G56 UMBELLIFERAE 



The life histories of our species of Eryngium as a whole are so slightly known that the 

 specilic units as yet cannot well l)e (leterniined. It is necessary to know well tlio early stages of 

 the plant and also to accumulate definite knowledge concerning the range of variation in the 

 size and character of the bracts and bractlets which arc, on the whole, variable organs. It eccms 

 likely that the embryonic blades produced on the phyllodes of Eryngium jepsonii C. & R. are 

 different morphologically from similar organs in Eryngium vaseyi C. & li. It is probable that 

 knowledge of the life history will afford useful facts conc(M-ning the phylKides or early leaves in 

 the case of all species. This field is one for investigation of the life histories in connection with 

 the problems of life areas. It is likely that in the case of aquatic forms the phyllode stages will 

 not be found as variable as the later leaf stages. 



Sepals entire. 



Heads very blue 1. E. articulaium. 



Heads greenish, seldom blue. 



Blades of lower cauline leaves about 1^ inches long, the petioles several times as long.... 



2. E. alismaefolium. 

 Blades of lower cauline leaves little or not at all exceeded by the petioles. 

 Bracts mostly entire (sometimes with a pair of spiny teeth or bristles). 



Styles in fruit little or not at all exsertcd beyond calyx-lobes; bracts and bract- 

 lets glabrous. 

 Stem diffusely branched from base; leaves serrate or incised; bracts cal- 

 lous-margined 3. E. annatum. 



Stem erect, simple below ; leaves twice pinnately parted ; bracts scarious- 



winged at base 4. E. pimiatisectum. 



Styles in fruit conspicuously exserted beyond calyx-lobes ; bracts and bractlets 



puberulent 5. E. longistylum. 



Bracts more or less spiny-toothed or bristly. 

 Plants prostrate or low-diffuse. 



Heads short- or long-peduncled, borne in an umbellately dichotomous cyme. 

 Stems thickened, retrocurved and basally clustered, shorter than the 



basal leaves ; basal leaves pinnatifid 6. E. viinimum. 



Stems slender, freely branched, not clustered at base, longer than the 



basal leaves; basal leaves oblaneeolate, spinose-toothed 



7. E. aristulatum. 

 Heads short-peduncled, falsely racemose along the elongated branches of 



a once-dichotomous cyme 8. E. racemosum. 



Plants erect or nearly so. 



Bractlets not surpassing the flowers, not spiny-toothed 9. E. jepsonii. 



Bractlets surpassing the flowers, spiny-toothed. 



Leaves merely spinose-toothed or somewhat incised ; bracts and bract- 

 lets spiny-toothed only towards base. 

 Early phyllodes slender (1 to 2 lines thick) ; later phyllodes de- 

 veloping laminal segments on the upper part of their 



axis ; bractlets sometimes without scarious margins 



10. E. vaseyi. 

 Early phyllodes stout (2 to 5 lines thick) ; later phyllodes de- 

 veloping a lamina at tip, the laminae cleft or sub-entire; 



bractlets broadly scarious-margined at base 



11. E. ohlanceolatum. 

 Leaves pinnatifid, laciniately divided into remote narrow segments; 

 segments spinosely toothed. 

 Bracts spiny-toothed at base ; bractlets usually without spiny 



teeth 12. E. parishii. 



Bracts and bractlets spiny-toothed except toward tip „ 



IS. E. castrense. 



Sepals pinnately 3 to 5-euspidate; leaves pinnately divided into remote narrow segments 



14. E. globosum. 



1. E. articulatum Hook. Bee Eryngo. Stem erect, dichotomously branched 

 above, usually with a pedunculate head in the forks, 2 to 3 feet high ; herbage with 

 a strong disagreeable odor ; lower leaves fistulous, elongated, jointed, with or with- 

 out a terminal blade; blade lanceolate or ovate, nearly parallel-veined, entire to 

 spinulose-laciniate ; upper leaves sometimes opposite, more or less laciniate ; heads 

 ovoid, 4 to 8 lines high, blue ; bracts narrowly linear-lanceolate, cuspidate-tipped, 

 more or less spinulose-serrate, 6 to 10 lines long, deflexed; bractlets lanceolate, 



