80 TITHYMALOIDE^I. 



* Stems erect; stipules 0; involucres in forked or umbellate terminal 



cymes; glands flattened or convex; seed carunculate. 



1. E. LATHYRIS, L. Biennial or perennial, erect, stout, 13 ft. high, 

 glabrous throughout: leaves opposite, 4-ranked, linear-lanceolate, sessile, 

 entire, obtuse, cuspidate, 3 4 in. long: inflorescence bracted, the 

 branches twice or thrice dichotomous, the leaf -like bracts oblong-ovate: 

 glands crescent-shaped, with broad obtuse horns : capsule % in. thick, 

 the lobes rounded, in age wrinkled: seeds reticulate rugose. Native of 

 the Mediterranean region; with us, an escape from gardens. 



2. E. EXIGUA, L. Annual, slender, glabrous, 3 10 in. high: leaves 

 alternate, linear, entire, acute or obtuse, the fioral diliated at base and 

 subcordate: inflorescence lax, repeatedly dichotomous: glands semilu- 

 nate, the horns divergent: capsule smooth, scarcely a line wide: seed 

 ovate-quadrangular, whitish, minutely tuberculate. A weed of the grain 

 fields in Europe; reported as occurring in Santa Clara. 



3. E. PEPLUS, L. Annual, slender, with light-green delicate herbage; 

 simple or with a few erect branches from near the base : leaves alternate, 

 the lowest round-ovate, the others cuneate-obovate, slenderly petiolate, 

 the floral broadest at the unequal and sessile base : glands sublunate, the 

 long slender horns little divergent: capsule with a pair of wing -like crests 

 on each lobe: seeds ash-color, obscurely 6-nded, with a few large dark- 

 colored depressions. Common garden weed at Berkeley. 



4. E. leptocera, Engelm. Annual or biennial, 1 ft. high: leaves 

 alternate, obovate-spatulate, obtuse, % 1J in. long, entire or erose- 

 denticulate; the floral opposite or ternate, broadly rhombic-ovate, 

 sometimes connate, acute, % M i n< broad: involucre turbinate, the 

 oblong lobes nearly entire; glands large, crescent-shaped, the slender 

 horns entire or cleft: styles long, bifid: capsule 2 lines broad: seeds 

 ash-colored, oblong-ovate, dark-pitted, about 1J lines long, prominently 

 carunculate. Common in bushy places either in sandy or clayey soil. 



5. E. dictyosperma, Fisch. & Mey. Annual, erect, %\% ft. high, 

 glabrous; stem simple below, or branched from the base: cauline leaves 

 alternate, oblong- to obovate-spatulate, obtuse or retuse, obtusely serru- 

 late, % 1% in. long; floral opposite, round-ovate, subcordate, mucronate, 

 2 6 lines long: involucres and glands small: styles deeply bifid: capsule 

 rough with small warty protuberances: seeds subglobose, dark-colored, 

 delicately net-veined, the caruncle thin and flat. Of wide dissemination 

 in the State, but less common than the last. March June. 



* * Stems diffusely branched, often prostrate', leaves all opposite, unequal 



at base, stipulate; glands with petaloid appendages; seeds 

 angular, not carunculate. 



6. E. serpyllifolia, Pers. Var. consanguine;!, Boiss. Diffuse 

 annual, with ascending or horizontal but seldom prostrate slender 



