BOTANICAL NOTES. 241 



meus in our herbarium where the petals are still firmly ad- 

 herent to the receptacle from which the ripened carpels 

 have fallen. 



P. Oreganus difi^ers from the first two species much more 

 than they from each other, and though quite variable, is 

 much less so than either of them. Its anthers vary from 

 short to long-oval, filaments from filiform to dilated, and 

 leaves from entire to denticulate, in plants growing side by 

 side. 



Platystemon Benth. 



Platystigma Benth. Meconella Nutt. 



Annual, herbaceous, branching. Leaves opposite or 

 whorled (the lower alternate), entire or nearly so. Flowers 

 nodding in the bud. Sepals usually 3. Petals 6 or more, 

 often persistent. Filaments dilated. Ovary 1-locular, com- 

 pound of 3-Go carpels with linear or triangular stigmatic 

 apices, which alternate with the nerviform placenta3. Ca]> 

 sules dehiscent from the apex, the valves not separating from 

 the placentae. 



P. Califoknicus Benth. 



Hispid to soft villous, with long spreading hairs, or some- 

 times almost glabrous, erect or prostrate. Leaves linear, 

 sessile- or clasping: peduncles long, erect: sepals villous: 

 petals 6-12, cream-color, or the alternate ones yellow, often 

 persistent: ovary sulcate, hispid, villous or sometimes sca- 

 brous; carpels 5-40, linear, easily separable, each folded, 

 coherent near its inargins, and enclosing two of its four 

 nerviform placenta?, the remaining two forming part of the 

 internal wall of the capsule; ovules many, sometimes devel- 

 oping in the closed carpel and aborting in the cavity of the 

 capsule, sometimes directly the reverse: seeds smooth, 

 dark-brown when found in the capsule, pale if enclosed in 

 the indehiscent carpels, oblong, somewhat incurved along 

 the raphe. 



Capsule usually early separating into as many torulose 



