Ammobroma. DIAPEXSIACE.E. 51 



a thin fleshy at length dry epicarp which ruptures transversely, as if circumscissile, 

 liharating thu ring of numerous seed-like nutlets : these are crustaceous, lenticular, 

 and separable. Seed with a very thin proper coat: albumen farinaceous and 

 oily : embryo (according to Scihus) minute, globular and undivided, i. e. as in 

 M niotropece. — Torr. in Ann. Lye. X. Y. viii. 56 ; Solms-Laubach, Abhand. Xat. 

 Halle, xi. 1-60; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 021. 



Lenma ( CorallophjUum, HBK. ), the remahiing genus of this small and very singular natural 

 o'der, is Mexican, with coralloid brandling stems, and the stamens in two sets ; the ctlis of 

 tlie antlier divergent. 



1. PHOLISMA. Flowers sessile and densely spicate. Sepals 6, rarely 5, linear, naked, 

 shorter than the corolla; the short lobes of the latter mostly 6, undulate-plicate, spread- 

 ing. Stamens 6 or sometimes 5, in a single row : anthers oblong, the cells parallel. 

 Fruit 18-24-celled. 



2. AMMOBROMA. Flowers short-pedicelled, thickly covering the expanded and hol- 

 lowed receptacle. Sepals mostly 10, filiform, plumose-hairy, pappus-like, equalling the 

 corolla ; the mostly lobes of which are erect, refuse, hardly plicate. Stamens to 10 

 in a single row. Anthers, pistils, &c., as in PhoUsma. 



1. PHOLISMA, Xutt. (From (jfoAtV, a scale, referring to the scaly stem.) 

 — Single species. 



P. arenarium, Nutt. Herb brownish or reddish, with simple stems, in clumps, a span 

 or more high, somewhat glandular-puberulent, stout, beset with short and narrow scattered 

 scales; spike dense, oblong or cylindraceous (an inch or two long): flowers purplish 

 (4 lines long), rather longer than the linear bracts. — Hook. Ic. t. 620; Gray, Bot. Calif . 

 i. 464. — Sandy soil, Monterey to San Diego, California, Xuttall, &c. Parasitic on the roots 

 of Er!odict>/on tomentosum, according to D. Cleveland, also apparently upon those of some 

 Clematis. Flowers produced in spring. Nutlets half a line long, oval. Albumen of the 

 seed oily. Embryo not seen. 



2. AMMOBROMA, Torr. (Formed of dfifiog, sand, and ^nufia, food.) — 

 Single species. 



A. SonoraB, Torr. Root of tortuous iibres : stems simple, 2 to 4 feet long (but mainly 

 buried in sand), three fourths to an inch and a half in diameter, fleshy, gradually tapering 

 upward, but at summit dilated into an obconical dilated receptacle of 2 inches in diameter, 

 f unnelform inside and lined with the flowers : scales lanceolate, acute, appressed, or on 

 the receptacle reflexed : corolla purple, 4 lines long : ovary about 20-celled. — Mem. Am. 

 Acad. V. 327, & Ann. Lye. Xat. Hist. N. Y. viii. -51, 1. 1 ; Gray, Bot. CaUf. i. 464 : Solms-Lau- 

 bajh, 1. c. t. 1. — Desert sand-hills, Adair Bay, near the head of the Gulf of California, 

 beyond the limits of the United States, Col. A. B. Gray. Arizona, between Pilot Knob 

 and Cook's Wells, Siliudiard. The plant upon the roots of which it is parasitic is un- 

 known. The roasted stems are edible and even luscious ; they are said to be an important 

 article of food of the Papigos Indians. 



Oedee LXXIX. DIAPENSIACE^. 



Low perennial herbs orsuffruticulose tufted plants, wholly glabrous or nearly so, 

 with alternate simple leaves, no stipules, regular and symmetrical 5-merous flowers, 

 except the pistil which is 3-merous and the ovary 3-celled, stamens adnate to the 

 corolla or connate with each other, those opposite its lobes when present reduced 

 to sterile appendages (staminodia), anthers mostly transversely or obliquely de- 

 hiscent, pollen simple, and capsule and seeds of Ericacea. Flowers perfect, soli- 

 tarv or racemose. Calyx and corolla imbricated in the bud, hypoiynous. or with 

 slight adnation to base of ovary ; the former persistent, the latter deciduous. 



