﻿PLANT7E PRATTENIAN^E CALIFORNIA. 81 



ERYSIMUM Arkansanum, Nutt. in Torr. and Gr. PI. Am. vol.i. p. 95. With orange 

 colored flowers. In my opinion E. aspemum, D.C., Arkansanum andelalum, Nutt., might 

 be considered as different forms of one species. E. asperum is somewhat canescent, but 

 they are all more or less scabrous, with appressed medio- fixed hairs ; the lower leaves 

 are runcinate-dentate, those of the stem dentate or entire ; the flowers are large, 

 varying from light yellow to orange, the petals have very long claws and obovate 

 limbs ; style short and thick, with a bilobed stigma. E. elatum (Nuttall's specimen) 

 is a lank and elongated form about 3 feet high. Hilly sides of Deer Creek. August. 



POLYGALACE^E. 



POLYGALA cucullata, Benth., PI. Hartw. p. 299. " Diffusa, puberula, foliis 

 ovalibus vel oblongo-ellipticis, obtusis retusisve ; racemis brevibus plurifloris, sepalo 

 infimo basi gibbo, alis oblongis, carina imberbi apice in cucullum oblongum producta. 



Stems branching, prostrate, the lowest part perennial and almost woody ; branches 

 herbaceous, slender, 4 — 6" high, pubescent; leaves with very short petioles, the 

 lowest small ovate, the upper 6 — 8'" long, rounded at tip or often emarginate, cuneate 

 at base, with margins slightly recurved, green on both sides and not punctate, pube- 

 rulent above, almost glabrous underneath. Flower (rose colored?) 4"' long. The 

 exterior sepal concave at base, saccate, oblong ; the two superior a little smaller and 

 one-half narrower. They are all membranaceous and colored, the two lateral 

 (wings) twice longer and more slender, obliquely subovate-oblong, equalling the 

 wings of the corolla, and a little shorter than the keel. Lateral petals, or wings, 

 lanceolate and slightly adhering to the base of the keel. Keel split in front, dilated 

 above the base and contracted towards the middle, then abruptly dilated, subrhom- 

 boid and terminating in an erect obovate-oblong and obtuse hood. The stamens do 

 not reach the base of the hood ; the filaments are fixed to the keel as far as the rent, 

 where they become free. The style is flexuose, tubular, dilated at top and truncate, 

 the stigma resting on the margin. Ovary stipitate, capsule subsessile, orbicular, 

 emarginate. There are also, at the base of the leafy branches, short fructiferous 

 branchlets, bearing capsules rather smaller than those of the upper branches, and 

 perhaps produced by apetalous flowers." 



The few small specimens I find in Mr. Pratten's collection differ only from the 

 above description in having the hood conspicuously mucronate; but Dr. Torrey 

 informs me that, in the specimens of Col. Fremont, some have the mucro, whilst 

 others have it not. 



Bentham's description of the radical leaves of C. paucisecta. The upper leaves are ternate, and the leaflets of all 

 the leaves are rhombic-ovate, petiolulate and repand-dentate ; each axil is furnished with a few-flowered stipitate 

 raceme, provided with a leaf-like 3-parted or dentate bract. The terminal raceme is 12 — 15 flowered ; the sepals 

 are ovate, with a whitish margin, £ the length of the petals, which are white slightly tinged with pink. The root 

 appears to be tuberous, and the stem and petioles are succulent. 



