BOTANICAL NOTES. 265 



The flowers of hdeus are, as every observer has noticed, 

 exceedingly variable in size, with no constant relation to 

 that of the plant. They are equally variable in shape: the 

 lobes plane emarginate or obcordate, the lower one espec- 

 ially having a wide range; the throat usually only partly 

 closed by two longitudinal swellings, is sometimes entirely 

 so by their greater development; by a protrusion of the 

 upper side; or, as was observed in some of the high mount- 

 ain forms, the closing of the throat is eflfected by a twisting 

 of the middle lobe of the lower lip, one side of which is 

 often turned up, thus bringing it at right angles against the 

 upper, and obstructing it completely. 



The calyx, being less altered by pressure than the fragile 

 corolla, has had much more attention given it, and it must 

 be already apparent that no lasting distinctions can be 

 drawn from its comparative width, degree of inflation, or 

 length of teeth. It is not at all difficult, as has been 

 proved, to select from a field filled with annual forms, an 

 apparently good species founded on the calyx alone; but it 

 is hoped these few notes, by calling attention to the neces- 

 sity of a truer observation than that induced by the wild 

 rush for new species, will bring from our local botanists 

 a mass of notes and material concerning our variable 

 plants which will tend to discourage such hasty and ill- 

 considered work in the future. 



Most of the synonymy given above has been so often dis- 

 cussed that a repetition would be useless here. 



M. HalUi Greene. — The type of this species is labeled 

 "Rocky Mountain Flora, Lat. 40, Mimulus luteus L., from 

 seeds, Athens, 111., 1864; E. Hall," and is exactly one of 

 the annual forms of luteus, with flowers no smaller than 

 are often found on Californian specimens. 



31. Glaucescens Greene. — The only reasons given for the 

 making of this species are that it is glaucous and most of 

 the leaves connate-perfoliate; as this last occurs in most of 



