PLANTS NOV^ THURBERIANiE. 321 



Eremiastrum bellioides. — On the Californian desert, not far west of the Colorado ; 

 January, 1852. — A single flowermg specimen was picked up by Mr. Thurber, while 

 crossing this desert on foot. The plant is two inches high, from a slender annual root ; 

 the first head borne when only an inch high ; the slender branches probably attaining 

 several inches in length in the course of the season. Leaves half an inch long ; the 

 uppermost crowded and as if involucrate round the head. Scales of the involucre three 

 lines long, acuminate, hispid outside. Ligules three lines long, oblanceolate ; the tube a 

 little hairy. Mature achenia not seen. — I unwillingly add another to the two already 

 knoAvn North American genera of De CandoUe's subdivision Belliece ; namely, Distasis 

 (Diplostelma, Gray, PI. Fendl.) and Chcetopappa, each of a single species. The present 

 plant is pretty well distinguished from these in habit and character ; but on the other 

 hand it makes perhaps too near an approach to those species of Erigeron, such as E. 

 concinmim, which exhibit rather few bristles and manifest squamellse in the pappus. 

 The generic name alludes to the habitat of this plant; namely, an Asteroid- plant of 

 the desert.* 



Melampodium longicorne (sp. nov.) : annuum, hispidulum, diffuse ramosum ; foliis 

 lanceolatis obtusis integerrimis ; pedunculis e dichotomiis ortis gracilibus monocepha- 

 lis ; involucri squamis internis fructiferis 7-10 nervoso-striatis dorso vix muricatis 

 apice in cornu longissimum extus sericeo-puberulum apice circinnato-revolutum pro- 

 ductis ; ligulis (flavis) minimis. — Near Santa Cruz, Sonora ; September, 1851. — 

 Excepting the long horns, which are so conspicuous in this species (being a quarter of 

 an inch in length, while the fructiferous body of the involucral scale is only two lines 

 long at maturity), and the longer peduncles in the lower forks, this much resembles the 

 3£ hispidum, H. B. K., or at least the No. 1205 of Mr. Wright's collection, which was 

 gathered in the same region with the present plant, and at nearly the same time. In 

 Mr. Wrio-ht's plant, moreover, the fructiferous scales are not only truncate but sparsely 

 tuberculate : in ours they are only a little roughened with some minute projections. 

 The long horns give the heads the appearance of those of Tragoceras zinnioides, as 

 figured by Kunth.f 



* I have recently seen depauperate and precocious specimens of this plant, gathered in the same district by 

 Dr. J. M. Bigelow, early in the present year. Fully developed specimens with mature achenia are greatly 

 needed. 



t To the MelampodinecR, which has become an incongruous group, must, from its characters, be referred 

 the plant described under the name of Heterospermum dicranocarpum, in Plantse Wrightianse, 1. p. 109. 

 Mr. Wright's specimens bore some mature achenia on the receptacle, from which everything else had 

 VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 4 



