174 HYDROPHYLLACE^. Nama. 



* Leaves decurrent on the stem. 



N. Jamaicense, L. Diffusely spreading or prostrate, soft-pubescent : leaves membrana- 

 ceous (an inch or two long), broadly obovate or spatulate, tapering into a petiole-like base 

 which is continued into wing-like margins of the stem : flowers mostly solitary, terminal 

 and soon extra-axillary, short-pedicelled : corolla white, hardly longer than the narrow 

 linear sepals: capsule narrow oblong. — Lam. 111. t. 184; P. Browne, Jam. t. 18. — Low 

 grounds, Texas, Florida. (W. Ind., Mexico.) 



* * Leaves not decurrent. 

 4_ Cauline leaves all sessile, the upper by a more or less clasping base : villous-pubescent and 

 somewhat viscid: seeds very numerous. 



N. undulatum, HBK. Erect, diffusely branched, at length procumbent, leafy : branches 

 a span to a foot long : leaves oblong ; the upper with a broad sessile base, the lower spatu- 

 late : flowers commonly subsessile : corolla funnelform, somewhat longer than the linear- 

 spatulate sepals : capsule oblong, more or less shorter than the sepals : seeds oval, with a 

 smooth and thin diaphanous coat, which is obscurely striate lengthwise and minutely 

 pitted under a strong lens. — HBK. Nov. Gen. & Spec. iii. 130. (Mexico.) 



Var. raacranthum, Chois. (Hydrol. 18, t. 2, fig. 1) ; a looser and less leafy form, 

 with flowers (sohtary or 2 and 3 together) on pedicels which vary from 1 to 5 lines long; 

 corolla (4 or 5 lines long) almost twice the length, and capsule only about half the length 

 of the spatulate-tipped sepals. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 330. N. Berlandierl, Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. viii. 2b2. — Texas, along the Rio Grande near its mouth, and on the Mexican 

 side of the river. 



N. stenocarpum, Gray. Like the preceding, or sometimes with narrower leaves : 

 pedicels, if any, short and rigid in fruit: capsule cylindrical, nearly linear (3 lines long), 

 nearly equalling the narrow linear sepals : seeds short, angled by mutual pressure, with a 

 thickish and opaque strongly reticulated and somewhat alveolate coat (only a quarter of 

 a line long). — Proc. Am. Acad. x. 331. N. undulatum, Gray, 1. c. viii. 282, not HBK. — 

 Texas near the mouth of the Rio Grande, Berlandier. Along the northern borders of 

 Mexico to the province of Sonora on the borders of Arizona, Palmer. 



^^ ^_- Leaves not at all clasping, more or less tapering at base, at least the lower petioled. 

 ++ Corolla narrow-funnelform, mostly much longer than the calyx: seeds oval, with a thin and 

 diaphanous close coat: flowers subsessile or short-peduncled. 



N. hispidum, Gray. A span to a foot high, repeatedly forked, hispid or hirsute : 

 leaves broadly or narrowly lincar-spatulate, most of the cauline ones sessile : flowers 

 lateral and solitary, or 3 to 5 in terminal unilateral nearly bractless clusters : sepals nar- 

 rowly linear, very little if at all broadened upwards : capsule narrowly oblong, 30-40- 

 seeded: seeds smooth, very obscurely rugulose when highly magnified. — Proc. Am. Acad. 

 V. 339, & Bot. Calif, i. 517. N. Jamaicensis, Engelm. & Gray, PI. Lindh., not Linn. N. 

 dichotoma & N. bijlora, var. spathidata, partly, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 147, &c. — Plains and 

 prairies, Texas to Arizona, and south-eastern borders of California. The extreme western 

 form, with softer pubescence, sometimes has 3 or 4 styles and placenta?. 



N. demissum, Gray. Dwarf, diffuse or depressed, 2 or 3 inches high, hirsute-pubescent, 

 sometimes hispid: leaves linear-spatulate, all or most of them tapering into a petiole: 

 flowers subsessile in the forks: sepals very narrowly linear, not at all broader upwards : 

 capsule short-oblong, lO-lO-seeded : seeds much larger than in the preceding (oval or 

 oblong, a quarter to a third of a line long). — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 283 (mainly) ; Watson, 

 Bot. king. 259, 400; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 517. — Interior desert region, Washington Terr, to 

 Nevada, and Utah (form with corolla only 3 lines long) ; also S. Utah, Arizona, and the 

 south-eastern borders of California ; the latter forms witli ami)ler purple or crimson corolla, 

 4, 5, or nearly G lines long. Filaments very imequally inserted, their adnate bases with 

 somewhat free margins. 



N. Coulteri, Gray. Diffusely branched from tlie base, ascending, a span high, hirsute- 

 pubescent, somewhat viscid: leaves oblong-spatulate, the lower tapering into a jjetiole : 

 flowers mostly in the forks and short-pedicelled : sepals with spatulate-dilated tips, not 

 half the length of the narrow funnelform corolla: capsule narrowly oblong, 50-60-seeded : 

 seeds short-oval, obscurely rugulose-pitted. — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 283, & Bot. Calif. 517. 

 — "California," Coulter. But probably from Arizona or the adjacent part of Mexico. 

 Corolla 5 lines long. 



