Oxytheca. POLYGONACE^E. 31 



petioles about as long : involucres narrow and often somewhat contracted above, 

 about 1| lines long: flowers light rose-color or sometimes yellowish, a line long or 

 more. Benth. 1. c. 17; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 



From Washington Territory to San Diego County and N. W. Nevada ; frequent and variable. 



50. E. Bailey i, Watson. Very diffusely much-branched, a foot high or less, 

 glaucous and glabrous (rarely somewhat tomentose throughout) excepting the leaves, 

 which are densely white-tomentose both sides, orbicular to broadly ovate, 3 to 6 

 lines broad : bracts short, triangular or lanceolate : involucres a line long or usually 

 less, mostly somewhat wider above, with obtuse teeth : flowers light rose-color or 

 yellowish, very small (| to f line long). Proc. Am. Acad. x. 348. E. gracile, 

 var. ejfusum, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 178, in part. 



Var. (?) tomentosum, Watson. Loosely floccose-tomentose throughout : bracts 

 more linear : involucres broadly turbinate and deeply toothed. Proc. Am. Acad. 

 xii. 268. 



Eastward of the Sierra Nevada in the valleys and on the foothills, from Northwestern Nevada 

 to Arizona and San Bernardino and Kern Counties, and across the boundary in Lower California 

 (Palmer) ; the variety in San Bernardino County (Lemmon) and Tantillas Mountains, Palmer. 



51. E. gracile, Benth. Usually somewhat strict and narrowly panicled, more 

 or less floccose-tomentose throughout, a foot high : leaves oblanceolate, or some- 

 times oblong, an inch long or less, attenuate to a slender petiole, tomeiitose both 

 sides or less so above : bracts more or less elongated or somewhat foliaceous, the 

 lower often including one or more leaves : involucres scarcely a line long, broader 

 above, with rigid acute teeth, often dark brown : flowers rose-colored or yellowish, 

 f line long. Bot. Sulph. 46, & DC. Prodr. xiv. 17 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 178. 



Southern California in the Coast Ranges, from Monterey or perhaps San Francisco to San 

 Diego. Variable in habit and pubescence ; sometimes spreading and diffuse, with glabrate invo- 

 lucres and larger flowers (var. effustnn, Torr. & Gray, 1. c.), or densely white- woolly and with 

 strict narrow panicle, either with naked stem and light-colored flowers (var. leucocladon, Torr. & 

 Gray ; E. leucocladmi, Benth. ), or the stem leafy and flowers reddish (var. acetoselloides, Torr. & 

 Gray ; E. acetoselloides, Torr.). 



E. POLYCLADON, Benth., of Arizona and New Mexico, is a similar stout white-woolly species, 

 the stem leafy its whole length, and the panicle erect and elongated : leaves oblong-oblanceolate, 

 an inch long or less : bracteoles much more villous than in the preceding species. 



52. E. Plumatella, Dur. & Hilg. Slender, 3 to 8 inches high, diffusely and 

 intricately much-branched from the base, grayish tomentose throughout, the whole 

 plant often reddish : leaves orbicular, 2 to 6 lines broad, on slender petioles : invo- 

 lucres very short, half a line long or less, scarcely exceeding the short bracts : 

 flowers yellow, rose-colored, or white, f to at length 1| lines long, the segments 

 slightly unequal, broadly obovate-cuneiform and retuse. Pacif. E. Eep. v. 14, 

 t. 16; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 179. 



Frequent in the dry valleys of Northwestern Nevada ; on Pose Creek, ffeermann. 



E. INTRICATUM, Benth. Bot. Sulph. 46, t. 22, is the only other species of this group, from San 

 Bartolome, Lower California. The diffuse panicle is glabrous or glabrate, with numerous short 

 divaricate branchlets ; involucres very small and glabrous ; flowers also minute, sparingly hairy : 

 leaves rounded, on long petioles, viscid-pubescent. 



6. OXYTHECA, Nutt. 



Involucres few-flowered, more or less pedicellate, campanulate or turbinate, herba- 

 ceous and not reticulated, 3 - 5-cleft, the erect or spreading lobes mostly terminated 

 by straight slender awns. Flowers (6-parted), bracteoles, etc., as in Eriogonum. 

 Akene ovate-lenticular (where known); the elongated radicle accumbent upon the 

 rounded cotyledons. Slender diffusely branched (repeatedly dichotomous) annu- 

 als, the slender internodes more or less covered with small stipitate glands : leaves 



