PEIMULACEai. 237 



nerved, narrowed to a short and broad petiole-like base: scapes, with 

 their long and dense spike, 1 — 2 ft. long, stout, hirsute: corolla-lobes ovate, 

 acute. — In wet places among the hills at San Francisco. 



Obdbr lxv. PRIMULACE/E. 



Herbs with simple exstipulate leaves, and flowers either axillary and 

 solitary or, more commonly, terminal and umbellate, sometimes rac- 

 emose. Corolla regular, the stamens as many as its lobes and opposite 

 them, inserted on its tube. Ovary 1-celled, the many ovules borne on a 

 free central placenta. Fruit capsular. Embryo small, in fleshy or 

 corneous albumen. 



Flowers umbellate, terminating a scape; 



Segments of corolla long, reflexed Meadia 1 



" short, rotate Androsace 2 



Flowers few, at leafy summit of stem Alsinanthemcm 8 



" solitary in the leaf-axils; 



Pedicellate, red or blue Anagali is 4 



Sessile i c °rolla small Centunculdh 5 



t '* none; calyx white Glaux 6 



Flowers racemose; corolla small, white Samolus 7 



1. MEADIA, Calesby. Herbs with tufted simple radical leaves, and 

 a naked scape, from a short perennial often bulbilliferous crown; the 

 roots fleshy-fibrous. Flowers 5-merous (rarely 4-merous or 6-merous), 

 umbellate, nodding. Calyx 5-parted, reflexed. Corolla very deeply 

 cleft, the purplish segments reflexed. Stamens with very short filaments, 

 often connate at base, inserted on the very short tube of the corolla; 

 anthers long, erect, mostly connivent around the style. Capsule oblong, 

 many-sided, in our species circumscissile near the summit. 



1. M. Hendersonii (Gray), O. Ktze. Leaves ovoid or obovoid, very 

 obtuse to almost truncate and retuse, entire, 2 in. long or more exclusive 

 of the equally long or longer broad petiole; herbage glabrous: scape 

 8 — 12 in. high : segments of corolla of a rich rose-purple, the short tube 

 dark maroon encircled by a band of light yellow: anthers about 2 lines 

 long, neither connivent nor divergent but erect: capsule oblong, twice 

 the length of the calyx, circumscissile well below the summit. Var. 

 crucial a (Greene). Leaves narrower; scapes taller and more slender: 

 flowers of a darker purple, always 4-merous: the anthers longer and 

 narrower.— The type is common among the higher hills of both ranges 

 of coast mountains; the very marked variety on northward slopes of hills 

 about the Bay. Feb.— April. 



2. M. patula (Greene), O. Ktze. Low and stout, pale green and very 

 glandular throughout, 3—7 in. high: leaves 1—2 in. long, elliptic, entire, 

 narrowed to a short broad petiole: segments of corolla pale cream-color 

 with sometimes a purplish tinge; tube of a dark velvety maroon-purple 



