LIMNANTHACEAE. 243 



habit nor the distribution of a native. — Zoe, iv, 86.) Var. californicum Jep- 

 son. Tall and branching, puberulent and beset with purple-tipped glandular 

 hairs; leaves larger, 2 in. broad; flowers frequently about 5 or 6 in a cluster; 

 petals deep rose-red or purple. — Oakland Hills. 



2. E. botrys Bertol. Caulescent, branching from the base and com- 

 monly prostrate; herbage coarsely white-pubescent; leaves 1 to 2 in. long 

 on petioles as long or twice as long, oblong-ovate, pinnatifid, the lobes ser- 

 rate, acute; sepals short-pointed and tipped with 1 or 2 short bristles; petals 

 deep violet ; glands greenish ; filaments dilated nearly to apex and toothed. 



Mediterranean plant widely naturalized in the North Coast Eanges, Great 

 Valley, and Sierra Nevada foothills. On low pastured hills and rolling grav- 

 elly plains its rosettes of leaves are formed in winter or early spring, lie flat 

 on the ground, kill out other seedlings and effectively protect the plant from 

 close competition. 



3. E. moschatum L 'Her. White-stem Filaree. Musk Clover. Hirsute 

 with scattered spreading hairs, at first acaulescent, the radical leaves often 

 forming a close rosette upon the ground; later with stout fleshy ascending 

 stems y> 2 to 1 ft. high; leaves 2 or 3 in. to 1% ft- long; leaflets ovate to ellip- 

 tical, serrate and sparsely incised, short-petiololate, % to l 1 /* in. long, the 

 terminal cuneately 3 to 5-parted; stipules large, membranous; peduncles in the 

 axil of the smaller of the unequal opposite leaves, much elongated in fruit, 

 4 to 11 in. long; sepals not bristle-bearing at tip; petals rose-purple, 3 lines 

 long, with short claws; filaments membranously winged at base, with upwardly 

 pointing teeth; beak of the fruit 1% to 1% in. long. 



Abundant in rich lands of valley orchards and vineyards, often in the North 

 Coast Ranges forming extensive pure growths and far more common than the 

 next. Mar.-Apr. Glands of the flowers reddish or brownish as in the next. 

 The term Filaree, a contraction of the Spanish Alfilerilla, is, like the names 

 Pin Clover or Pin Grass, indifferently applied to either this species or the next. 



4. E. cicutarium (L.) L'Her. Red-stem Filaree. Habit of the pre- 

 ceding; leaflets subsessile, nearly oblong, incisely pinnatifid with acute, often 

 toothed lobes; stipules small, acute; flowers and fruit as in the last, but the 

 sepals terminated by 1 or 2 bristle-like hairs and the filaments little dilated 

 at base, not toothed. 



Barren hillsides or dry plains everywhere; far more common than no. 3 

 in all interior or semi-arid regions. Beginning to flower in Feb. or Mar. 

 and in many places continuing through the summer. It is an esteemed forage 

 plant. Stems commonly reddish, in no. 3 commonly with white stems. 



LIMNANTHACEAE. Meadow Foam Family. 



Annual herbs with dissected alternate leaves without stipules. Flowers com- 

 plete, regular, symmetrical, 3 to 6-merous. Calyx of distinct sepals, persistent, 

 free from the ovary. Petals withering-persistent. Stamens twice as many as 

 the petals. Carpels 5, nearly distinct but with a common style arising from 

 among them near the base, at length separating from a very short axis as 

 1-seeded nutlets. 



1. FLOERKEA Willd. 



Flowers solitary on axillary peduncles, ours 5-merous (exceptionally 4 or 6- 

 merous). Sepals valvate in the bud, as many hypogynous glands alternating 

 with them. Stamens distinct. Style 5-cleft at apex. (H. G. Floerke, a Ger- 

 man botanist.) 



