122 COULTER AND ROSE 



and with white margin ; upper stem leaves sessile, aurlculate at base, 

 clasping, gradually smaller upward ; heads in threes, or solitary on the 

 lateral branches, long peduncled, hemispherical, shorter than the bracts ; 

 involucre of 9 to 12 rigid, narrow oblong bracts, 6 to 1 3 mm. long, 

 mostly rounded at apex, very short spinose, mostly with 3 spinose 

 teeth above the middle, with rarely 2 or 3 additional teeth ; involucels 

 of subulate incurved bractlets from a broad base, at length rigid, ex- 

 ceeding the flowers ; calyx-teeth narrow, ovate, subspinose-apiculate ; 

 carpels about 2 mm. long, covered mostly above the middle with acute 

 scales; styles elongated, recurved; oil-tubes small, mostly 5, of which 

 2 are on the commissural side. 



Chiapas: near San Cristobal, altitude 2100-3640 meters, JV^e/son 

 3151, in 1895. 



A species intermediate between Ji. longirametun and E. scaposum, 

 differing in its long-petioled, oblong basal leaves, cuneate at base. 



Eryngium paucisquamosum Hemsl. in Hook. Icon. IV. 6: -pi. 2505. 

 1897. Plate III b. 



Perennial, apparently stoloniferous, glabrous throughout ; stem 

 erect, very slender, 2 to 6 dm. high, almost naked, bearing 3 to 5 

 heads ; leaves thick, somewhat fleshy ; basal and lower ones long- 

 petioled, oblong or elliptical, without the petiole 3.5 to 4.5 cm. long, 

 slightly cordate at base, rounded at apex, crenulate and margined, 

 conspicuously veiny beneath, on a slender petiole 5 to 7-5 cm. long; 

 upper leaves few, sessile, narrower, half-clasping ; heads mostly 3 to 5, 

 subglobose, 6 to 8 mm. in diameter, on slender peduncles, lateral 

 peduncles bibracteate near the middle, terminal peduncles naked ; in- 

 volucre of 7 to 10 (mostly 9) thick, rigid, oblong-lanceolate bracts 4 

 to 8 mm. long, subacute, entire or very rarely bidenticulate, at length 

 reflexed, blue ; involucels of scarious bractlets, abruptly subulate- 

 acuminate from a broad base, curved, exceeding the flowers ; flowers 

 few, blue; calyx-teeth lanceolate, scarious, apiculate, scarcely I'igid, 

 as long as the carpels ; carpels semiovoid, without the calyx-teeth about 

 I mm. long, with very few scales; styles divaricate, exceeding the 

 calyx-teeth; oil-tubes very small, 5, of which 3 are on the commis- 

 sural side. 



Oaxaca : mountains near Tlapancingo, altitude 1800-3400 meters, 

 Nelson 2083, December 7, 1894. 



Guerrero: summit of Sierra Madre near Chilpancingo, altitude 

 2700-3060 meters, Nelson 2313, December 24, 1894. 



Nearest E. ghiesbreghtil, but differs in its thicker, oblong, crenate 

 leaves, and more numerous and contiguous involucral bracts. 



Eryngium rosei Hemsl. in Hook. Icon. IV. 6 : pi. 2^79. 1897. Fig. 3. 



Perennial, subscapose, glabrous throughout; leaves coriaceous; 

 basal ones distincly petiolate, strongly unequal, oblong, oblong-ovate, 

 elliptical, or sometimes almost orbicular, without the petiole 1.5 to 5 

 cm. long, the margin beset with long aculeate bristles ; upper leaves few 



