bottoms and often in dry places in 

 the southern counties. 



2. (E. Jepsoiiii. Erect, 3 —5 feet high, canescently pubescent when 

 young, the older parts, and especially the capsules, hirsute : leaves rather 

 thin, lanceolate, denticulate : calyx-tube II4 in. long ; segments only 

 }4 in., their tips very short, not contiguous : petals less than % in. long, 

 light yellow : filaments subulate, short, the long anthers exserted : style 

 short ; stigma-lobes green, not widely spreading : capsule slender, l}^ 

 in. long, tapering from below the middle to apex, scarcely angular, the 

 valves with a broad prominent midvein, separating at apex only : seeds 

 dark-colored, sharply angled.— Along the Sacramento River in Solano 

 Co., Jepsoii, and near Sacramento, Dr. Pyburn. 



