Argythamnia. EUPHORBIACEvE. $9 



limits of the United States, those of the Californian flora belonging to the section Drepadenium of 

 Miiller, densely gray-scurfy woody-based perennials, with a regularly 5-parted calyx, petals obso- 

 lete or nearly so, and capsule 3-celled. 



1. C. Californicus, Mull. Arg. Perennial, woody at base, a foot high, with erect 

 or ascending branches, hoary- throughout with a dense appressed scurf or the upper 

 side of the leaves finely stellate-pubescent : leaves oblong or sometimes broadly 

 elliptical, obtuse at each end or rarely acutish, an inch or two long, on slender 

 petioles 4 to 15 lines long : staminate flowers in short nearly sessile racemes ; calyx- 

 lobes about a line long : disk obscurely 5-lobed : filaments hairy : pistillate flowers 

 often solitary, on short pedicels : styles twice dichotomous : capsule scurfy, 3 lines 

 in diameter : seed 2| lines long, with a small appressed caruncle. DC. Prodr. 

 xv 2 . 691. Hendecandra procumbens, Esch. ; Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 389, t. 91. 



Var. major. Stouter and with large leaves, denser staminate racemes of larger 

 flowers, and the pistillate flowers more numerous. 



In sandy fields about San Francisco and southward to Los Angeles ; the variety at Santa Bar- 

 bara (Nuttull) and San Buenaventura, Pcckham. The staminate racemes develop gradually, the 

 flowers soon deciduous after opening and leaving an at length elongated naked rhachis. 



2. C. tennis, Watson. Like the ordinary form of the last, but more slender, 

 decumbent, 1 or 2 feet high : leaves narrowly oblong, a half to an inch long, on 

 short petioles 1 to 4 lines long : staminate flowers small and in small racemes : cap- 

 sule smaller : seed 1 1 lines long ; the caruncle prominent, with a broad appressed 

 lobed base. Proc. Amer. Acad. xiv. 297. 



At Potrero, San Diego County (Cleveland), and near Fort Mohave, Cooper. Near C. Nco-Mexi- 

 canus, Mull., of S. Utah and New Mexico, but (littering in habit and fruit, as it does also from 

 the Mexican C. gracilis, HBK., which moreover has larger flowers in large dense racemes. 



3. ARGYTHAMNIA, P. Browne. 



Flowers usually monoecious, in terminal or axillary simple racemes or clusters, 

 pistillate below, without involucre. Calyx regularly 5- (rarely 3-) parted, valvate in 

 the staminate flowers, imbricate in the pistillate. Petals alternate with the calyx- 

 lobes and with the lobes of the glandular disk. Stamens 5 to 15 in 1 to 3 whorls; 

 filaments united into a central column ; anthers erect in the bud. Ovary 3-celled, 

 3-ovuled : styles once to thrice dichotomous. Seeds subglobose, roughened or retic- 

 ulated, not carunculate : cotyledons orbicular, flattened, as long as the radicle. 

 Erect herbs or undershrubs, with purplish juice ; leaves alternate, usually stipulate, 

 toothed or entire. 



A genus of 35 species, chiefly of tropical America, represented in the region bordering upon 

 Mexico by 6 or 8 species belonging to the section Aphora, Mull. Arg., the stamens being in two 

 whorls, the glands of the disk more or less free from the stamineal column, and the styles 

 2-parted. 



1. A. serrata, Mull. Arg. Annual, branching from the base, a foot high or 

 less, villous with rigid appressed centrally attached hairs : leaves oblong-obovate to 

 oblanceolate, obtuse or acute, attenuate to a short petiole or nearly sessile, acutely 

 serrate : racemes axillary, very short, 4-5-flowered, 1 or 2 of the flowers pistillate : 

 sepals linear-lanceolate, a line or two long, shorter than the purplish rhombic-lan- 

 ceolate petals (2 to 4 lines long), which are adnate at base to the short oblong 

 obtuse glands and to the stamineal column : stamens 10, often with a terminal whorl 

 of more or less developed sterile filaments : ovary very hispid : branches of the 

 style linear : seeds a line in diameter, reticulated. DC. Prodr. xv 2 . 739. Aphora 

 serrata, Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. 197. 



In the Colorado Valley ; near Fort Yuma (Schott), at the mouth of Williams River (Palmer), 

 and on the Gila, Parry. Apparently the same also at Cape St. Lucas, Xantus. 



