192 BORRAGINACEiE. Eritrichium. 



from a corresponding deep cavity of the side of the gynobase, and persists on the 

 nutlet in place of the ordinary areola or scar (when only one nutlet matures it 

 becomes incumbent) : seed amphitropous, attached above the middle of the cell : 

 herbage villous-hirsute : calyx in the original species at length circumscissile 

 above the base ! — Plagiobothrys, Fisch. & Meyer, Ind. Sem. Petrop. 1835, 46; 

 not vs^ell characterized, the fruit being probably immature. 



# (Genuina.) Mature nutlets very concave ventrally ; the caruncle narrow and projecting,usuallr 

 oval, each fitting into an orbicular cavity of the globular gynobase: low annuals, with small 

 flowers, and villous or silky-hirsute but not hispid calyx. 

 ^— Nutlets dull or slightly shining, cartilaginous or coriaceous; the lines or ribs narrow and ele- 

 vated, bounding depressed areolae; the dorsal keel more or less salient. 

 E. fulvuxn, A. DC. A span to a foot high, slender, branched from the leafy base, loosely 

 hirsute or merely pubescent : leaves linear or the lower and larger lanceolate or spatulate ; 

 the upper sparse and small: spikes at maturity nearly filiform, bracteate only at base: 

 calyx, &c., densely clothed with dark-ferruginous and some merely fulvous hairs, circum- 

 scissile from the mature fruit; the lobes narrow-lanceolate: limb of corolla 2 lines in 

 diameter : nutlets (a line long) rugose with broad and shallow areolations. — Prodr. x. 132 ; 

 Gray, 1. c. 57. Myosotis fulva, Hook. & Am. Bot. Beech. 38 (the Chilian plant, which has 

 rather longer and narrower calyx-lobes), & 369. Plagiobothnjs nifescens, Fisch. & Meyer, 

 1. c ; A.DC. 1. c. 134. P. canescens, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 397 (no. 411, Hall).— O^en 

 grounds, California and Oregon, toward the coast. (Chili.) 

 B. canescens, Gray, 1. c. Stouter and generally larger than the preceding, leafy, vil- 

 lous-hirsute ; the pubescence whitish, even that of the calyx barely fulvous : leaves linear: 

 calyx larger and with broader lanceolate lobes, less closed over the fruit and hardly if at all 

 circumscissile: nutlets usually with more prominent transverse ribs. — Plagiobothrys ca- 

 nescens, Benth. PI. Hartw. 326. — W. California and north to the Columbia River. 

 .(_ +_ Nutlets crustaceous, vitreous-shining or enamel-like at maturity ; the lines bounding the 

 long transverse and closely packed rugae very slender and impressed: low plants, seldom a 

 span high: limb of corolla' a line or two in diameter: calyx hardly if at all circumscissile at 

 maturity. 

 E. tenellum, Gray, 1. c. Hirsute with rather soft hairs ; those of the calyx more or less 

 fulvous or rusty -yellowish : stems slender and erect: radical leaves in a rosulate tuft, 

 oblanceolate or broadly linear; the cauHne rather few and small: spike few-flowered and 

 interrupted, leafy only at base: calyx-lobes triangular-lanceolate: nutlets (a line long) 

 very shining, somewhat cruciate from the abrupt contraction at both base and apex, hol- 

 lowed on the ventral face, the close and straight transverse wrinkles either smooth or 

 sparsely and sharply muvic^tG. — E.fulmm, Watson, Bot. King, 243 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, 

 viii. 397, not A.DC. Myosotis {Dasymorpha) tenella, Nutt. in Hook. Kew Jour. Bot. v. 295. 

 — Northern California ta British Columbia, Nevada, and Idaho. 

 E. Torreyi, Gray, 1- c. More hispidly hirsute, the hairs even of the calyx greyish, much 

 branched from the root : stems diffuse or decumbent, leafy ; the flowers mainly leafy- 

 bracteate: leaves broadly oblong: nutlets rather larger than in the preceding and less 

 shining, broadly ovate, not cruciate nor muricate but smooth (or next the margins obscurely 

 tuberculate), the straight wrinkles rather broader; caruncle not projecting. — California, 

 Sierra Nevada, near Yosemite Valley, Torrey. Sierra Valley, Lemmon ; the latter a de- 

 pressed and very leafy form, with scattered flowers, accompanied throughout by leaves. 

 * * (Ambigua.) Mature nutlets moderately incurved, affixed to the obtusely conical or pyra- 

 midal gynobase by a vertical narrow crest (answering to the caruncle) which occupies the middle 

 third of the concave face of the nutlet (terminating above in the sharp ventral keel which ex- 

 tends to the apex); the cavities of the gynobase oblong-ovate in outline: calyx, &c., more or less 

 setose-hispid. 

 E. Kingii, Watson. Apparently biennial, villous-hirsute and more or less hispid : stems 

 a span or 'so high, rather stout: leaves from spatulate or oblong to spatulate-linear : inflo- 

 rescence at first thyrsoid ; the flowers in short spikes or clusters which are commonly leafy 

 at base : tube of the corolla not longer than the lanceolate calyx-lobes ; its limb 4 hues in 

 diameter, or sometimes one-half smaller : nutlets coriaceous, dull, irregularly rugose, not 

 distinctly carinate on the back, fully a line long. — Bot. King, 243, t. 23 (in flower) ; Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. x. 60, & Bot. Calif, i. 528. — Eastern portion of the Sierra Nevada, va. Ne- 



