THE GENUS LYTIIKUM. 



13 



petals 6, showy, bright purple : caljx minutely and sharply 

 12-carinate ; teeth short, triangular, the intervening processes 



nearly equalling them. 



Abundant in rich alluyial fields on the lower San Joaquin 

 Eiver, particularly about Stockton, where, on account of its 

 deep and ineradicable underground growth, it is an unwelcome 

 plant in fields and vineyards. I have my only specimen, and 

 that one not yet well in flower, from a genial and very helpful 

 correspondent, Mr. J. A. Sanford, to whom I am glad to be 

 able to dedicate a species with excellent characters, and at the 

 same time far from unsightly. The coarse greatly elongated 

 and tortuous horizontally running roots, if reached by the 

 plough and cut asunder, give rise to new individuals ; hence 

 some measure of its troublesomeness to farmers and fruit- 



iirowers. 



New or Noteworthy Species 



VI. 



Platystemon crinitus. Subacaulescent, the foliage, scapi- 

 form peduncles, and the calyx densely crinite-hirsute with 

 Avhite soft spreading hairs 3 or 4 lines long: flower buds 



exactly globose : corolla an inch broad, the petals deep green- 

 ish yellow, marcescent-persistent: stamens innumerable: la- 

 ments widely dilated : carpels many, the short torulose pods 

 scarcely longer than the persistent linear stigmas. ^ 



Mountains south of Tehachapi, Kern Co.. California, 24 

 June, L889. A beautiful plant, much less branching than ^P. 

 Ccaifornims and whose pubescence alone ( not to msist on the 

 value of the color and marcesceuce of the petals, form of buds, 

 different habit, etc.) marks it as distinct from that common 



