iqi2] . NELSON— IDAHO PLANTS 417 



with a U-shaped curve near the top: the stigma on the thickened 

 inflexed tip of the style just protruding from the orifice of the 

 folded galea- tip : capsule elliptic-oblong, f ew-ovuled, 4-6 maturing. 



That this has passed for C. capitatus Nutt. seems quite probable. That 

 it is in reality quite distinct the following differences indicate conclusively. 

 No authentic specimens of C. capitatus are at hand, but it does not seem prob- 

 able that Nuttall, Gray, Watson, and others have all overlooked or that 

 they would have been silent on the following points: the glandulosity; preva- 

 lence of pinnatifid leaves even below; the open panicle branching (not fasci- 

 culate-capitate); the bracts in excess of the flowers in the head; the unequal 

 calyx leaves; the inflexed lateral lobes of the lower lip of the corolla; the 

 laciniate plicae in its sinuses; the curved filaments and the rudimentary anther 

 cell ; and the beautiful purple of the flowers emphasized by the yellow, pubes- 

 cent corolla tips. . 



Secured by Nelson and Macbride on moist sagebrush slopes, at Ketchum, 

 Blaine Co., July 20, 191 1, no. 1239 (type); Macbride, at Pinehurst, August 

 17, 1911, no. 1671. 



Pentstemon brevis, n. sp. — Densely matted in tufts few-several 

 dm. in diameter: roots woody, numerous, intricately interwoven: 

 stems very numerous, borne on the crowns of the short slender 

 subterranean branches of the caudex, usually 5-8 cm. high, though 

 sometimes higher, very minutely puberulent as are also the leaves : 

 leaves entire, moderately thick; the lower from oblong-elliptic to 

 oblanceolate or spatulate, obtuse or subacute, 5-10 mm. long, 

 tapering to a petiole often as long; stem leaves becoming sessile 

 and narrower: inflorescence a narrow glandular-pubescent thyrse: 

 calyx cleft into broadly lanceolate lobes 3 mm. or less long, rather 

 thick and green except near the base: corolla dark-blue, slender, 

 nearly tubular, 6-8 mm. long, bilabiate, with short rounded lobes 

 and with short yellow pubescence in the throat and on the sterile 

 filament: anthers dehiscent from the base and confluent but not 

 explanate. 



This species reminds one, in its low densely matted habit, of P. caespitosus 

 Nutt., but in other respects it is more suggestive of a diminutive P. humilis 

 Nutt. No one seeing these three species in the field, or even in dried speci- 

 mens, will doubt their distinctness. P. brevis is alpine on wind swept summits. 



Nelson and Macbride, no. 1457, Lemhi Forest, Mackay, Custer County, 

 Idaho, July 31, 191 1. The only other specimen, seen by the writer, that 

 approaches this species is Cusick's no. 1974, from bleak summits of Stein's 



