﻿48 PLANTS FENDLERIAN.E. 



raised the plant. The petals are white, and expand just before sunset, as mentioned 

 above ; they vary from an inch and a half to three fourths of an inch in length. In all 

 the specimens I have seen, from various localities, the ovary is more or less foliolose-brac- 

 teate at the base, and sometimes as conspicuously so as in M. ornata itself. 



242. M. multiflora, Nutt. PL Gamb. in Jour. Acad. Philad. n. ser. 1. p. 180? 

 under Bartonia. Santa Fe ; June, July. Flower seldom open in the day-time. Also 

 along the Arkansas near Bent's Fort ; Sept. (I have not seen the latter specimens.) — 

 The specimens are a foot or more in height, with most of the leaves rather deeply pinna- 

 tifid, and flowers about one fourth larger than those of an original specimen of Nuttall's 

 Bartonia pumila in Dr. Torrey's herbarium, with which, except in the greater size, they 

 accord tolerably well. The stems become bright white with age, as in other species. 

 The petals apparently straw-color, perhaps white, are one half or one third of an inch in 

 length, obovate or spatulate and rather obtuse, except with age, exceeding the subulate 

 calyx-segments, and longer than the ovary. The outer filaments are conspicuously dilat- 

 ed. I have the same species, apparently, from Coulter's Califomian collection, but with 

 rather larger flowers, and more interruptedly pinnatifid leaves. In Dr. Torrey's herba- 

 rium I notice specimens, for the most part imperfect, referable either to this plant or 

 to M. pumila itself, gathered on the Upper Platte or Arkansas by Dr. James in Long's 

 expedition, and in the valley of the Rio del Norte, New Mexico, by Lieut. Emory. I 

 can hardly doubt that it is the Bartonia multiflora of Nuttall, although the petals are not 

 quite so large as he describes them. There is a related species in Texas, which I have 

 also flowered in cultivation.* 



1 243. M. nuda, var. ? with more undivided leaves and smaller blossoms. Low prai- 

 rie, near the Mora River ; August. 



* Mentzelia (Bartonia) Wrightii (sp. nov.) : annua, hirsuluto-scabra ; caule (bipedali) simplici vel 

 paniculato ; foliis oblongo-lanceolatis grosse sinuato-dentatis, infimis in petiolum attenuatis, superioribus basi 

 truncata vel subauriculato-dilatata arete sessilibus ; bracteolis 1 - 2 linearibus integris ovarium ada?quantibus ; 

 floribus parvulis ochroleucis ; petalis 10 lanceolato-spathulatis lacinias calycis vix superantibus ovario cylindrico 

 brevioribus; filamentis omnibus lineari-subulatis exterioribus paulo dilatatis; placentis 3 polyspermis ; semini- 

 bus alatis. — On sand-bars in the Colorado, opposite Bastrop, Texas, Mr. Wright. — The wild specimens 

 are scarcely two feet high, with a nearly simple upright stem ; the leaves only 2 or 3 inches long. Those 

 raised from seed in the Cambridge Botanic Garden attained a greater height, branched copiously, and con- 

 tinued to flower through the summer and until arrested by frost. It bore cauline leaves of from 4 to 6 inches 

 in length and an inch or more in breadth ; the upper ones closely sessile by a more or less dilated and 

 truncate base. The leaves are regularly pinnatifid-sinuate into 8 or 10 pairs of coarse and obtuse teeth, 

 rather than lobes, on each side. The flowers open at sunset, or sometimes in a cloudy day ; the narrow pe- 

 tals barely one third of an inch in length. Capsule subclavate-cylindrical, an inch long, very rough. 



