Mijosurus. RANUNCULACEA^. 19 



(A. vernalis) sometimes cultivated for ornament, and the following a precariously 

 naturalized weed. — Cat. PI. Giss. App. 109, t. 4; L. Gen. no. 465. 



A. autumnAlis, L. Low annual, summer-flowering, leafy : petals scarlet or crimson or j^aler, 

 with a dark spot at base : mature akeues rugose-reticulate, short-pointed. — Spec. ed. 2, 

 i. 771 ; Schk. Handb. t. 152; Hook. PI. Bor.-Am. i. 9 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 15. A. annua, 

 L. Spec. i. 547, in part. — Labrador, herb. Hooker, doubtless a transient introduction. 

 Sparingly and occasionally met with in and near fields, especially in S. Atlantic and Gulf 

 States. (Nat. from Eu.) 



8. MYOStJRUS, Dill. Mousetail. (Name from ju,{;s, a mouse, and 

 ovpa, tail, alludes to the shape of spike of pistils.) — Very small annuals, of tem- 

 perate countries ; with linear or filiform or at first spatulate entire leaves in a 

 radical tuft, and simple one-flowered scapes ; the yellowish or whitish flower suc- 

 ceeded by the slender spike or (in depauperate specimens) oblong head of carpels. 

 These are in all the species more or less follicular, dehiscing suturally when they 

 separate from the axis, liberating the seed ! Sjjur or appendage to the sepals 

 variable, in some flowers obsolete. — Cat. PI. Giss. App. 106, t. 4 (as Myosuron) i 

 L. Gen. no. 2bl } 



* Mature carpels with back carinate from base to apex (and commonly but variably pro- 

 longed into a tip or beak), not suberose- or cellular-tliickeued. 



M. apetalus, Gay. Petals not rarely wanting : body of the akene oblong, or semi-ovate, 

 utricular, thin or even scarious ; the narrow thickened back traversed by a salient greenish 

 keel: seed oblong. — Fl. Chil. i. 31, t. 1; Gray, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 2. M. aristatus, 

 Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. 458 ; Wats. Bot. King Exp. 5 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. 

 Calif, i. 5 ; Hook. f. Fl. N. Zeal. i. 8. — Mountains of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho to Brit. 

 Columbia, California, and Arizona; first coll. by Getjer. (Chili, New Zealand, &c.) The 

 typical form has carpel-spike from near an inch long and linear-cylindrical down to quarter 

 inch and ovoid-oblong, and more or le-ss squarrose by the prolongation of the salient keel of 

 the carpels into a subulate ascending or spreading beak, which is sometimes as long as the 

 body of the akene itself, but is occasionally erect and much shorter.'^ 



Va,r. lepturus, Gray. Slender : carpel-spike narrower ; carpels mostly smaller, 

 beakless or very short-pointed : seed elongated-oblong. — Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 2. M. mini- 

 mus, var. filiforviis, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. i. 277, in small part. M. australis, Muell. 

 Trans. Phil. Soc. Victoria, i. 6 (1855), & M. miniwus, Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 81 — Same 

 range, or nearly, from many collectors, and with intermediate forms ; passed in various col- 

 lections as Af. minimus. 



M. minimus, L. Carpel-spil<e commonly elongated, inch or two long: mature carpels 

 somewhat quadrate, witli broader usually rhomboidal and flat l)ack, traversed l)y very low 

 keel, ending in a short and appressed or often obsolete pointed tij) (in eastern s)jecimens the 

 tip often wholly wanting, as in fig. Schk. Handb. t. 88, & Gray, Gen. 111. i. 28); the body 

 less utricular and thicker-walled: seed oval. — Spec. i. 284; Gray, 1. c. i. 28, t. 8; Baill. 

 Hist. PI. i. 42, f. 71-75. M. Shortii, Raf. Am. Journ. Sci. i. 379. — Low ground, Illinois 

 to Florida and west to Washington and California. A variety from California (also Sicilian) 

 has fruiting scapes only 2 to 6 lines long.^ (En., N. Afr.) 



M. sessilis, Watson. Flowers and cylindrical (lialf inch long and a line thick) carpel- 

 spikes sessile at the crown ; the latter in a spreading tuft, much .shorter than the leaves : 

 carpels with oval scarious utricular body and narrow acutely carinate green back, continued 



1 Further literature: E. L. Greene, Revi.sion, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. i. 276-279; A. Gray, Notes 

 on Myosurus, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 1-4; E. Hutli, Revision, in Engl. Jalirb. xvi. 283-286. 



2 M. aristatus, var. sessiliflorus, E. Hutli 1. c. 286, from N. W. Solano, Calif., Jei)son, differs only 

 in its sessile flowers. 



3 This is the M. hreviscapus, var. Californicus of Hutli, 1. c. 285, but appears to be thoroughly 

 confluent with M. minimus. 



