124 SAXIFRAOACEAE 



Petals inserted by short claws nearly in the sinuses, rotately spreading. Stamens 

 10. those opposite the sepals {leliiseiiijjr their pollen very early. Carpels free from 

 the calyx, united, their styles bearintj kidney-shaped stigmas. — Species 1, Califor- 

 nia. (Willis Linn Jepson, aiitlior of a Flora of California.) 



1. J. parryi Small. Scapes 3 to 10 inches high; leaf -blades when mature % 

 to 2 inches wide, on petioles (IV2 or) 3 to 4 inches long; flowers 2Vt lines long; 

 ealyx with 10 purjile nerves, the alternate ones forking at the sinuses, a branch 

 ju-oceeding to the apex of each adjacent lobe; petals ovatish, white, purple-nerved 

 beneath. IH to 214 lines long; ovary with fine brownish nerves. 



^Moist places in the dry hills or on shelving rocky cliifs, 100 to 1500 feet: San 

 Diego to San Jacinto Valley; east base of Mt. San Jacinto; Santa Catalina, Santa 

 Cruz and Santa Rosa islands; Sierra Nevada foothills from Mariposa Co. to Tuol- 

 umne Co. Also on Guadalupe Island. Flowering in Nov. and Dec. after the fall 

 rains begin. 



Habitat note. — This species is very common between National City and Dulzura, San Diego 

 Co. The plants inhabit bare places on moist slopes, the leaves lying flat on the ground and, in 

 aspect, recalling somewhat little maple leaves. The tubers are abimdant and easily collected. 

 Children gather them to eat and call them "coconuts." "In time," says C. N. Forbes, one of our 

 students, "they become deep-seated, as much as six to eight inches, since the new tuber each year 

 is formed immediately below the old one." At the east base of Mt. San Jacinto, F. W. Peirson 

 notes the occurrence of plants under the edges of rocks along small water courses at about 2000 

 feet, and also in the bottom of Andreas Caiion at about 1000 feet. 



Note on variation. — The inflorescence is usually a little loose in Southern California speci- 

 mens, the calyx commonly cylindric and a little truncatish at base. In insular plants (the 

 form J. malvaefolia Small), which have close flower clusters, the calyx is somewhat bowl-shaped, 

 short, IVi; to 2 lines long (Santa Rosa Isl., Tra.sk ; San Clcmente Isl., Purpus). This condition 

 is, however, repeated in the mainland National City (Forbes) specimens (J. parryi Small) which 

 have similar short calyces and, in some cases, congested flower clusters. In one collection from 

 Italian Bar, Tuolumne Co. (A. L. Grant), representing the form J. heterandra Eastw., we find 

 both campanulate calyces and cylindric calyces with truncatish base, depending upon the age of 

 the flowers. In these Tuolumne Co. specimens, further, the leaf -blades are often but not always 

 cordate, frequently not "overlapping"; they may be as much as 314 inches wide (Columbia, 

 A. L. Grant 605). The described differences of the various forms, in short, are not geograph- 

 ically consistent as implied; they are too slight to be significant. The plants of the three regions, 

 Southern California, the Santa Barbara Islands and the central Sierra Nevada foothills are, 

 indeed, extremely alike in habit, leafage, pubescence, and flowers; specimens could not be dis- 

 sociated if mixed. 



Locs. — Fallbrook, San Diego Co., Parish 2771; Arch Beach, Orange Co., ace. Peirson; Santa 

 Ana Mts. near Elsinore., ace. Peirson; Santa Ana Canon, Santa Ana Mts. (Bull. Torr. Club 

 49:36); Winchester, Riverside Co.; Mt. San Jacinto, e. base (Muhl. 3:123); Valdez Harbor, 

 Santa Cruz Isl., Ealph Hoffmann; Columbia, A. L. Grant 605; Italian Bar, South Fork Stanislaus 

 River, A. L. Grant. 



Refs.— Jepsonia parryi Small, Bull. Torr. Club, 23:18 (1896); Jepson, Man. 457 (1925). 

 Saxifraga parryi Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 69 (1859), type loc. dry hillsides near San Diego, 

 Bigelow. J. malvaefolia Small, I.e. 23:19 (1896). Saxifraga malvaefolia Greene, Bull. Torr. 

 Club 9:121 (1882), type loc. Santa Rosa Isl., Kellogg (cf. Cal. Acad. hb.). Jepsonia heterandra 

 Eastw. Bull. Torr. Club 32:201 (1905), type loc. Mariposa Co., Congdon. J. parryi var. heteran- 

 dra Jepson, Man. 457, fig. 449, (1925). J. neonuttalliana Millsp. Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. 

 5:124 (1923), type loc. near Lookout Point, Santa Catalina Isl., L. W. Nuttall 931. 



4. PELTIPHYLLUM Engler 



Coarse herb, the leaves all basal, the scapes naked, arising from thick fleshy 

 horizontal rootstocks, surpassing the leaves. Leaf-blades orbicular-peltate, cupped 

 at center, elevated on long petioles with membranous dilations at base resembling 

 stipules. Flowers appearing before the leaves, white, in terminal simple or pan- 

 iculately compound cymes. Calyx-tube joined to lower part of the pistils, the 

 lobes reflexed in age. Stamens 10. Pistils 2, almost distinct. Follicles almost, 

 but not quite, distinct, turgid, spreading. — Species 1. (Greek pelti, peltate, and 

 phullon, leaf.) 



