Ammobroma, a New Genus of Plants. 53 



the length of the calyx, purple and plicate towards the summit; the 

 border 6-lobed, with the lobes erect and slightly emarginate. Stamens 

 5-10 (mostly about 8), inserted near the upper third of the corolla; 

 the filaments very short, triangular-lanceolate, blue ; anthers obtuse at 

 each end. Pollen simple, obtusely, but distinctly triangular. Ovary 

 orbicular and somewhat flattened, mostly about 20-celled, the cells mar- 

 ginal and surrounding a thick fleshy central axis. Style cylindrical, 

 about two-thirds the length of the corolla ; stigma capitate, somewhat 

 lobed or crenulate. Ovules suspended on a short funiculus. Mature 

 front not seen. 



In a business Report of Col. Gray to the Texas "Western Rail- 

 road Company, published at Cincinnati in 1856, is the following 

 notice of the plant : " West of Tucson and Tubac, towards the 

 Gulf of California, the country presents more the appearance of 

 a barren waste or desert than any district I have seen. It is the 

 country of the Papigo Indians, a peaceful and friendly tribe, 

 extending down the Gulf coast, where they are mixed up some- 

 what with the Cocopas of the Colorado. From Sonoita I 

 explored the Gulf shore near the mouth of Adair Bay. This bay 

 is completely encircled by a range of sand-hills, reaching 

 north-west to the Colorado river, and southward as far as the 

 eye could discover. The "sables" are probably eighty or ninety 

 miles in extent by five to ten broad. Notwithstanding it ap- 

 pears to be the most desolate and forlorn-looking spot for eighty 

 miles around the head of the Gulf, the sand-hills looking like a 

 terrible desert, nature seems even here, where no rain had fallen 

 for eight months, to have provided for the sustenance of man 

 one of the most nutritious and palatable vegetables. In this 

 naked spot I found a band of Indians (Papigos) almost in a state 

 of nudity, living on fish and crabs caught in the salt creeks and 

 lagoons of the Gulf ; and a sort of root, which was eaten after 

 roasting upon hot coals or dried in the sun, and ground on a 

 metate (curved stone) with mesquit beans, forming "Pinole." 

 In the latter state it was not so palatable as ours made of 

 parched wheat or corn ; but the vegetable itself, when first 



