518 BORRAGINACE.E. Eriodidyon. 



12. ERIODICTYON, Benth. 

 Calyx deeply 5-partecl, the lobes or sepals not broader upwards. Corolla funnel- 

 form or approaching campanulate or salverform. Stamens more or less included. 

 Styles 2, distinct to the base ; their tips or the stigmas clavate-capitate. Capsule 

 crustaceous, small, globose-ovate and pointed, 2-celled and with dilated placenta?, 

 4-valved, i. e. at first loculicidal in the manner of the tribe, then septicidal, thus 

 splitting into four hard and thick half-valves, closed by a portion of the partition 

 on one side and partly open on the other. Ovules rather numerous, but seeds few. 

 — Low shrubs (Californian, &c.); the leaves alternate, of rigid coriaceous texture, 

 pinnately veined and with finely reticulated veinlets conspicuous on a fine woolly 

 ground (whence the generic name), at least underneath, their margins beset with 

 rigid teeth, the base tapering into more or less of a petiole. Flowers in scorpioid 

 cymes collected in a terminal panicle : corolla violet or purple, varying to white. 

 Filaments variably adnate to the tube of the corolla, sometimes almost up to the 

 throat.— Benth. Bot. Sulph. 35. 



1. E. tomentosum, Benth. White or in age rusty-colored with a dense coat 

 of short villous down, G to 10 feet high; branches leafy to the top : leaves oblong 

 or oval, very rigid, obtuse (2 to 4 inches long) : calyx and corolla villous, the 

 latter somewhat salverform and about twice the length of the former. — Torr. Bot. 

 Mex. Bound. 148. E. crassifolium & E. tomentosuvi, Benth. 1. c. 



San Gabriel and Fort Tejon to San Diego, &c. Corolla hardly half an inch long. 



2. E. glutinosum, Benth. Smoothish, glutinous Avith a resinous exudation, 

 3 to 5 feet high : leaves (3 to 6 inches long) lanceolate, irregularly serrate or nearly 

 entire, whitened beneath between the reticulations by a minute close woolliness, 

 glabrous above : cymes in a long naked panicle : corolla tubular-funnelform, thrice 

 the length of the sparsely and slightly hairy calyx. — Wigandia Californica, Hook. 

 & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 3G4, t. 88. 



Dry hills ; common through the western and southern portion of the State. Corolla lialf an 

 inch long. Infusion of the balsamic-resiniferous leaves in spkit used as a tonic. 



E. ANGUSTIFOLIUM, Nutt. PI. Gamb. {E. glutinosum, var. angustifolmm, Torr.), is found only 

 in the interior, from S. Nevada and Utah to the adjacent borders of New Mexico. It is barely 

 distinguished from E. glutinosum by its linear leaves with revolute margins, and almost campan- 

 ulate corolla only 2 or 3 lines long. 



Order LXV. BORRAGINACE^. 



Mostly roughish-pubescent herbs, with colorless and inert juice, alternate entire 

 leaves without stipules, scorpioid inflorescence, and perfect regular 5-androus flowers ; 

 the ovary of 4 lobes or divisions around a central style, ripening into seed-like 

 nutlets, or when undivided 4-celled and 4-ovuled and splitting into nutlets (if 

 drupaceous containing seed-like stones). Calyx free, 5-parted or 5-cleft, persist- 

 ent. Corolla with a 5-lobed limb, commonly imbricated in the bud. Stamens 

 distinct, inserted in the tube or throat of the corolla alternate with the lobes : an- 

 thers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovules solitary, anatropous, amphitropous, or 

 almost orthotropous ; the orifice and the radicle of the straight embryo (mostly with- 

 out albumen) always superior or when the nutlets are horizontal centripetal, or in 

 one anomalous genus inferior in an erect nutlet. Lower leaves not rarely opposite. 



