WEST AMERICAN ASPERIFOLIR. 119 
nutlets. There is an additional character, belonging to the 
vegetative organs, which none but the collector would be 
likely to take cognizance of, i. e, a peculiar brittleness of 
texture in the present species. The var. calycosa is of singu- 
lar appearance when compared with the type, but is no doubt 
best left as Dr. Gray has placed it. 
97. C. AFFINIS = K. affinis, Gray, 1. e. 
98. C.GEMINATA. Size, habit, pubescence, etc., of the last : 
calyx a line or more long, segments without attenuate tips 
and little exceeding the nutlets, these also like those of C. 
affinis in outline, but closely appressed to each other iu 
‘pairs, and all four somewhat laterally attached to the gyno- 
ase | 
I have heretofore spoken of the singular pairing off of the 
four nutlets in Oreocarya suffruticosa, and in Sonnea hispida. 
In the present remarkable plant the groove of the nutlet is as | 
in C. affinis except that it runs up and down, not in the 
middle but very near one edge, so that the nutlets themselves 
sit in the calyx, very flatly face to face in pairs. The ovary 
itself is obviously compressed, and thus, in young calyces, 
when dried under pressure, the circumstance might pass for 
a result of the mere accident of pressing for the herbarium. 
But the perfectly ripe fruit exhibits unmistakably all the 
characteristics above ascribed; and, what is more, the col- 
lectors of the ‘species both assure me that it is an obvious 
mark of the plant as seen growing. Aside from this, the 
short segments of the calyx (not concealing, but freely 
exposing the curiously geminate-compressed fruit) are about 
the only mark by which the species is seen to be distinct from 
its relative and associate. I say associate because the two 
Species grow together in the neighborhood of Truckee, Cal., 
where they have been abundantly collected by Mrs. Curran 
and by Mr. Sonne. C. geminata I have not met with from 
elsewhere. 
