484 BORAGINACE^J PLAQIOBOTHRYS 



on short persistent pedicels in elongating circinate racemes. Ca- 

 lyx 5-cleft or 5-parted, closed or campanulate or even spreading 

 andjnore or less enlarged in fruit, persistent or irregularly cir- 

 cumscissal near the base. Corolla short, with more or less con- 

 spicuous appendages in its throat. Nutlets broadly ovate-trigon- 

 ous, incurved, carinate on both sides toward the apex, the back 

 irregularly transversely rugose, attached by the middle of the 

 concave or seemingly hollowed ventral lace to a globular or short- 

 conical gynobase, tardily detached, leaving a kind of caruncle at 

 the insertion and corresponding depressed cavities on the gyno- 

 base, often only 1 or 2 maturing. 



* Nutlets crustaceous or nearly so, usually only 1 or 2 maturing and 

 then horizontally incumbent at maturity on the subglobose or merely 

 convex gynobase: the caruncle short and broad, not stipiform, leaving 

 orbicular depressions on the gynobase. 



*- Caruncle annular, merely bordering a deep circular pit. 



P 3 . campestris Greene Pitt ii, 282. P. rufescent Gray, not F. & M. 

 Pubescent with soft white hairs : stem slender, erect, 10-30 inches high, 

 simple up to the 1-3 racemes : radical leaves numerous, 1-2 inches long, 

 oblanceolate, usually withering at flowering time; cauline leaves smaller, 

 linear-oblong to lanceolate, sessile, with a broad somewhat clasping base: 

 racemes usually 3, the lower one smallest, the others geminate with a 

 flower in the fork, sparsely flowered: calyx of linear-lanceolate nearly dis- 

 tinct sepals 3 lines long, rusty-hirsute when young : corolla but little longer 

 than the calyx, the limb 2-S lines broad : nutlets a line long, little incurved, 

 nearly orbicular, abruptly short-beaked, sharply carinate on the back and 

 the sides sharply angled and reticulate-rugose. On dry hillsides, southern 

 Oregon and California. 



*- *- Caruncle forming a wen- shaped or tongue-shaped process that 

 fits into a corresponding cavity in the merely convex gynobase. 



M- Calyx persistent, not circumscissile near the base : mature nutlets 

 abruptly contracted at base and apex so as to become cruciately 4-lobed 

 vitreous shining or enameled. 



P. lenellus Gray Proc. Am. Acad. xx, 283. Pubescent with rather soft 

 hairs: stem slender erect or ascending, 6-10 inches high, usually branching 

 from the base : radical leaves numerous, in a dense rosulate tuft, broadly 

 linear to lanceolate, 6-12 lines long ; cauline leaves few, lanceolate to near- 

 ly ovate, sessile by a broad somewhat clasping base : racemes usually gem- 

 inate without a flower in the fork, rather densely flowered : calyx 2 lines 

 long, fulvous-hirsute, cleft to below the middle, the lobes acuminate-trian- 

 gular : corolla about a line broad : nutlets vitreous-shining, sharply carinate 

 on the back, transversely rugose and sharply tuberculate. Common in 

 open places, Brit. Columbia to California. 



P. asper Greene Pitt, iii, 262. " Of the P. tenellus group, but larger 

 than the others and rather diffusely branched or many-stemmed from the 

 rosulate tuft of basal leaves, the branches hispid, floriferous almost throu- 

 ghout, many of the calyces subtended by a leafy bract; leaves rather 

 roughly hirsute or almost hispid: calyx large and nutlets % line long, vit- 

 reous and shining, lineately rugose transversely and with or without 

 murications. " 



" Frequent from northern California to Washington. Easily distinguish- 

 ed at sight by its large size, its many stems, and its stiff harsh pubescence." 



