Amsinckia. 



BORRAGINACE^. 523 



olate ; racemes rather dense : pedicels short and mostly spreading : corolla with 

 bri"ht blue or at first purple limb about 3 lines in diameter. 



Mountains of Oregon and northward (to be sought in the high Sierra Nevada or on the north- 

 western borders of the State) : extending to the Arctic regions, and in Asia and Lurope. 



5. MERTENSIA, Rotli. 



Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, herbaceous. Corolla salverform or somewhat funnel- 

 form, with rounded lobes, the open throat naked or with mostly inconspicuous 

 crests. Filaments in our species broader than the anthers. Style filiform : stigma 

 minutely capitate. Nutlets ovate or somewhat triangular, between fleshy and cori- 

 aceous dull, commonly somewhat wrinkled when dry, sometimes smooth and 

 vesicular, fixed, usually by a projection of the ventral angle towards or above the 

 base, to a low pyramidal or convex receptacle or gynobase. - Perennials, remarkable 

 in this order for their smoothness; with broad leaves, and racemose or paniculate- 

 clustered flowers, which are usually nodding or inclined on rather slender pedicels, 

 only the lowest leafy-bracted : flowers blue, violet-purple, or rarely white. — DC. 

 1. c; Gray in Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, xxxiv. 339 & Proc. Am. Acad. x. 52. 



A Unus of a dozen or more species, divided between North America and Northern Asia, one 



the Sierra Nevada. 



1 M Sibirica, Don. Smooth and glabrous or nearly so, a foot or more higli, 

 rather succulent, ikfy : leaves pale, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, acute 2 to 5 inches 

 W or the lowest larger and broader, minutely ciliate : flowers at hrst clustered : 

 corola half an inch or less long, much longer than the oblong obtuse divisions 

 of the calyx; the 5-cleft limb about half the length of the tube : stamens protrud- 

 in- out of the throat, and the capillary style early projecting beyond the lobes. — 

 Gray, 1. c. ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 239. Pidmonaria Sibirica, Lmn. Mertensia 

 deniiculata & ciiiata, DC. 



Alon- mountain streams, in the Sierra Nevada, BoJ.ander, Lcmmon. Also in the mountains 

 eastwaixi, and in N. E. Asia. Flowers handsome, violet-blue. 



6. AMSINCKIA, Lehm. 



Calyx 5-parted, persistent. Corolla salverform, or at the throat somewhat funnel- 

 form, more or less plaited in bud at the sinuses, with tube exceeding the calyx, and 

 rounded lobes: throat naked or rarely with minute hairy tufts opposite the lobes. 

 Filaments short : anthers oblong or oblong-linear. Style filiform : stigma capitate- 

 2-lobed. Nutlets ovate-triangular or triquetrous, coriaceous or crustaceous, affixed 

 above the base to an oblong-pyramidal gynobase ; the scar ovate or oblong. Coty- 

 ledons each 2-parted! — Hispid annuals (of Western America, one in Chih), with 

 oblon-ovate to linear leaves, and yellow flowers in at length loose spikes or racemes, 

 without bracts, except sometimes to the lowest. Bristles mostly from a conspic- 

 uous pustulate base. Flowers, at least in some species, dimorphous as to insertion 

 of stamens and length of style. - Fischer & Meyer, Ind. Seiu. Ilort. 1 etrop. 1835, 

 26 ; DC. Prodr. x. 117 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 54. 



The species are difficult to characterize, except the last, which 1ms a peculiar fruit. 



