RANUNCULACE^. 295 



3. A. deltoidea, Hook. Fl. i. 6. t. 3 (1829). Stem solitary, slender, 1 ft. 

 high or less, glabrous: radical leaves ternate, the leaflets deltoid-ovate, 

 sometimes trifid; involucral sessile, rhomboid, incisely serrate: sepals 

 about 5, oval, large, white: achenes ovate, pubescent, in a rounded 

 head. — In Humboldt Co. and northward; on the border of woods, at 

 considerable elevations. July, Aug. 



4. A. neiHorosa, Linn. var. Grayi. A. Grayi, Behr. & Kell. Bull. 

 Calif. Acad. i. 5 (1884): A. Oregana, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 308 

 (1887). Stem very slender, 1 ft. high, solitary, from a horizontal running 

 rootstock : radical leaf remote from the stem, of reniform outline, trifid, 

 the segments serrate; involucral loug-petioled, 3-foliolate, the terminal 

 leaflet 3-lobed, each lateral one 2-lobed, all coarsely serrate: sepals about 

 6, oval, white or bluish: achenes 12—20, oblong, 2 lines long, pubescent, 

 tipped with a hooked beak, forming a globose head, the long pedicel at 

 length curved into a ring. — Moist shady slopes of the higher Coast 

 Range mountains, from Santa Cruz northward; common about Lagu- 

 nitas on Mt. Tamalpais. The Oregon form, with deep blue sepals, on 

 which Dr. Gray founded his species, is inseparable from our own, in 

 which the sepals are often bluish, as indeed they are in the genuine Old 

 World A. nemorosa in certain localities. Mar. — May. 



3. MYOSURUS, Lobelius (Mousetail). Small stemless glabrous 

 annuals, with narrow entire leaves, and many slender 1-flowered (some- 

 times short or obsolete) scapes. Sepals 5, spurred at the base. Petals 5, 

 consisting of an oblong blade with a nectariferous gland or pit at base, 

 and a filiform claw. Stamens 5 — 15. Pistils oo , crowded on a long 

 slender receptacle; becoming a spike of small rather thin-walled achenes. 



1. 31. minimns, Linn. Sp. PL i. 284 (1753). Scape 1—5 in. high, 

 rather stout, gradually thickened under the fruiting spike, this long- 

 conical, 1 — 2 in. long: sepals with prominent slender spur: carpels 

 crowded, the more or less distinctly rhomboid top with a manifest costa 

 ending in an appressed straight beak: seeds oval or oblong. Var. (1) 

 apus, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 277 (1885). Fruiting spike nearly 

 cylindrical, nearly or quite sessile among the leaves. Var. (2) flliformis, 

 Greene, 1. c. Spike nearly cylindrical, very slender, on a slender scape: 

 carpels in few series, minute, with delicate costa, the slender beak shortly 

 and abruptly recurved. — The Californian plant nearest the Old World 

 type is miTch larger, with relatively longer scapes and shorter more 

 conical spikes. This is found in the Livermore Valley (State Survey 

 n. 1193), but is more common northward, reaching Vancouver Island. 

 The first variety is on the lower San Joaqnin, in subsaline soil, where it 

 grows with the other, and flowers earlier. Var. 2 is not rare, occurring 

 at San Francisco, in the Oakland Hills and beyond them; but its best 

 type is of the far South and insular (Guadalupe Island). Mar. — May. 



