560 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



eastern Utah, growing under shady cliffs where the rocks 

 and soil are always moist from the oozing alkaline water. 

 It was, according to Mr. Wetherill, so similar in manner 

 of growth and general appearance to Aquilegia ccalcarata 

 that at first he thought it that species. 



Collected near Bluff City, southeastern Utah, July, 

 1894. 



Aquilegia ecalcarata Eastwood, Zoe ii, 226, Zoe 

 iv, 3, 259. This Aquilegia from one of the canons of the 

 Mancos River in southwestern Colorado, appears closely 

 related to A. micrantha, and it has seemed to me desira- 

 ble to figure it on the same plate, so as to show the two 

 together. It resembles Isopyrum in the general outline 

 of the flowers and might be looked upon as a connecting 

 link between that genus and Aquilegia. However, a close 

 inspection discovers it to be a true Aquilegia with abor- 

 tive spurs, and, upon comparison with A. micrcuitha, it 

 seems most closely related to that species ; but whether its 

 degenerate descendant or less specialized progenitor or 

 perhaps even a starved, cave-dwelling form, cannot be 

 now settled. The fact, too, that these two Columbines are 

 in the same river system, the same region, and have been 

 found in no other place, strengthens the theory of their 

 close relationship. A . ecalcarata has been seen in but one 

 niche-like cavern, where the sun never comes and where 

 the supply of water is so slight during the hot dry summer 

 that it is forced to cling close to the damp rocks, even 

 climbing up the sides of the cave with its slender thread- 

 like stems. Its home is at the head of Johnston Canon, 

 a southern branch of the Mancos Canon. A. micrantha, 

 according to Mr. Wetherill, is abundant and widely dis- 

 tributed through the canons of the lower San Juan River, 

 of which the Mancos River is a tributary. 



