STONE-CROP FAMILY 



113 



long, 6 to 11 lines wide, above the middle a trifle wider than at the base, not so 

 conspicuously thick as in no. 2; cyme with close or elongated branches; pedicels 

 stout; petals yellow or pale. 



Rocky ground near the coast, 1 to 100 feet : Santa Barbara Co. to San Francisco. 

 May-July. 



Locs. — Pelican Bay, Santa Cruz Isl., Jepson 12,113; San Luis Obispo Co., Alice King; Pismo 

 Beach, Cypress Pt., Carmel Bay, Jepson 9739; Marina sta., Monterey Co., Jepson 9780; Gazoa 

 Creek, Pescadero, Jepson 4164; Pilarcitos, San Mateo Co., C. F. Baker 3440; San Bruno Hills, 

 San Mateo Co., Nutting. 



Tax, note. — The nativity of Echeveria caespitosa DC. is here considered as Califomian for 

 the following reasons. This name rests on Cotyledon caespitosa Haw., the original of which is 

 cited as from the Cape of Good Hope, but erroneously. In Alton's Hortus Kewensis, ed. 2, 3:109 

 (1811), Robert Brown describes Cotyledon linguiformis as ''Nat. of California. Archibald 

 Menzies, Esq.". De Candolle, knowing that Haworth's and Brown's plants were the same, cites 

 their two names under the combination Echeveria caespitosa (cf. Prod. 3:401, — 1828) and indi- 

 cates the species as of California. As to Brown's authorship see Journal of Botany, 50 : supplem. 

 3,-1912. 



Refs. — Echeveria caespitosa DC. Prod. 3: 401 (1828). Cotyledon caespitosa Haw. Mise. 

 Nat. 180 (1803), the original cited as from Cape of Good Hope, but erroneously, in reality from 

 California; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 267 (1901), ed. 2, 196 (1911), Man. 452, fig. 444 (1925). 

 Dudleya caespitosa Britt. & Rose, Bull. N. Y., Bot. Gard. 3:27 (1903). Cotyledon reflexa Willd. 

 Enum. Hort. Berol. Supp. 24 (1813). C. palmeri Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14:292 (1879), type 

 loc. San Simeon Bay, San Luis Obispo Co., Palmer. Dudleya palmeri Britt & Rose, Bull. N. Y. 

 Bot. Gard. 3:24 (1907). E. palmeri Nels. & Mcbr. Bot. Gaz. 56:476 (1913), not Rose (1903). 

 Cotyledon lingida Wats. I.e. 293, type loc. San Simeon Bay, Palmer. Dudleya lingula Britt. & 

 Rose, I.e. 26. E. lingula Nels. & Mcbr. I.e. Dudleya helleri Rose, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard, 3:27 

 (1903), type loc. e. side Monterey Bay, Heller. (?)jD. greenei Rose, I.e. 17, type loe, Santa Cruz 

 Isl., Greene. (?) D. candelabrum Rose, I.e., type loc. Santa Cruz Isl., Greene. 



4. E. laxa Lindl. Rock Lettuce. (Fig. 146.) Plants 7 to 12 inches high, 

 green or glaucous; rosettes loose; leaves oblong to lanceolate, evidently wider above 

 than at base, 1 to 3 inches long, % to 1 inch 

 wide, relatively thinnish; cyme dichotomous, 

 rather loose; pedicels slender, some of them 

 equaling or exceeding the flowers; petals clear 

 yellow or orange, but frequently turning red- 

 dish on drying. 



Rocky ground, 300 to 5500 feet : immedi- 

 ately back of the coast line in middle California 

 and east across the Coast Ranges; south to 

 San Benito Co. ; north to Mendocino Co. May- 

 June. It is, with the var. nevadensis, the com- 

 mon and in most parts of its range, the only 

 species of the genus over the interior and 

 mountainous part of middle California. 



Note on variation. — This species in recent years 

 has been subject to much segregation on the basis of 

 features that belong more or less to individual plants. 

 The binomials that we cite below as synonyms seem 

 referable here as judged by our knowledge of living 

 plants of the Californian representation at large, both 

 in the field and in the garden. The published diagnoses 

 of all of them tend to persuade us that the individual 

 plants, as represented by the sheets of specimens on 

 which these new names rest, lie on one plane and are 

 apparently not susceptible of satisfactory definition 

 even as forms if the diagnoses are to be applied, as they 

 must be if accepted, to material from a field having a 

 range wider than the exact station cited as the type of 

 a segregate. 



Locs.— Yollo Bolly Mts., C. F. BaTcer 3235; Stanton, ne. Lake Co., Jepson 8984; Vaca Mts., 

 Jepson 13,416 (this one plant shows several shapes of calyx-lobes on one cyme, due in part to 



Fig. 146. Echeveria laxa Lindl. 

 a, base of plant, X % ; &, infl., X Vi ; 

 c, fl., X IVi) d, fr. carpels, X 1^/^. 



