254 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Zauschneria Californica Presl. ■ Z. Mexicana Presl. 

 Z. latifolia, tomentella, yillosa & cana Greene. 



The characters on which these later species were founded 

 are not well borne out by the specimens. Why a plant 

 with a woody perennial base should not be called suffru- 

 tescent is hard to understand, and a strictly eu tire-leaved 

 Zauschneria has probably never been collected, certainly 

 not by the author of Z. cana, whose own specimens though 

 having lost most of their broader leaves, retain sufficient 

 to show that they are frequently denticulate. The broader 

 leaves of Z. villosa are feather- veined, the narrower ones of 

 Z. latifolia and tomentella are not, and these two forms may 

 be collected from the same root, although the latter is said 

 by the author to have a good seed character — the difference 

 between "clavate-oblong." and "almost pyriform" The pu- 

 bescence, size of the flower and length of the filaments vary too 

 much, even in the same plant, to be of any value in classifica- 

 tion. Mature seeds are not often collected, either because 

 their Season is so late or on account of the ravages made by 

 the larva of a small moth, which inhabits its capsule. The 

 species is very abundant throughout the state, the forms 

 growing in the Sierra Nevada usually having rather broad 

 leaves, either slightly or densely pubescent, and the 

 southern forms, unless in shaded localities, much nar- 

 rower ones with the leaves of the undeveloped lateral 

 branches fascicled in the axils. The form described as 

 Z. villosa grows from Monterey southward, and runs into 

 var. miovphylla {Z. cana Greeue), both on the mainland 

 and on the islands. 



About San Francisco Bay it is probably most abundant 

 on Angel Island, where it varies extremely in the form of 

 the leaves, pubescence, and size of the fiowers. The cap- 

 sules in some of the plants have a very peculiar look, being 

 more than an inch long and twisted like the bud of a con- 

 volvulus. 



The flowers of Zauschneria are horizontal, and in opening 



