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misunderstood but it is a low, few-branched and lightly spread- 

 ing plant of the coastal marshes and does not penetrate far from 

 the coast. This singular habit among the Californian species is 

 aptly recorded in Bentham's name. 



Other Californian Labiatae species named by Bentham 

 which carry recognizable specific names of this type are Scu- 

 tellaria antirrhinoides , Lophanthus (Agastache) urticifolius, Sal- 

 via carduacea, Audihertia slachyoides, and Calamintha mimu- 

 loides. Bentham explains his unusual choice of name for Salvia 

 columbariae with the phrase "habitus fere Scahiosa colum- 

 bariae.'' Scahiosa columbaria L. is a Mediterranean species with 

 a thin cluster of basal leaves of a pinnatifid filagree nature and 

 capitate inflorescence, all calling to mind the Californian Chia. 



(e) Collinsia bartsiaefolia Benth. Alludes to the resemblance 

 of its leaves, diagnostic for this species, to the genus Bartsia 

 (or Bartschia) numbering some thirty species in South America, 

 Europe and Africa. The Californian Collinsia resembles Bartsia 

 versicolor Pers. in habit, inflorescence and leaf-margin, although 

 the whole genus apparently exhibits the crenulate character of 

 the leaf which uniformly distinguishes the well-marked Col- 

 linsia. 



(f) Penstemon centranthifolius Benth. Alludes to a small 

 European genus of Valerianaceae, Centranthus, and probably 

 precisely to the Mediterranean Centranthus ruber DC. with 

 which it perfectly agrees in the leaf shape and the firmness and 

 glabrous character of the foliage making up its distinct habit. 

 The leaves are sessile in the manner of the Penstemon and 

 borne in the same ascending fashion. 



To Bentham's observation that "the aptness of a botanical 

 description, like the beauty of a work of imagination, will al- 

 ways vary with the style and genius of the author" may be 

 added aptness in choice of species names, an art in which he was 

 significantly proficient. 



University of California 

 Berkeley 



