MITELLA. SAXIFRAGACE.E. 201 



MITEL. ASTRA. 



M. Breweri Gray Proc. Am. Acad. vi, 533. Sparingly pubescent 

 with long crisp brownish hairs : scapes slender, 4-8 inches high : leaves 

 round-cordate to reniform, obscurely 3-5-lobed, irregularly crenately 

 toothed, with callous-apiculate teeth, 1-3 inches in diameter, on petioles 

 3-4 inches long that are subtended by scarious ciliate brownish bracts : 

 racemes 4-20-flowered : flowers on short spreading pedicels subtended by 

 minute scarious bracts ; calyx short-campanulate, with short and rounded 

 somewhat scarious lobes, petals greenish-yellow, pectinately pinnate with 

 3-5 filiform pinnsea ; stigma distinctly 2-lobed. On the highest mountains, 

 Brit Columbia to California. 



M. ovalis Greene Pitt, i, 32. Pubescent with long whitish hairs: 

 scapes 6-18 inches high : leaves oblong-cordate, obscurely 5-7-lobed, re- 

 pandly toothed, 6-18 lines long, on rather stout petioles 1-4 inches long : 

 flowers numerous, on short erect pedicels that are subtended by minute 

 scarious bracts, often two or three together on a short peduncle and thus 

 somewhat paniculate; calyx saucer-shaped, its short rounded lobes green- 

 ish-yellow ; petals pectinately pinnate, with 3-5 rather short and distant 

 pinnsea; filaments subulate, inflexed; stigma slightly 2-lobed. Along 

 mountain streams in wet places, Brit. Columbia to California. 



M. triflda Graham Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 185. Sparingly pubes- 

 cent with coarse whitish hairs : scapes slender, 6-18 inches high, from a 

 stout rootstock : leaves broadly cordate to reniform, 12-18 lines long, cre- 

 nately toothed, ciliate: flowers several, in a short secund somewhat cir- 

 cinate raceme, on very short pedicels subtended by scarious white bracts : 

 calyx campanulate, its oblong or triangular acute lobes white and petal- 

 like, glabrous ; petals ovate, on long slender claws, 3-tbothed or 3-parted 

 at the apex; stigma 2-lobed. On the high mountains of Washington and 

 Oregon to the Rocky mountains. 



* * Stamens 5, opposite the petals. 



M. pentandra Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 293 <. -Sparingly pubescent with short 

 white hairs: scapes slender, 6-12 inches high: leaves* cordate to round-ren- 

 iform, obscurely 3-5-lobed, unequally serrate, an inch or more in diame- 

 ter: flowers numerous, in a subpaniculate raceme, calyx short-campanu- 

 late, its very short obtuse lobes green ; petals pinnate with 7-9 approximate 

 filiform pinnsea : filaments very short, inflexed. In wet places, on the 

 highest mountains. Alaska to Oregon and the Rocky mountains. 



13 MITELL ASTRA. 

 MITELLA MITELLASTRA T. & G. Fl. i, 586. 



Low herbs with alternate leaves without stipules and small 

 flowers in spicate cymes. Calyx short-campanulate, 5-cleft, co- 

 herent with the base of the ovary. Petals 5, pinnatifid, inserted 

 into the throat of the calyx. Deciduous. Stamens 5, not ex- 

 serted, alternate with the petals. Styles 2, short and distinct. 

 Stigmas simple. Capsule 1-celled with 2 parietal many-seeded 

 placentae, 2-valved. Seeds black and shining. 



M. caulescens. Mitella caulescens Nutt. Retrorsely hispid and min- 

 utely scabrous, especially on the petioles and stems: stems simple, soli- 

 tary, slender, bearing 1-3 leaves with 1-2 scarious bracts below them, 

 6-12 inches high, from a scaly slender caudex, propagating by long filiform 

 runners : leaves broadly cordate, 3-5-lobed, the lobes crenately apiculate- 

 toothed, 1-2 inches in diameter: flowers numerous, in a long slender sim- 

 ple cyme, on long slender pedicels, reflexed in bud, soon spreading or 

 erect ; calyx saucer-shape, its lobes ovate, colored and petal-like ; petals 

 pectinately pinnatifid with 7-9 filiform pinnsea; filaments subulate, nearly 



