Mfjnsiirus. It A N L N t T L A L E A ,E. \ \) 



(A. verualis) sometimes cultivated for ornament, and the following a precariously 

 naturalized weed. — Cat. PI. Giss. App. 109, t. 4 ; L. Gen. no. 4G.j. 

 A. autdmnAlis, L. Low annual, summer-flowering, leafy : petals st-arlet or crim.son or piiler, 

 ^vith a dark .s])ot at hase : mature akeues riigose-retienlatc, sliort-pointed. — Spec. e<i. a, 

 i. 771 ; Sehk. Handb. t. 152; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 9 ; Torr. & V,r,\\\ FI. i. l.-i. .1. (ihhuu, 

 L. Spec. i. .547, in part. — Labrador, herli. Hooker, doubtles.s a tr.m.sient introdnclion. 

 Sparingly and occa.'*ionall} met with in and near lieid.s, especially in S. Atlantic and (Jnlf 

 States. (Nat. i'rom Fn.) 



8. MYOStTRUS, Dill. Moisetail, (Name ij-om /xCs, a mouse, and 

 ovpd, tail, alludes to the shape of spike of pistils.) — Very small annuals, of tem- 

 perate countries ; with linear or filiform or at first spatulate entire leaves in a 

 radical tuft, and simple one-Howered scapes ; the yellowish or whiti.sh flower suc- 

 ceeded by the slender spike or (in depauperate specimens) oblong lica<l of carpels. 

 These are in all the species more or less follicular, dehiscing suturally when they 

 separate from the axis, liberating the seed ! Spur or appendage to the sepals 

 variable, in some flowers obsolete. — Cat. PI. Giss. App. 106, t. 4 (as Myosuron) ; 

 L. Gen. no. 257.-^ 



* Mature carpels with back carinate from base to apex (and commonly but \ariably pro 

 longed into a tip or beak), not subcrose- or cellular-thickened. 



M. apetalus, (^.w. Petals not rarely wanting: body of tlic akene oblong, or semi-ovate, 

 utricular, thiu or even scarious ; the narrow thickened back traversed by a salient greenish 

 keel: seed oblong. — Fl. Chil. i. 31, t. 1 ; Gray. Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 2. M. aristutus, 

 Benth. in Hook. Lend. Jonrn. Bot. vi. 458 ; "Wats. Bot. King Exp. 5 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. 

 Calif, i. 5 ; Hook. f. Fl. N. Zeal. i. 8. — Mountains of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho to Brit. 

 Columbia, California, and Arizona; first coll. t)y Gei/er. (Chili, New Zealand, &c.) The 

 typical form has carpel-spike from near an inch long and linear-cylindrical down to (|uarter 

 inch and ovoid-oblong, and more or less squarrose by the prolongation of the salient keel of 

 the carpels into a subulate ascending or spreading Ijeak, which is sometimes as long as the 

 body of the akene itself, but is occasionally erect and much sliorter.- 



Var. leptlirUS, Gray. Slender : carpel-spike narrower ; cari)els mostly smaller, 

 beaklcss or very short-pointed : seed elongated-oblong. — Bull. Torr. Cluli, xiii 2. M. mini- 

 niiis, var. fllformis, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. i. 277, in small part. M. austrulis, Mucll. 

 Trans. Phil. Soc. Victoria, i. 6 (1855), & M. minimus, Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 8? — Same 

 range, or nearly, from many collectors, and with intermediate forms; passed in various col- 

 lections as Af. minimus. 



M. minimus, L. Carpel-spike commonly elongated, inch or two long : mature carpels 

 somewhat quadrate, witli broader usually rhomboidal and Hat back, traversed by very low 

 keel, ending in a short and appressed or often obsolete pointed tij> (in eastern sjiecimfens the 

 tip often wholly wanting, as in fig. Sclik. Handb. t. 88, it. Gray, Gen. 111. i. 2f<) ; the body 

 less utricular and thicker-walled: seed oval. — Spec. i. 284; Gray, 1. c. i. 28, t. 8; IJaill. 

 Hist. PI. i. 42, i. 71-75. M. Shortii, Raf. Am. Journ. Sci. i. 379. — Low ground. Illinois 

 to Florida and west to Wa,shington and California. A variety from California (also Sicilian) 

 has fruiting scapes only 2 to 6 lines long.-'' (En., N. Afr.) 



M. sessilis, Watson. Flowers and cylindrical (half inch long ami a line thi<'k) carpel- 

 spikes sessile at the crown; the latter in a s])i-eading tuft, nuu-li shorter than the leaves : 

 carpels with oval scarious utricular I)ody and narrow acutely carinate green back, continued 



1 Further literature: E. L. Greene, Revision, Bull. Calif. Acid. Sci. i. 276-279; A. Gray, Not4s 

 on Myosurus, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 1-4; E. Ilutii, Revision, in Engl. .Ji.lirb. xvi. 28.V2S6. 



2 M. aristatu^, var. sessiliflorm, E. Huth 1. c. 286, from N. W. Solano, Calif., Jepson, differs oidy 

 in its sessile flowers. 



3 This is the M. hrriiscapiis, v.ir. Cnli/oitiiciu^ of Huth, 1. c. 28,'>, but ai>poars to be tlioroiigldy 

 confluent with M. minimHji. 



