PLl'MBAdlNACEj;. 377 



Very common on low slopes of the hills and ascending to the higher 

 Coast Rant^e ridge?: Santa Clara Co.; Oakland Hills; Solano Co.; 

 Napa Valley; Ukiah, and northward into Oregon. Also in the 

 Sierra Nevada at lower altitudes. Feh.-Apr. The very short peren- 

 nial caudex produces elongated fleshy bulblets which are borne on 

 the sides, often in great quantity; these are cast off in the autumn 

 and in the next season give rise to a single leaf. Mr. Carl Purdy 

 informs us that these individuals probably do not flower until two 

 more seasons have passed. The bulblets are white and suggestive of 

 the "rice-grain" bulblets of the Eice-root Lily (Fritillaria mutica). 



2. D. patulum Greene. Shooting Star. Similar to the preced- 

 ing but verj' low, only 3 or 4 in. high and the roots much more rigid; 

 corolla white, pale cream-color or rarely pinkish; anthers 1 line long; 

 capsule short-oblong or subglobose, circumscissile near the summit. 



Subsaline plains of the Lower Sacramento Valley (Vanden Station, 

 eastward to Main Prairie) and southward to the Livermore "^^alley. 

 Mar. The var. gracile Greene, from Loma Prieta, has narrower 

 leaves and "elegantly twisted" petals. The purple-flowered var. 

 Bernalium Greene, from Bernal Heights, San Prancisco, is in all 

 likelihood one of the intermediate forms between this and the preced- 

 ing species, as also the whitish-flowered plants of the Oakland Hills. 



Primula STJFFRUTEsfENS Gray. Sierra Primrose. General habit 

 of Dodecatheon; leaves thickly crowded on creeping stems, cuneate- 

 spatulate, toothed at apex; scape 2 to 4 in. long, bearing an umbel of 

 several flowers; corolla red, its tube surpassing the calyx, its limb J 

 in. broad with spreading emarginate or obcordate lobes. — Crevices of 

 rocks, High Sierras. 



79. PLUMBAGINACE/E. Thrift Family. 



Maritime acaulescent herbs with commonly hard or coriaceous 

 stems and leaves, Flowers regular, perfect, 5-merous throughout. 

 Calyx tubular or funnelform, plaited. Petals with long claws barely 

 united into a ring at base. Stamens opposite the petals, adnate to 

 the base of the claw. Ovary superior, 5-angled at summit, containing 

 a single ovule which hangs fi-om an elongated funiculus arising from 

 the base of the cell. Fruit a utricle or achene, borne in the base of 

 the persistent calyx. Seed with endosperm; embryo straight. 



Leavesnarrowly linear; inflorescence head-like , . . 1. Armeria. 



Leaves broad; inflorescence paniculate . . ... 2. Statice. 



1. ARMERIA Willd. Thrift. 

 Acaulescent perennials with a close tuft of narrowly linear sedge- 

 like leaves. Scape naked, terminating in a globose head of flowers. 

 Heads composed of numerous crowded clusters, each cluster subtended 

 by a scarious bract, the outer bracts forming an involucre, the two 

 outermost united and forming a reversed sheath to the summit of the 

 scape. Flowers in a cluster pediceled or subsessile, subtended by 

 bractlets. Calyx scarious, funnelform. Corolla of 5 apparently dis- 



