113 



caTiescciit and even villous: raceme distinctly pedunculate, the 

 verticils more remote and distinct." — Greene, 1. c. 



The above significant record is one of man}- which con- 

 fronts the student in systematic botany, Tiiis particular form, 

 named thirty-two years ago, is still unrecognizable, so far as de- 

 scription g'oes, but numerous named specimens appear to point 

 to a certain somewliat variable form not uncommon in the re- 

 gion of vSan Francisco Bay. That this form is distinct from the 

 northern L. albicaulis is also pretty certain. Not having access 

 to the type itself, I append the following description, drawn 

 from my No. 5598, collected May_23, 1902, in low grass^' fields 

 near Cordelia, Solano county, California: 



Perennial: stems several from a thick, woodv rootstock, 

 erect or ascending, 5-6 dm. high, slightly channeled or ridged, 

 villous with soft white ascending or spreading hairs, especially 

 on the lower half, those on the upper part shorter and more ap- 

 pressed, leafy and somewhat branched, the branches sliort and 

 probably not maturing flovv-ers: petioles variable in length, but 

 usually from, one-third to one-half longer than the leaflets; these 

 oblanceolate, acute or acutish, slightly mucronate, the largest 

 about 4 cm. long, 1 cm. wide, densely silky on both sides with 

 appresscd liairs, midvein rather prominent beneath, and brown- 

 ish in the dried plant; stipules linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 1-1.5 

 cm. long, I mm. or a little more in width: naked or pedunculate 

 part of raceme about 5 cm. long, the flower bearing part about 

 2 dm.: flowers violet-purple, rather distinctly verticillate, mature 

 intcrnodcs about 2 cm long: pedicels 5 mm. long, densely pu- 

 bescent with short spreading hairs: caljx 8 or 9 mm. long, 

 densely silky with appressed hairs, the lobes nearly equal, ob- 

 long, 2 mm. or a little more in width, the lower standing almost 

 horizontally, and not closely pressed against the keel, entire, 

 shortly pointed; the upper ascending, two-toothed, concealed be- 

 liind the wings: corollas about 12 mm. long and as broad, ban- 

 ner a little shorter than the wings, and darker in color; keel 

 glabrous, strongly curved, the part below the "elbow" propor- 



