418 EUPHORBIACEAE 



Econ. note. — Mexicans near Eedlands say of this plant, "esa ha de ser la quo llamainos la 

 yerba del pescado" and explain that it is used for the same purpose as Eremocarpus sctigerus, 

 namely as a means of catching fish in small streams (Harry Steele Budd in Jcpson Corr. 3:297 

 ms). The mourning dove feeds on the seeds. 



Locs. — Antioch, Jepson 10,211; Mountain Lake, San Francisco, Jepson 5e; Monterey, Jep- 

 son 9765; Bicknell sta., n. Santa Barbara Co., Jepson 12,681; Barstow, Jepson 4804; Warrens 

 "Well, n. Eiverside Co., J. T. Howell 2898; Eiverside, Jepson 1217; San Bernardino, Parish; Col- 

 ton, Blantinship ; Pacoima Canon, San Gabriel Mts., Peirson 276; Manhattan Beach, near Ee- 

 dondo, Julia A. Bettys; Anaheim plain, Alice King ; Palm Caiion of San Jacinto, below Vande- 

 venter ranch, Jepson 1404; Palomar Mt., Esther Hewlett 47; La Jolla, w. San Diego Co., Newlon 

 308. 



The following varietal segregations, named over thirty years since, do not weU cover the many 

 forms kno\vn today: Var. major Wats. Stouter and with large leaf -blades IV2 to 3 inches long; 

 staminate racemes denser, with larger flowers ; pistillate flowers more numerous. — Santa Barbara 

 Co. to San Diego Co.; Oceanside, Parish 4448. Var. tenuis Ferg. Stems more slender; leaf- 

 blades narrowly oblong to lanceolate, % to 1 inch long, on short petioles 1 to 4 lines long ; flowers 

 dioecious; caruncle prominent, with a broad appressed lobed base. — Potrero, San Diego Co.; 

 Borrego Valley, ne. San Diego Co., Jepson 8817, 8818; Ft. Mohave, Ariz. Var. longipes Ferg. 

 Stems much branched ; leaf-blades oval, 5 to 10 lines long, only slightly pubescent above. — Utah 

 and west to Southern California ace. Ferguson (Mo. Bot. Gard. Eep. 12:65). Var. mohavensis 

 Ferg. Much branched, IV^ to 2^4 feet high; leaf -blades narrowly oblong, 3 to 10 lines long. — 

 Mohave Desert (Barstow, Jepson 5188) ; upper San Joaquin Valley. 



Eefs. — Croton californicus Muell. Arg. ; DC. Prod. 15=':691 (1866) ; Abrams, Fl. Los Ang. 

 ed. 2, 212 (1917) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 261 (1901), ed. 2, 245 (1911), Man. 596, fig. 591 

 (1925). Hendecandra procunibens Esch. Mem. Acad. Petersb. 10:287 (1826), type loc. San 

 Francisco, Chamisso; not Croton procumbens Jacq. (1769). Var. major Wats. Bot. Cal. 2:69 

 (1880), type loc. Santa Barbara, Nuttall; Jepson, I.e. Var. tenuis Ferg. Eep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 12:64, pi. 27, fig. 1 (1901) ; Jepson, I.e. C. tenuis Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14:297 (1879), type 

 loc. Potrero, San Diego Co., Cleveland. Var. longipes Ferg. I.e. 65, pi. 27, figs. 2-3; Jepson, I.e. 

 C. longipes Jones, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, 5:721 (1895), type loc. near Leeds, Utah, Jones 

 5213. Var. mohavensis Ferg. I.e. 65, type loc. Soda Lake, Mohave Desert, Cooper; Jepson, I.e. 



5. ARGYTHAMNIA Swartz 



Herbs or herb-like, ours perennial, the stems often woody below. Flowers usu- 

 ally monoecious, in very short or reduced axillary spikes or clusters consisting of 

 about 2 to 5 flowers. Sepals 5, nearly- distinct, hairy. Petals 5, straw-color, alter- 

 nate with the calyx-lobes and with the lobes of the glandular disk. Glands 5, set 

 between the petal-claws. Stamens (in ours) 10 to 15, the filaments united into a 

 central column, disposed in sets of 5, the third or upper whorl sterile. Anthers erect 

 in the bud. Styles 3, once to thrice forked. Seeds shallowly pitted or reticulate. — 

 Species 45, tropical and subtropical North and South America and south to Chile. 

 (Greek arguros, silver, and thammos, bush, the species often hoary.) 



Herbage pubescent to strigose ; capsule hairy. 



Plants without glands (rarely present in young leaves) ; stipules non-glandular, bract-like 



and dry or forming a hairy tuft. 



Sepals wholly green ; branches loosely spreading from the root-crovra, fragile, sparsely 



leafy; upper leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate, sericeous.... 1. A. sericophylla. 



Sepals green with white-scarious margins ; branches closely clustered on the root-crown, 



not markedly brittle, leafy; upper leaves lanceolate to ovate, long-strigose 



2. A. serrata. 

 Plants with glands, the teeth or marginal bristles of the leaves, sepals (of the pistillate 



flowers) and bracts tipped with glands; stipules green with gland-tipped teeth _. 



Z. A. clariana. 

 Herbage light green, glabrous ; capsule glabrous 4. A. calif ornica. 



1. A. sericophylla Gray. (Fig. 217.) Stems slender, much-branched at the 

 nodes and inextricably interlaced, very brittle, somewhat woody below, 8 to 18 

 inches high; herbage silvery-strigose; leaf -blades lanceolate to linear or oblong, 

 acute, % to 1^ inches long; sepals ovate to lanceolate; sterile whorl of stamens 

 stellate, that is, reduced to 5 very short lobes stellately arranged, or obsolete ; petals 

 white, deltoid to lance-ovate, abruptly short-clawed, hairy on the back; seeds gray 

 with shallow circular pits and stellate markings. 



