PLANTE FENDLERIANE. 99 
420. Banta oppositirotia, DC. Prodr. 5. p. 656. (Trichophyllum oppositifolium, 
Nutt. ! Gen, 2. p. 167.) In ravines and low places, from eight miles east of Santa Fé 
to Cold Spring, on the Cimarron; August. (469.) — This long-lost plant has also been 
recently gathered by Mr. Geyer on the Upper Platte, and by Lieut. Abert on the fron- 
tiers of New Mexico. The spreading, branching stems, a span or little more in height, 
apparently rise from a creeping rootstock, and, like the 3-parted leaves, are cinereous or 
canescent with a close pubescence, but not tomentose. The uppermost leaves are often 
alternate. The scales of the campanulate involucre are somewhat Jax, as in B. absinthi- 
folia; the rays short, but sometimes considerably exserted; the achenia glabrous and 
minutely glandular; and the scales of the pappus have an opaque midnerve (which is 
unusually distinct and percurrent in Geyer’s specimens) and are otherwise more mem- 
branaceous than in the Eriophylla. — This plant is certainly a congener of the original 
Bahia of Lagasca, viz. the Chilian B. ambrosioides (on which Nuttall founded his genus 
Stylesia), and of the Mexican B. absinthifolia. These, with an undescribed Mexican 
species,* constitute the typical section of the genus, which is to be distinguished from 
the section (rather than genus) Eriophyllum, Lag. by the loosely campanulate involucre, 
the scales of which are membranaceo-herbaceous and more or less spreading in fruit; by 
the pale of the pappus of a more membranaceous texture, but thickened at the base 
or axis or manifestly one-nerved; and by being merely cinereous or canescent, not 
clothed with floccose wool. The palez of the pappus in B. ambrosioides are not alto- 
gether nerveless, as characterized by Nuttall, but have a more or less thickened axis. 
Nor can the branches of the style be said to be “terminated by a minute cone,” but — 
they are better described by Hooker & Arnott (in- Jour. Bot. 3. p. 321), as bearing a 
fleshy, apiculate cone, instead of having the truncate styles of Eriophyllum. In fact, 
the conical appendage of the branches of the style is quite large: in B. oppositifolia it is 
much the same, but smaller and obtuse ; in B. absinthifolia it is penicillate-truncate with 
by the involucral scales ; and there is no chaff on the receptacle. The generic name accordingly refers 
to the absence both of the chaffy pappus of Chenactis, and of the chaff of the receptacle of the Madiee. 
* Banta pearpata (sp. nov.): herbacea, tomento brevi subdecidua? undique argenteo-cana; foliis ob- 
longis lanceolatisve integerrimis seu cuneatis trifidis basi trinervatis; ramis apice 1—2-cephalis nudis ; invo- 
lucri squamis obovatis acutiusculis ; pappo corolla tubum squante, paleis 7 obovatis obtusissimis aequalibus 
nervo valido percursis. — Valley between Mapimi and Guajuquilla, and at Cadenas, Chihuahua, Dr. Gregg ; 
April, May. — Stems ascending, 6 or 8 inches long; the base and the root wanting. Lower leaves opposite, 
the upper alternate, all petioled, an inch long, some entire, others with two spreading and lanceolate or linear 
entire lobes. Heads, the numerous and rather elongated rays, style, &c., nearly as in B. absinthifolia, but 
the scales of the involucre broader; the whole plant uniformly whitened with a pulverulent tomentum, which 
may be rubbed off. a 
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