318 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
nent beneath, lateral ones obscure: inflorescence short, spicate or 
subcapitate, terminating the branches, usually densely flowered, 3 or 
4°™ in diameter; buds erect, from the terminal central axis; flowers 
easily separating from the ovary, subtended by strigose lanceolate 
acuminate bracts, subsessile: calyx tube obconic, 3 to 4™™ long, 
lanose pubescent; its 5 equally pubescent segments 12™™ long, 
acuminate and ultimately reflexed: corolla and stamens inserted 
upon the rim of the calyx throat; petals straight, thin, pink, broadly 
obovate in outline, 6™™ long and wide, irregularly or obscurely 3- 
toothed, the middle tooth acute, usually the larger: stamens 8, in 
2 series, those alternating with the petals nearly equaling them, 
those opposite the petals barely more than 1™™ long; filaments glab- 
rous, compressed, broadest at the base; anthers introrse, basifixed, 
those of the upper series twice as long as those of the lower: style 
glabrous. or with a few long hairs, barely equaling the stamens, 
bearing an obscurely 4-lobed stigma; ovary densely and persistently 
lanose pubescent, upon short thick pedicels: capsules subtended by 
leaf-like bracts longer than themselves, loculicidally dehiscent from 
the apex, straight, erect, lanose, subsessile, apex truncate, nearly of 
the same thickness throughout, subterete or only slightly 4-sided, 
8-costate, 4-celled, 4-valved: seeds numerous, in single rows, dark 
brown, subterete or cubical, a little pointed at one end. 
ype specimen no. 4376, collected in June 1903 at Bardins railroad switch, 
Monterey County, California. 
This characteristic species was found quite plentiful on the sandy plain between 
Monterey and Castroville, and is quite variable in the density of its pubescence 
branching habit, and size of leaves. 
Pentachaeta laxa, n. sp.—A lax very much branched annual, 1 to 
2 or 3™ high: stems branched from the base, softly but sparsely 
pilose: leaves in pairs, subtending the branches, sessile, linear, gradu- 
ally tapering from the base, the larger ones 3°™ long, 2™™ wide, very 
thin, sparsely pilose on both surfaces: heads terminal, heterogamous, 
turbinate, 6™™ long, about 9-flowered; the peduncle ascending, 1 to 
4°™ long, pilose, somewhat thickened toward the apex; involucral 
bracts 3 to 5, persistent, flat, acute, oblong, scantily pilose on the 
exterior, the reticulate nerves quite prominent, equaling the flowers, 
more or less membranous: receptacle pitted: each of the ray flowers 
