526 BORRAGINACE^E. Eritricliium. 



only half the length of the fruiting calyx (half a line to a line long) : corolla smaller 

 than in the preceding : nutlets smaller and smoother, hut rugose, hroadly -ovate. — 

 Myosotis Scouleri, Hook. & Arn. Eritricliium plebehim, Torr. in Pacif. Pc. Rep. iv. 

 124, not of DC, which is an Alaskan species more like the preceding. 

 Moist or rather dry soil, San Francisco Bay to Oregon, &c. Between the last and the next. 



3. E. Californicum, DC. Slender, spreading, 2 to 10 inches high : leaves 

 mainly alternate, small, narrowly linear : flowers very small, almost sessile, in fruit 

 scattered, chiefly accompanied by a leaf or bract : corolla hardly surpassing the 

 calyx, its limb only a line or less in diameter and shorter than its tube ; the crests 

 in the throat smooth and inconspicuous : nutlets ovate or oblong, more or less rugose- 

 roughened. — Myosotis Californica, Fischer & Meyer. 



Var. subglochidiatum, Gray. Somewhat succulent : nutlets when young more 

 or less hirsute or hispid (especially on the crests of the rugosities), some of the 

 bristles at length stouter and glochidiate under a lens ; the roundish carunculate 

 scar almost strictly basal. 



Springy or wet places, rather common, extending through Oregon and Nevada to and beyond 

 the Rocky Mountains. The remarkable variety (which passes into the accompanying ordinary 

 form), Placer to Sierra Co. {Kellogg, Lemmon), Nevada ( Watson), &c. 



§ 2. Nutlets attached by the middle of the someivhat concave inner face by a large and 

 roundish protuberant scar to a hemispherical or globular receptacle, broadly 

 ovate-triangular and somewhat incurved, rugose on the back : low, mostly vil- 

 lous-hirsute annuals, viith small flovjers like those of the pireceding section. — 

 Plagiobothrys, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 57. 



* Nutlets not vitreous-shining, the wrinkles elevated narrow meshes. 



4. E. fulvum, A. DC. An inch or so to a foot high, slender : leaves linear or 

 the lowest rather spatulate : spike naked, at first dense, in fruit elongating : calyx 

 densely clothed with rusty-yellow or reddish hairs : corolla 2 or 3 lines in diameter : 

 nutlets (a line long) dull, rugose with elevated narrow meshes bounding minutely 

 granulated-roughened or at length smooth surfaces, an indistinct ridge down the back. 

 — Myosotis fulva, Hook. & Arn. Plagiobothrys rufescens, Fischer & Meyer, &c. 



Common through the State, in open grounds, extending through Oregon, &c. Also in Chili. 



5. E. canescens, Gray, 1. c. Generally larger than the foregoing, villous-hir- 

 sute with white or whitish hairs : nutlets larger (1-J lines long), less dull, with 

 longer transverse but otherwise similar meshes and a more distinct dorsal ridge, the 

 surface either granulate with some projecting points or smoothish. — Plagiobothrys 

 canescens, Benth. PL Hartw. 336. , 



Open grounds, common through the State, mainly towards the coast, and Washington Terr. 



a * Nutlets vitreous-shining or porcelain-like, the wrinkles narrow and impressed 

 transverse lines mostly running unbroken from the low and narrow dorsal ridge to 

 the margin of the broad posterior face. 



6. E. tenellum, Gray, 1. c. Seldom a span high, hirsute with rather soft hairs, 

 those of the calyx only fulvous or yellowish : stems erect and slender from the 

 rosulate tuft of radical leaves : these broadly linear or spatulate-lanceolate (one 

 third to an inch long), the cauline shorter or smaller : seldom any bracts among the 

 rather few flowers of the spike : corolla a line or two in diameter : nutlets (a line 

 long) broadly ovate and obscurely cruciform from the abrupt contraction of base and 

 apex, cartilaginous, the broad and low transverse ridges separated by very narrow 

 impressed lines and conspicuously muricate. — Myosotis tenella, Nutt. in Kew Jour. 

 Bot. v. 295. Eritricliium fulvum, Watson, Bot. King Exp. 243, not of DC. 



Sierra Nevada and foot-hills, especially northward, to British Columbia and through Nevada, 

 Idaho, &c. The fruit is very characteristic. 



