BORAGINACEAE. 305 



1. E. micrantha (Torr.) Greene. Hirsute-canescent throughout; 

 stems slender, erect, diffusely branched from the base, 6-12 cm. 

 high; leaves linear, 4-10 mm. long; flowers crowded; corolla scarcely 

 2 mm. long, its lobes about 1 mm. long, obscurely appendaged at 

 the throat; nutlets oblong-ovate, acuminate, smooth or nearly so, 

 about 1 mm. long. 



Frequent in dry washes in the interior valleys. 



2. E. lepida (Gray) Greene. Stems stouter than in the last, 

 8-15 cm. high; corolla larger, its limb 4-6 mm. broad, appendages 

 conspicuous; nutlets nearly 2 mm. long, pectinate-scabrous. 



Frequent in the dry interior foothills of San Diego and San 

 Bernardino Counties. 



5. PIPTOCALYX Torr. 



Hispid-canescent low diffusely branching annuals, 

 leafy-racemose throughout. Calyx villous-hispid, 5-cleft 

 to the middle, circumscissile near the middle, the lower 

 scarious part together with the short pedicel persistent; 

 the lobes herbaceous, filiform, hispid-bristly, nerveless. 

 Nutlets 4, not carinate, margined, scabrous-roughened 

 or smooth and shining, the ventral groove divaricate- 

 forked at base. 



1. P. circumscissus (H. & A.) Torr. Strongly hirsute-canescent 

 throughout; stems much branched from the base, forming rounded 

 tufts, 4-6 cm. high; leaves linear, those of the racemes 4-5 mm. long; 

 flowers crowded; corolla minute, naked; nutlets oblong-ovate, acute, 

 smooth or minutely puncticulate-scabrous. 



Frequent in dry stony or sandy places in the interior foothills 

 and mountains. Mount Wilson; Lytle Creek Canyon; Bear Valley. 



6. PLAGIOBOTHRYS F. & M. Pop-corn Flower. 



Rather large but slender annuals with most of their 

 leaves in a close basal tuft, the elongated branches erect 

 or decumbent. Racemes spike-like, elongated, loose, 

 naked or leafy-bracted ; pedicels very short, filiform, per- 

 sistent. Calyx 5-cleft or 5-parted, closed or campanu- 

 late, often irregularly circumscissile near the base. Nut- 

 lets carinate on both sides toward the apex, usually with 

 well-defined lateral margins, the back very irregularly 

 rugose; insertion almost medial on a depressed gymno- 

 base; areola or scar rounded, rarely stipitate. 



Nutlets not stipitate. 



Calyx cleft nearly to the base. 1. P. canescens. 



Calyx cleft only to the middle. 2. P. nothofulvus. 



Nutlets stipitate. 3. P. cooperi. 



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