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BOTANY. . 185 
clusters. Fructiferous bracts pedicellate, suborbicular, the margin acutely and often irregularly 
toothed, disk naked, or sometimes cristate with foliaceous appendages. 
OBIONE CONFERIIFOLIA, Torr. Ф Ётёт. in Frém. 2d Hep. p. 318. Mountains near Laguna de 
Santa Maria, Chihuahua, April; Bigelow. Only the male plant was collected. 
OBIONE RADIATA (n. sp.): caule erecto? herbaceo ramoso, ramis inermibus ; foliis obovato- 
oblongis obtusissimis mucronulatis membranaceis integerrimis vel obsolete repando-dentatis basi 
attenuatis utrinque lepidotis canescentibus ; glomerulis foemineis axillaribus ; bracteis sessilibus 
orbiculatis infra mediam coalitis margine radiatim denticulatis, disco inappendiculato carinulato. 
Alluvions of the Gila, Sonora, May ; Schott. Stem apparently annual and about a span long ; 
the branches flexuous. Leaves 8-12 lines long and 3-5 lines broad. Male flowers in small 
terminal spikes ; female flowers in small axillary clusters. Fructiferous bracts almost exactly 
orbicular, very flat, 13 line in diameter, neatly cut around the margin into very short acute 
teeth, the disk marked with a central, longitudinal, slightly prominent keel. We cannot 
identify this plant with any of the species of Obione described by Moquin; it is most nearly 
related to the following : 
OBIONE ELEGANS, Mog. l. c. p. 113, var.? RADIATA. Rio Sta. Murin, Chihuahua, August; 
Thurber, Western Texas, (No. 571 and 1743.) We are not confident as to our determination 
of this plant. Our specimens are certainly annual ; the leaves are rather obtuse than acute ; 
the fructiferous bracts are scarcely pedicellate and they are united to the middle. The margin 
is cut into strong acute radiating teeth. 
OBIONE ELEGANS, var.? TUBERCULOSA: foliis repando-denticulatis; bracteis orbiculatis, margine 
dentatis, disco tumido cartilagineo medio tuberculoso-dentatis. Western Texas; Wright. Plant 
about a foot high, apparently annual. Differs from the last, chiefly in the tumid fructiferous 
bracts, the disks of which, on each side of the median line, are furnished with 2-3 acute 
tubercles. 
OBIONE ACANTHOCARPA- (n. sp.): caule suffructicoso erecto ramoso, ramis subteretibus iner- 
mibus ; foliis deltoideo-lanceolatis spathulatisve integris vel repando-dentatis densissime lepidotis 
incanis floribus dioicis ; glomerulis interrupte spicatis, spicis masculis paniculatis terminalibus; 
bracteis demum ultra medium in thecam sessilem subglobosam subcartilagineam undique 
spinosam coalitis. Plains between the Burro mountains; September, Bigelow, (in fruit.) On 
the Rio Grande, below Presidio del Norte ; Parry. Near the Piloncilla, Sonora, September ; 
Thurber. (No. 1739; Wright. His No. 1737 seems to be a slender form of the same.) Plant 
1-2 feet high, much branching from the ground. Leaves somewhat persistent, about an inch 
long, often somewhat hastate at the base, usually somewhat repand-dentate or denticulate. 
Fertile flowers glomerate in the upper axils, forming a kind of leafy panicle. Male spikes panicu- 
late, nearly naked. Fructiferous bracts indurated, covered with long flat or compressed rigid 
processes which resemble spines. Near Fort Yuma, California, Major Thomas collected an 
Obione which appears to be a variety of this species. It sometimes attains the height of 6—10 
feet. The leaves are deltoid-ovate, very obtuse and somewhat undulate. Only the male plant 
was found. It is the same as O. Barclayana of Durand and Hilgard's Report of Williamson's 
Expedition, but apparently not of Bentham. 
OBIONE CANESCENS, Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13, pais 2, p. 212. Abundant at the foot of San Diego 
Bay, California ; Parry. Valley of the Rio Grande, from El Paso to Eagle Pass; also on the 
Gila. (No. 1140 and 1741, Wright.) A variety with smaller, ovate or obovate leaves was 
Жена) оп the Burro mountains by Dr. Bigelow ; and on the Gila by Mr. Thurber. It is the same 
