CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY. 17 



involucres i line long-. Mojave Desert. Blooms in the fall. 



E. Baileyi var. porphyreticum Stokes. 



This is an intermediate form with involucres i line long and 

 minute flowers. Grows at Palisade, Nevada, along with E. brachy- 

 anthum, in the Lower Temperate life zone. 



E. nidularium Coville Death Valley Rep. i86. 



Coville takes up the E. Plumatella T. & G. Proc. Am. Acad. 8 

 179 (not Dur. & Hilg.) and rightly makes it a new species, but 

 he falls into the same error in part as those whom he copies, and 

 thereby continues the confusion. Torrey and Gray there had three 

 species or well defined fonns in view, the original E. Plumatella, 

 E. gracilc, T. & G. (not Benth), and E. nidularium. Their de- 

 scription of E. plumatella so far as it refers to the Nevada forms 

 is for the most part their E. gracile, but that part referring to 

 the incurved inflorescence belongs with what Coville intended 

 should be his E. nidularium. Since they describe their species as 

 having white or red flowers and only sometimes incurved inflor- 

 escence, and since those forms without the incurved inflores- 

 cence are common in Nevada and belong to a good species wholly 

 distinct from E. gracile they must take the name E. nidularium, 

 for Coville's description of his species follows his reference to the 

 E. Plumatella of T. & G. as his type. This leaves the plant 

 of Coville without a name, and it is now supplied as E. nidularium 

 tinct species, characterized by the lemon-yellow flowers wath very 

 var. Lnciense. To most botanists it would appear as a very dis- 

 wide and pan duri form outer sepals, and nest-like inflorescence, 

 but there are intergrading forms. 



E. nidularium Coville. 



Like the variety but more open and usually less branched; 

 involucres about i line long : flowers white with green or red mid- 

 rib, about 3'4-Iine long, outer sepals moderately enlarged at tip and 

 somewhat rhomboidal ; ends of the flower clusters not incurved 



