32 PITTOXIA 



ons) leaves, wliicb are plane (not at all plicate) and not con- 

 spicuously nerved or ribbed, and the absence of the zigzag 

 characteristic of stem and raceme. 



I now retain with this type, a similar plant from the Geysers 

 of Sonoma County, California. The fruit of these is unknown 

 to me. The inference that the " ^S*. s/e/Za/a," AYats. Bot. King, 

 belongs here is unwarranted. The plant of the Donner Lake 

 region appears to be U. siellatum, and such in all probability 

 is that of King's Report. Also Mr. Macoun's Vancouver 

 Island plant referred to by me as possibly U. liUaceum, may 



'/< 



J? 



U. SESsiLiFOLiUM (Nutt.) Greene, Bull. Torr. Club, xv. 287 ; 

 Pitt. 1. c. Mr. Watson in the Botany of California says : "It 

 has usually been confounded with [U. sicUafum], which it 

 sometimes closely approaclies." That he wns at that moment 

 himself confounding the two is clearly evinced by the account 

 he gives of the berries. He describes them as " nearly black." 

 They are nearly black in U. siellatum, but in U. scssilifoUum 

 they are of a clear and rather light cherry red, several shades 

 lighter than ripe red currants. Even in the herbarium the\ 



/ 



retain for years this bright and beautiful color. The arcuate 

 and ilexuous stem, and the rather heavily veined leaves, in 

 early stages of growth plicate like those of a Veratrum, are 

 good marks ; but the most distinctive thing about the species 

 is its own peculiar shade of green ; a light and bright color ; 

 a green with much yellow in it. U. stdlatum is of a widely 

 different very pallid shade, as if the plant were glaucous. In 

 this one respect, as well as in color of berries, it is pretty 

 certain that they do never approach each other. No botanist, 

 unless sadly deficient in botanical vision, could ever confound 

 the living plants ; while even in the herbarium the distinctive 

 hues are usually in no small degree retained. 



The habitat assigned the species in the Botany of California 

 is ■' From Monterey County to British Columbia, and eastward 

 to the Wahsatch." But in California the species is quite evi- 

 dently restricted to the Coast Range, where it is very abundant. 



