EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. 281 



catish and eroded at apex, 5 to 10 lines long, light crimson, usually with a 

 wedge-shaped darker spot in middle at apex ; stigmas oval, purple ; ovary shaggy 

 villous or canescent ; capsule 4-sided, sessile, stoutish and mostly short, 5 to 7 

 (or 11) lines long, shaggy or merely pubescent, 8-ribbed; seeds faintly granu- 

 late on sides. 



Dry open valleys: Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys south to Southern 

 California; South Coast Ranges. May. 



7. G. arnottii (T. & G.) Walp. Simple, 6 to 14 in. high, wholly glabrous; 

 leaves thickish, rhomboidal-ovate to oblong or oblong-lanceolate, entire or spar- 

 ingly denticulate, % to I 1 /* i n - long, subsessile; buds glabrous, their calyx-tips 

 free; flowers congested in a terminal head; calyx-tube 1% lines long; petals 

 rose-red, with whitish base, orbicular, entire, 6 lines long; stigma whitish or pale 

 crimson; ovary deeply grooved, quite glabrous; capsule teretish, 8-ribbed, 6 

 lines long. — (G. lepida var. arnottii Wats.) 



Sandy-clay plains of the Sacramento Valley in Solano Co. The Douglas 

 plant (type) has a minutely puberulent ovary; exact locality unknown. To 

 be looked for between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. 



G. sparsifolia Jepson. Simple or branching at the base, 11 in. high; 

 flowers collected in a dense and leafy terminal cluster, the stem sparsely leafy 

 below; leaves linear-oblong, acute, % to 1% in. long, sessile; herbage pubescent 

 or pilose, the deeply grooved ovary densely hairy; sepals distinct, calyx-tube 

 narrow, 1% lines long; petals oblong-ovate, purplish with a spot towards sum- 

 mit, 5 lines long; stigma almost entire, purple; style as long as the long 

 stamens, about half the length of the petals; capsule unknown. — San Joaquin 

 Valley at Tracy, Benj. Cobb. 



8. G. grandifloraLindl. Dwarfish but stout, simple, or with short slender 

 branches above the base, 8 to 12 in. high, very leafy; herbage minutely strigu- 

 lose; leaves oblong, tapering strongly to apex and to the short petiole at 

 base, % to l 1 /^ in. long; buds very large, 1^4 to 1% in. long, the calyx-tips 

 not free; flowers in a short spike or dense cluster of short subterminal branch- 

 lets; petals cuneate-obovate, retuse at apex, iy 2 to 1% in. long, rose-red 

 with a deeper flush or blotch in centre; stigmas yellow, linear, 3 lines long; 

 capsule canescent, thick and short, % in. long, strictly sessile; seeds in two 

 rows in each cell. — (Oenothera whitneyi Gray.) 



North Coast from Duncan Mills, Harford, to Shelter Cove, Bolander. 

 Prized in cultivation, the garden flowers 4 or 5 in. across. 



9. OENOTHERA L. 



Herbs with alternate leaves. Flowers yellow or white, often turning green- 

 ish or reddish. Calyx-tube prolonged beyond the ovary, mostly deciduous, 

 the lobes 4, reflexed. Petals 4. Stamens 8, equal, or those opposite the 

 petals shorter, mostly versatile, sometimes basifixed. Capsule chartaceous to 

 woody, often contorted or sp : rally co ; led, 4-celled, 4-valved, dehiscent, in ours 

 sessile. Seeds many, in 1 or 2 rows in each cell, naked. (Greek oinos, wine, 

 and therea, pursuit, name given by Dioscorides to some now unknown plant, 

 the roots of which were eaten to incite desire for wine.) 



A. Calyx-tube linear or filiform, much prolonged beyond ovary. 

 Caulescent; calyx-tube linear. 



Flowers yellow; tall biennial 1. O. grandiilora. 



Flowers white; low plants. 



Biennial; calyx-tips not free in the bud 2. O. trichocalyx. 



Perennial; calyx-tips tree in the bud 3. O. calif or nica. 



