LOASA FAMILY 527 



Seeds prismatic, appearing smooth, usually grooved on the angles. 



Flowers subtended and partly hidden by herbaceous bracts; five of the filaments pet- 



aloid, produced on either side of anther 9. M. micrantha. 



Flowers not hidden by floral leaves or bracts ; filaments not dilated. 



Petals 1 to 21/^ lines long; leaves commonly entire, rarely toothed-.-lO. M. dispersa. 



Petals 21/4 to 3% lines long; leaves usually deeply pinnatifid 11. M. affinis. 



Seeds irregularly angled, minutely but evidently tuberculate; filaments all filiform or some- 

 what dilated or united at base. 

 Floral bracts -vvhite-membranous, nearly concealing ovary; petals 3 to 6 lines long; fila- 

 ments all filiform 12. M. congesta. 



Floral bracts not white-membranous, not concealing ovary. 



Petals 12 to 15 lines long; about 15 of the filaments with somewhat dilated bases; 



cismontane 13. M. lindleyi. 



Petals 1 to 7 lines long; filaments all filiform or dilated and somewhat united at 

 base. 

 Petals ZVz to 7 lines long; stems greenish, usually puberulent, except vars. 



nitens and eremophila; coastal and interior 14. If. gracilenta. 



Petals 1 to 3 lines long; stems very white, often glabrous; transmontane 

 deserts 15. If. albicaulis. 



1. M. laevicaulis T. & G. Blazing Star. Stout branching biennial, 2 to 3I/2 

 feet high, with shining white nearly smooth steins; leaf -blades narrowly oblong or 

 lanceolate, sinuately toothed, 3 to 9 inches long; flowers in clusters of 2 or 3 at 

 the ends of the branches, 3 to 4 inches broad; calyx-segments lanceolate, 1 to I14 

 inches long, reflexed in fruit; petals broadly oblanceolate, light yellow, 1% to 2^/2 

 inches long, the numerous stamens almost as long; 5 stamens with petaloid fila- 

 ments; capsule narrowly oblong, II/4 to 1% inches long; seeds flat, obovate, 1% 

 to 2 lines long, with a thin margin I/4 to Yo line wide. 



Sand and gravel bars in river bottoms or on dry hillsides, 200 to 7000 feet : 

 cismontane Southern California north of San Diego Co.; Mohave Desert; east side 

 of the Sierra Nevada from Inyo Co. to Modoc Co.; Sierra Nevada foothills from 

 Tulare Co. to Plumas Co. ; inner and middle Coast Ranges from Monterey Co. to 

 Siskiyou Co. East to AVyoming, north to Washington. June-Oct. 



Geog. note. — Mentzelia laevicaulis is conspicuously a tenant of the bottoms of winter flood 

 streams in the interior. It does not enter the Kedwood belt save on its inner border in a few 

 favorable stream-bed localities and everywhere keeps back of the coast line, except perhaps near 

 the coast southward. On the plain of the Great Valley it never occurs, probably, except in stream 

 beds near the foothills, but it is found throughout the Sierra Nevada foothills save that, as in the 

 case of a number of other foothill species, it skips the Kaweah Kiver system as it ranges south. 

 By the Spanish-Californians it is called Buena Mujer. 



Locs. — Cismontane S. Cal.: San Jacinto Valley, C. V. Meyer 209; Mentone, B. J. Smith; 

 San Bernardino Mts. (PI. World 20:223) ; Lytle Creek Canon, San Antonio Mts., Abrams 2686; 

 Mono Flat, Santa Barbara Co., A. L. Grant 1686. Transmontane: Whitewater Canon, e. end 

 San Bernardino Mts., Clary 11; Providence Mts., e. Mohave Desert, T. Brandegee; Black Canon, 

 White Mts., Duran 2848; Truckee, Sonne; Honey Lake, ace. L. S. Smith; Lake City, e. Modoc Co., 

 Jepson 7924. Sierra Nevada foothills: Jordan Hot Sprs., Tulare Co., Elsie Zeile 104; Tehipite 

 Valley, Fresno Co., E. Ferguson 529; Mormon Creek, Tuolunme Co., W. J. Williamson 325; 

 betw. Smartsville and Marysville, ace. L. S. Smith; Challenge, Yuba Co., ace. L. S. Smith; Twain, 

 Plumas Co., E. Fritz. Coast Eanges: Cruikshank Creek, Monterey Co., Gondii; White Sulphur 

 Creek, St. Helena, Jepson 9830; Winters, Jepson; Berryessa Valley, J. W. Gastner; Healdsburg, 

 Jepson 9429 ; Ukiah, Gondii ; Grindstone Creek near junction Stony Creek, w. Glenn Co., Jepson 

 16,311; Old Camp Grant, Eel Elver, Jepson 16,397; Yreka, Butler 1789. 



Refs. — MENTZELL4. LAEVICAULIS T. & G. Fl. 1:535 (1840); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 323 

 (1901), ed. 2, 268 (1911), Man. 649, fig. 641 (1925). Bartonia laevicaulis Dougl.; Hook. Fl. 

 Bor. Am. 1:221, t. 69 (1834), type loc. Great Falls of the Columbia Eiver, Douglas. Touterea 

 laevicaulis Rydb. Bull. Torr. Club 30:276 (1903). Nuttallia laevicaulis Greene, Lflts. 1:210 

 (1906). Bartonia parviflora Dougl.; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1:221 (1834), type loc. interior parts 

 of the Columbia Eiver, Douglas. M. parviflora Mcbr. Contrib. Gray Herb. 65:41 (1922) ; not 

 M. parviflora Hel. (1898) or Acrolasia parviflora Hel. (1906). Bartonia ornata Hook. Lond. 

 Jour. Bot. 6:226 (1847), type loc. cataracts of Spokane Eiver, Geyer; not B. ornata Pursh (1818). 

 M. ornata Torr. Stansb. Exp. Great Salt Lake 387 (1852), type loc. islands of Salt Lake, Stans- 

 hury; not M. ornata T. & G. (1840). 



2. M. multiflora Gray. Yerba Amarilla. Stem shining- white, freely and 

 often diffusely'- branched, 8 to 24 inches high; herbage harshly short-hispid; leaf- 



