Ammobroma. DrAPENSIACE^. 51 



a thin fleshy at length dry epicarp which ruptures transversely, as if circumscissile, 

 liberating the ring of numerous seed-like nutlets : these are crustaceous, lenticular, 

 and separable. Seed with a very thin proper coat : albumen farinaceous and 

 oily: embryo (according to Solms) minute, globular and undivided, i.e. as in 

 Monotropeae. — Torr. in Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii. 5G ; Solms-Laubach, Abhand. Nat. 

 Halle, xi. 1-60 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. G21. 



Lennoa (ComUophijUi(m, IIBK.),tho rcMTiaininy: gomis of this small and very singular natural 

 order, is Mexican, with coralloid branching stems, and the stamens in two sets ; the cells of 

 the anther divergent. 



1. PHOLISMA. Flowers sessile and densely spieate. Sepals G, rarely 5, linear, naked, 

 shorter than the corolla; the short lobes of tiie latter mostly G, undulate-plicate, spread- 

 ing. Stamens (5 or sometimes 5, in a single row : anthers oblong, the cells parallel. 

 Fruit 18-2-1-eelled. 



2. AMMOBROMA. Flowers sliort-pedieelled, thickly covering the expanded and hol- 

 lowed receptaele. Sepals mostly 1(J, liliform, plumose-hairy, papi)us-like, equalling the 

 corolla; the mostly 6 lobes of which are erect, retuse, hardly plicate. Stamens 6 to 10 

 in a single row. Anthers, pistils, &c., as in PhoUsma. 



1. PHOLISMA, Nutt. (From rpoA/V, a scale, referring to the scaly stem.) 

 — Single species. 



P. arenarium, Nutt. Herb brownish or reddish, with simple stems, in clnmps, a span 

 or more high, somewhat glandular-puberulent, stout, beset with short and narrow scattered 

 scales: spike dense, oblong or cylindraceous (an inch or two long): iiowers purplish 

 (4 lines long), rather longer than the linear bracts. — Hook. Ic. t. G26; Gray, Bot. Calif. 

 i. 46i. — Sandy soil, Monterey to San Diego, California, Nnttull, &c. Parasitic on the roots 

 of Eriodicti/nn tomentosum, according to I). Cleveland, also apparently upon those of some 

 Clematis. Flowers produced in spring. Nutlets half a line long, oval. Albumen of the 

 seed oily. Embryo not seen. 



2. AMMOBROMA, Torr. (Formed of «/(,ho,-, sand, and ^pco/(«, food.) — 

 Single species. 



A. Sonorae, Torr. Root of tortuous fibres : stems simple, 2 to 4 feet long (but mainly 

 buried in sand), three fourths to an inch and a half in diameter, fleshy, gradually tapering 

 upward, but at summit dilated into an obconical dilated receptacle of 2 inches in diameter, 

 funnelform inside and lined with the flowers : scales lanceolate, acute, appressed, or on 

 the receptacle reflexed : corolla purple, 4 lines long: ovaiy about 20-celled. — Mem. Am. 

 Acad. V. 827, & Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. viii. 51, 1. 1 ; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 464 ; Solms-Lau- 

 bach, 1. c. t. 1. — Desert sand-hills, Adair Bay, near the head of the Gulf of California, 

 beyond the limits of the United States, Col. A. B. Graij. Arizona, between Pilot Knob 

 and Cook's Wells, Srhnchard. The plant upon the roots of which it is parasitic is un- 

 known. The roasted stems are edible and even luscious ; they are said to be an important 

 article of food of the Papigos Indians. 



Order LXXIX. DIAPENSIACEiE. 



Low perennial herbs or suffruticulose tufted plants, wholly glabrous ornearly so, 

 with alternate simple leaves, no stipules, regular nnd symmetrical 5-merous flowers, 

 except the pistil which is 3-merous and the ovary 3-celled, stamens adnate to the 

 corolla or connate with each other, those opposite its lobes when present reduced 

 to sterile appendages (staminodia), anthers mostly transversely or obliquely de- 

 hiscent, pollen simple, and capsule and seeds of Ericacece. Flowers perfect, soli- 

 tary or racemose. Calyx and corolla imbricated in the bud, hypogynous, or with 

 slight adnation to base of ovary ; the former persistent, the latter deciduous. 



