84 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



PARisnELLA Californica. Ilerba exigua, monocarpica, glabella ; 

 foliis spathuhitis cum Horibus axillaribus brevipeduiiculatis in collo 

 rosulato-confertis mox proliferis, ramis depressis iuferne nudis ; corolla 

 alba. — At Rabbit Springs, in the Mohave Desert, May, 1882, S. B. 

 & ir. F. Parisli. It is interesting indeed to add to our Flora a second 

 genus of the very peculiar tribe to which Nemacladas of Nuttall be- 

 longs. The habit of this little plant is quite unlike that of its nearest 

 relative ; but the floral structure is very similar. The comparatively 

 large and foliaceous calyx-lobes, completely adnate ovary, and the 

 short and regular almost rotate corolla, furnish good generic characters ; 

 and above all there is the subapical circumscissile dehiscence. The 

 capsule is indeed a pyxidium, the broad and low conical apex within 

 the calyx-lobes falling away as a lid. The plant forms a small slen- 

 der-rooted tuft, close to the ground, of spatulate entire leaves, which 

 are only a quarter or half an inch long, subtending short-peduncled 

 flowers : the calyx-lobes, of one or two' lines in length, soon much sur- 

 pass the white corolla. In the manner common to many of these 

 desert annuals, three or four radical branches are sent out with a long 

 naked internode, and at apex a tuft of leaves and flowers like the 

 primary one, these again proliferous, «fec. As there is already a genus 

 Parishia in another part of the world, I have to adopt a different form 

 in naming this small but very interesting plant in honor of the discov- 

 erers, my invaluable correspondents, two brothers of great botanical 

 zeal and acuteness, who in the few years of their residence in San 

 Bernardino have wonderfully opened up the botany of that portion of 

 California, having already sent us many new plants of that region, in 

 excellent specimens, and most kindly in every way assisted us and 

 other botanists. A brief note upon this plant was published in Coul- 

 ter's Botanical Gazette, vii. (1882) 94. 



Ericacece. 



Gaultheria. The two forms of G. Myrsinites, which are indi- 

 cated in the Synoptical Flora of North America, now known to us in 

 abundant specimens from various stations, atid recently by complete 

 specimens with notes from W. N. Suksdorf of Washington Terri- 

 tory, are manifestly of two species, with the following distinguishing 

 characters : — 



Gacltheria Myrsinites, Ilook. Cajspitoso-depressa, undique 

 glabra ; foliis ovalibus vel rotundatis plerumque semipollicaribus ; 

 corolla depresso-carapanulata calycem parum snperante. — Alpine 

 and subalpine meadows and damp hillsides, in the Rocky Mountains 



