42 



PLANTJE WRIGHTIAN^ 



T. 



lamina latera 



j 



tis ; alabastro gibboso ; petalis posticis sequilongis unguibus coalitis, 

 lium dilatata obliqua rhomboidei-ovata intermedia anguste oblonga multo majc 

 staminibus discretis ungui adnatis ; fructu ovoideo-acumiriato nunc subcordato 

 Gathered in the western borders of Texas, 1851; in flower and with young fruit. 

 Stems rather stout, rigid ; the divaricate branches more slender, and inclined to 

 become spinescent. Leaves about 4 lines long, often subfalcate, obtuse, or the 

 younger ones tipped with a slender mucro, canescent, like the branchlets, &c., with 

 a fine but somewhat hirsute appressed pubescence. Peduncles mostly solitary, ter- 



I- 



minating short lateral branchlets, which more commonly bear two rather distant 

 pairs of bracts, or opposite leaves like the ordinary alternate ones of the branches, 

 but occasionally only a single such pair, from 3 to 6 lines below the flower, sparsely 

 beset with sraall glandular setae intermixed in the canescent pubescence. Flower- 

 bud remarkably gibbous, a quarter of an inch long, about the length of the pedun- 

 cle above the bract. Sepals petaloid (purple), but silky-pubescent externally, mod- 

 erately unequal, ovate and oblong ; the two exterior acutish ; the others more or 

 less obtuse. Claws of the three posterior petals short, unitcd nearly to the tip ; the 

 lamina of the two lateral very obliquely dilated-ovate ; the middle one very much 

 narrower, narrowly oblong. Stamens 4, nearly equal, separate, inserted on thc mid- 

 dle of the claw of the three united petals: The unripe fruit is ovate aud pointed, 

 marked with a medial ridge, especially on the lower side, canescently hairy, and be- 

 set with slender barbed prickles. It agrees with the ripe fruit of Bentham's Cali- 

 ^ fornian plant, except that it is not yet at all cordiform. (In one specimen I found 



an additional middle petal, and five stamens.) — This is the same as the South Cali- 

 fornian species described by Mr. Bentham, from very imperfect specimens (though 

 with good fruit) ; an original specimen of which, as well as another from Coultcr's 

 CaUfornian collection (No. 71), I have examined in the liookerian herbarium. The 

 figure in the Botany of the Voyage of the Sulphur, is not a good one ; for the 

 plant has none of the spreading bristly hairs there delineated, but is canescent with 

 appressed pubescence, as described in the text. 



105. K. PARviroLiA, var. RAMosissiMA : minus canescens ; foliis brevioribus s^epe 

 in axillis fasiculatis ; floribus minoribus magis coloratis ad apicem ramulorum soli- 

 tariis vel subracemosis. — Prairies of Live Oak Creek, June; and banks of the Tdo 

 Grande, on the southern border of Texas. Dr. Gregg also gathered it on the Mex- 



Camargo. — Shrub 1 to 3 feet high, erect, excessively 



side of the 



branched, the divaricate branches and branchlets slender ; the leaves of the flo\^ 



gradually reduced 



length. Peduncles short, desti 



of glandular bristles. The structure of the flowers is just as in the foregoing 



b 



of which I think it can be no more than a variety. The ripe fruit 

 the young pod has shorter prickles. 



106. K. CANEscENs (sp. nov.) i fruticosa, pube brevi densa sericeo-incana ; cauli- 

 bus erectis ramosis ; foliis brevibus oblongo-Hnearibus seu lanceolatis mucronatis 

 sessihbus ; pedunculis folio pluries longioribus medio bibracteatis demum recurvis • 

 sepalis lanceolatis acuminatis ; petalis posticis exiguis distinctis staminibus 4 discre- 

 tis hberis brevioribus lamina fere destitutis ; fructu ovoidei-globoso. - Prairies near 



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