Boerhaavia. NYCTAGINACE.E. 5 



5, A. turbinata, Torrey. Annual and slender, viscidly pubescent or only 

 puberulent, the stems ascending or procumbent, | to 1^ feet long: leaves ovate to 

 oblong-lanceolate, h ^o I2 i'^^^l^^s long, usually truncate-cordate or rounded at base : 

 peduncles slender, exceeding the leaves : involucral bracts usually 5, linear or lan- 

 ceolate, acuminate, somewhat scarious : perianth rose-colored, G to 8 lines long, the 

 tube very narrow and lobes deeply cleft : fruit thin-coriaceous, 3 or 4 lines long, 

 either regularly 5-winged and tlie wings terminating above in transverse circular 

 disks, or unequally winged and without disks : akene a line long. — Watson, Lot. 

 King Exp. 285, t. 31. 



From the eastern border of the State and Northern Nevada to Arizona and ^Vestern Tcvas ; 

 near the Mohave River, Cooper. In dry valleys ; May to Augnst. 



A. FUAGRAXS, Nutt., is a very similar species ranging from the Colnmhia lliver (NutlaJI) to 

 Utah and New Mexico, and eastward, not found in California. It is {leicnnial, distinguislied 

 chiefly by its more erect and stouter habit, rather larger whitish llowers, and especially by the 

 broad scarious acute or acutish involucral lobes : the fruit is usually larger, the wings never 

 crested. 



§ 2. Wings (iisualhj 2 or 3) orbicular, tvholly encirdbig the fruit, membranoiis, 

 strongljj net-veined. Annuals. — TRiprEROCALYX, Gray. 



6. A. Crux-MaltSB, Kellogg. A low spring annual, with procumbent stems, 

 viscid-puljesceiit or nearly glabrous : leaves ovate-oblong, an inch long or more, 

 usually cuneate at base, on slender petioles : peduncles siiorter than the leaves, 

 many-tlowered : involucre of 5 or more lanceolate acuminate lobes 3 or 4 lines long : 

 flowers rose-colored, 7 to 9 lines long, witli very slender greenish tube and 4 large 

 deeply cleft lobes : stamens 3 or 4 : fruit pubescent, 5 or G lines long, coarsely 

 reticulate-pitted, the ovate body long-stipitate ; akene 2i- lines long. — Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. ii. 71, lig. 16; Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 253. A. cycloptera, Watson, 

 Bot. King Exp. 285, in part. 



A very showy and pretty spring flower of the valleys of Northwestern Nevada. Two other 

 species belonging to this section are found on the eastern plains from the Saskatchewan to New 

 Mexico, but do not occur west of the Rocky Mountains. 



4. BOERHAAVIA, Linn. 

 Involucre of 1 to 3 very small bractlets to each flower, often caducous. Perianth 

 funnelform or campanulate, 5-lobed. Stamens 1 to 3. Stigma peltate. Fruit 

 clavate or obovate, jointed upon the pedicel, 5-costate, truncate at the apex or 

 rounded or acute. — Slender annual or perennial herbs, diffuse or procumbent, with 

 opposite more or less unequal leaves, and usually very small flowers in loose pan- 

 icles, verticels or spikes. 



A genus of 20 or 30 species, distributed through the warmer regions of the globe, many of them 

 very illy defined and of uncertain determination. Several species occur in Arizona and eastward, 

 but none have been collected in California. The following are given as approaching the southern 

 borders of the State. 



* Flowers fascicled. 



B. HiRSUTA, Willd. Perennial, hirsute and glandular-pubescent, the branching stems 2 or 3 

 feet long or more : leaves ovate, an inch or two long, acutish, rounded at ba.se, with an undulate 

 sinuate margin, on short petioles : panicle loose and divaricate ; ilowei-s nearly sessile in small 

 clusters terminating slender peduncles : bractlets minute : perianth (red) and ovary a line long : 

 fruit 1 or 2 lines long, clavate, obtuse, 5-costate, glandular- viscid.— Choisy, DC. Prodr. xiii-. 

 451. _ Specimens from the Big Canon of the Tantillas Mountains, Lower California (P,th,ur\ 

 are probably to be referred to this species, which is credited to the western coast of .Mexico and 

 to South America. The leaves, however, are small and rounded or reniform, mucrouately apuu- 

 late, the petioles but a line or two long, and the fruit acute at each end. 



B. ERECTA, Linn. Annual, often rather stout, scabrous-puberulent or nearly glabrous : leaves 

 broadly ovate to oblong, usually acute, an inch or two long, more or less exceeding the slender 



