IPOMCEA LEPTOPHYLLA. 



COLORADO MAN-ROOT. 



NATURAL ORDKK, ('( )NV( )LVULArE/E. 



If'OMCEA LEPTOPHYLLA, Torrey. — Two to three feet hig'i, much 1:)ranched from the base; 

 branches long, spreading, and prostrate, angular, glabrous; leaves linear and lanceolate- 

 linear, attenuated at both ends, strongly veined, glabrous, mucronate-apiculatc, short-peti- 

 oled ; peduncles one to three-flowered, half to one and a half inches in length ; sepals 

 appressed, broadly ovate, very obtuse, with a minute mucro, five lines long; corolla fun- 

 nel form, two to two and a half inches long, purple ; stamens inserted near the base, fila- 

 ments villous at the base, anthers oblong-linear, large; style as long as the stamens, 

 stigma two-lobed, lobes capitate; ovary two-celled, with two ovules in each cell. (Por- 

 ter's Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado^ 



E have made it our principle, whenever the plants of 

 which we treat are described in several w^orks, to refer 

 our readers to the authority which is likely to be most accessi- 

 ble to them. For this reason, we have taken the description at 

 the head of this chapter from Prof. Porter's " Synopsis of the 

 Flora of Colorado," although it was first published by Dr. Tor- 

 rey, in his account of the plants collected by Gen. (then Col.) 

 Fremont, on his first expedition across the continent in 1S41. 

 We have, however, deviated from Prof. Porter's orthography of 

 the generic name, Ipomcra, and have returned to Dr. Torrey 's 

 spelling, Ipomoea, because this is generally in use among the 

 botanical authors of our time. 



Our plant was also found by Lieut. Emory's party in July, 

 1846, and a representation of it was given in the report on the 

 botany of Emory's expedition by Dr. Torrey. Subsequent col- 

 lectors have found it in various localities in Western Kansas and 

 Eastern Colorado, in the dry, sandy, and barren region watered 

 by the Platte and Arkansas Rivers, and as far south as Northern 



