42 PLANTiE WRIGHTIAN^. V. 



tis ; alabastro gibboso ; petalis posticis sequilongis unguibus coalitis, lamina latera 

 Hum dilatata obliqua rhomboidei-ovata intermedia anguste oblonga multo majore ; 

 staminibus discretis ungui adnatis ; fructu ovoideo-acuminato nunc subcordato. — 

 Gathered in the western borders of Texas, 1851; in flower and with young fruit. 

 — Stems rather stout, rigid ; the divaricate branches more slender, and inclined to 

 become spinescent. Leaves about 4 lines long, often subfalcate, obtuse, or the 

 younger ones tipped with a slender mucro, canescent, like the branchlets, &c., with 

 a fine but somewhat hirsute appressed pubescence. Peduncles mostly solitary, ter- 

 minating short lateral branchlets, which more commonly bear two rather distant 

 pairs of bracts, or opposite leaves like the ordinary alternate ones of the branches, 

 but occasionally only a single such pair, from 3 to 6 lines below the flower, sparsely 

 beset with small glandular setse intermixed in the canescent pubescence. Flower- 

 bud remarkably gibbous, a quarter of an inch long, about the length of the pedun- 

 cle above the bract. Sepals petaloid (purple), but silky-pubescent externally, mod- 

 erately unequal, ovate and oblong; the two exterior acutish; the others more or 

 less obtuse. Claws of the three posterior petals short, united nearly to the tip ; the 

 lamina of the two lateral very obliquely dilated-ovate ; the middle one very much 

 narrower, narrowly oblong. Stamens 4, nearly equal, separate, inserted on the mid- 

 dle of the claw of the three united petals. The unripe fruit is ovate and pointed, 

 marked with a medial ridge, especially on the lower side, canescently hairy, and be- 

 set with slender barbed prickles. It agrees with the ripe fruit of Benthara's Cali- 

 fornian plant, except that it is not yet at all cordiform. (In one specimen I found 

 an additional middle petal, and five stamens.) — This is the same as the South Cali- 

 fornian species described by Mr. Bentham, from very imperfect specimens (though 

 with good fruit) ; an original specimen of which, as well as another from Coulter's 

 Californian collection (No. 71), I have examined in the Hookerian herbarium. The 

 figure in the Botany of the Voyage of the Sulphur, is not a good one ; for the 

 plant has none of the spreading bristly hairs there delineated, but is canescent with 

 appressed pubescence, as described in the text. 



105. K. PARViFOLiA, var. ramosissima : minus canescens ; foliis brevioribus SEepe 

 in axillis fasiculatis ; floribus minoribus magis coloratis ad apicem ramulorum soli- 

 tariis vel subracemosis. — Prairies of Live Oak Creek, June ; and banks of the Eio 

 Grande, on the southern border of Texas. Dr. Gregg also gathered it on the Mex- 

 ican side of the river, at Camargo. — Shrub 1 to 3 feet high, erect, excessively 

 branched, the divaricate branches and branchlets slender ; the leaves of the flower- 

 ing ones gradually reduced to one or two lines in length. Peduncles short, desti- 

 tute of glandular bristles. The structure of the flowers is just as in the foregoing, 

 of which I think it can be no more than a variety. The ripe fruit not seen : but 

 the young pod has shorter prickles. 



106. K. CANESCENS (sp. nov.) : fruticosa, pube brevi densa sericeo-incana ; cauli- 

 bus erectis ramosis ; foliis brevibils oblongo-linearibus seu lanceolatis mucronatis 

 sessilibus ; pedunculis folio pluries longioribus medio bibracteatis demum recurvis ; 

 sepalis lanceolatis acuminatis ; petalis posticis exiguis distinctis staminibus 4 discre- 

 tis liberis brevioribus lamina fere destitutis; fructu ovoidei-globoso. — Prairies near 



