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12 PITTONIA 



* * Stolonifcrous pereiuiials ; roots all fibrous and superficial 



2. L. ADSURGENS. Stems from 8 inches to a yard long, 

 5-wing-angled, stoutisli but tongli and flexible, decumbent or 

 nearly prostrate, the spicate branches assurgent or nearly 

 erect: herbage pallid, glabrous, a little succulent: leaves 

 alternate, linear, sessile, in age revolute : corolla minute, pale 

 jmrple or almost wliite : calyx 2^ lines long, 12-striate, in 

 maturity the stri;e all widened and thicker at the base ; teeth 

 minute, subulate, the intermediate processes broad, low, 

 mucronulate. 



Plentiful in low meadow lands adjacent to the salt marshes 

 of San Francisco Bay, especially about West Berkeley, flower- 

 ing early and late. The minute pale flowers, pallor of herbage, 

 and even the characteristics of the calyx indicate close relation- 

 ship to the animal L. Hyssopifolia, The flowers are even 

 smaller than in that species. It is clearly distinct, not only 

 by its perennial root, stoloniferous crown, and coarse nearly 

 prostrate stems ; the stems are 5-angled and all the leaves 

 alternate. 



3. L, Californicum, Torr. & Gray, FL N. Am. i. 482. 



Common and widely dispersed in the State : readily known 

 by its tall strictly erect brittle stems and showy bright purple 

 flowers on the terminal virgate branches. The stride of the 

 calyx are alike above and below ; its teeth shorter than in the 

 two preceding. It inhabits moist springy places among the 

 hills and mountains, but not in such localities exclusively ; it 

 is abundant and of rank growth in the brackish marshes of 

 Suisun Bay. 



* * * Perennial from deep-seated coarse black roots or root- 



siocks ; not stolomferons. 



4 L. Sanfobdi. Stems a foot or two high, erect, brancliod 

 from near the base, acutely 5- or 6-angled : herbage deep 

 green, glabrous : leaves all alternate, linear-oblong, sessile : 



