BOTANICAL NOTES. 245 



Eschscholtzia Cham. 



Herbaceous. Leaves dissected. Torus excavated. Flowers 

 erect in the bud. Sepals 2, united into a caljptra. Petals 

 4. Stamens oo. Ovary with 2 nerviform placentae: style 

 short; stigma lobes 4-8. Capsule linear rigid, JO-ribbed, 

 falling from the receptacle and dehiscing from base to apex 

 along the placentiferous margins. Seeds round or oval, 

 reticulate; cotyledons cleft or entire. Juice of the stem 

 colorless, of the root, orange. 



Eschscholtzia Califoenica Cham. — Annual or perennial, 

 branchinjj; or scapose, pale green or glaucous, glabrous, 

 scabrous or scabrous-pilose: stems striate or angular: leaves 

 alternate or the upper ones opposite or whorled, more or 

 less compoundly dissected into oblong or filiform segments: 

 receptacle excavated, the outer margin often more or less hor- 

 izontally dilated and fleshy; the inner scarious, at first hori- 

 zontal but becoming erect from pressure of the growing ovary ; 

 calyptra ovate to acuminate, often retuse or 2-lobed at the 

 apex, separating at the base and opening by fissure along one 

 side: flowers from broadly campanulate to nearly rotate; pet- 

 als four, orange, yellow or ochroleucous: stamens go , borne 

 on the petals and deciduous with them; filaments short, an- 

 thers linear: ovary many-ovuled, but seeds fewer by abor- 

 tion: capsules falling from the receptacle and dehiscing elas- 

 tically from the base upward by two valves, the two nerviform 

 placentae partially separating from them; seeds round or 

 oval, often apiculate at one or both ends; testa dark brown, 

 reticulated, the surface more or less scabrous, tegmen orange, 

 adherent to the albumen; embryo minute, with cleft or en- 

 tire cotyledons. Chrijseis comi^acta Lindl.; C. Californica 



Hook. & Am. ; C. crocea, cmspitosa & tenuifolia T. & G. ; 

 C. Douglasii Hook. & Arn.; Omonoia Californica Raf. ; Esch- 

 scholtzia compacta Walp. ; E. crocea, Douglasii, ccespitosa & 

 tenuifolia Benth. ; E. Mexicana, Austince, peninsular^, Par- 



