•258 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Mimulus L- . 

 Diplacus Nutt. Eunanus Benth. Mimetanthe Greene. 



The recent attempt to divide Mimulus by restoring Dipla- 

 cus and Eananus to generic rank, and instituting a third 

 genus for a single species, was, I think, very properly met 

 by Dr. Gray, who reduced the whole to synonomy. The 

 following notes will probably strengthen his views, though 

 they alter the bounds of, or even render unnecessary some 

 of his sections. 



Diplacus, even as a section, rests only on its shrubby 

 habit. Its dehiscence "by the upper suture only, from 

 base to near the apex, the valves spreading into a boat- 

 shaped open pod," which was the principal reason given for 

 its restoration to the rank of a genus, is exactly that of the 

 greater number of the species of Eananus, being caused by 

 the broad basal attachment and posterior (upper) gibbosity 

 common to both. 



Mimulus glutinosus Wendl. M. puniceas Steud. ; Dip- 

 lacus glutinosus, latlfolius, pimiceus, longifloms & leptanthus 

 Nutt.; D. stellatus Kell.; D. arachnoideus (& parviflorus 

 Greene. 



Dr. Gray, in Sup. to Syn. Flora, recognizes only of all 

 these forms, the red-flowered M. puniceus, "until intermedi- 

 ate colors are met with," a condition already fulfilled by 

 Mr. Brandegee, who collected specimens with orange-yel- 

 low flowers on Santa ilosa Island. 



The pubescence of Diplacus, partly simple, partly of 

 branching hairs (found sometimes also in Eunanus, as Dr. 

 Gray has noted), varies very much even on different plants 

 of the same form; the lobes of the corolla differ a great 

 deal in size and shape, a thing which happens in Mimulus 

 much oftener than has been supposed, and the tubercular 

 enlargement at the apex of the capsule, though common, is 

 inconstant even in the typical form of this vicinity. 



