'JS'J ONAGRACEAE. 



Acaulescent; calyx-tube filiform; flowers yellow. 



Perennial; leaves ovate or oblong, acute; petals 6 lines long or more 4. O. oz'ata. 



Annual; leaves linear; petals 3 to 4 lines long 5. O. graciliftora. 



B. Calyx-tube obconic, little prolonged beyond ovary. 



Caulescent; flowers yellow. 



Capsule sharply quadrangular, much contorted or spirally coiled; flowers turning 

 greenish; radical leaves in a rosette or tuft. 

 .Maritime species; procumbent or prostrate. 



Petals 3 to 5 lines long 6. O. cheiranthifolia. 



Petals 1 to 2 lines long 7. O. micrantha. 



Interior species; erect or suberect; petals 1 line long 8. O. hirtella. 



Capsule not contorted or only slightly, linear, terete, l / 2 line wide or less; radical leaves 

 none. 



Petals 1 to 2 lines long; anthers innate 9. O. strigulosa. 



Petals 2 to 3 lines long; anthers versatile 10. O. dentata. 



1. O. grandiflora Ait. Evening Primrose. Biennial, erect, usually sim- 

 ple, 2 to 4 ft. high; herbage canescently puberulent and often hirsute; leaves 

 ovate to lanceolate, 4 to 8 in. long; calyx-tube 1 to 1% in. long, the tips 

 free in the bud; petals yellow, 1 to 1% i n - long and quite as broad; anthers 

 versatile, y 2 i n - long; style disk-shaped below the cylindric stigmas; capsule 

 obtusely quadrangular, woody, % to 2 in. long, the valves with a strong 

 midrib; seed sharply angled, in 2 rows in each cell. 



Sparingly naturalized: Alvarado; San Francisco; Purissima Creek; San 

 Mateo Co.; Napa Valley; valley canons of the Sierra Nevada (Yosemite, 

 Hetch-Hetchy, etc.). May- Aug. 



2. O. trichocalyx Nutt. Biennial; stems from a straight taproot, low, 

 very stout, upright, simple or more commonly branched from the base, 1 ft. 

 high, puberulent, or sparsely pilose and almost glabrous; leaves oblong, taper- 

 ing to both ends, petioled, coarsely and rather remotely salient-toothed or 

 lobed, 3 to 4 in. long, or the lowest longer; calyx-tips not free in the bud; 

 bud (above calyx-tube) oblong, densely woolly, nearly 1 in. long or more; 

 petals 1 in. long or more, usually with a deep sinus; capsule terete, strongly 

 thickened towards the broad sessile base, 2% in. long or less, in maturity 

 strongly deflexed, slightly curved, woody; seeds narrowly ovate, mottled, 

 somewhat compressed, in 1 row in each cell. 



Mt. Hamilton Kange (Corral Hollow) to Bakersfield and southward to the 

 Mojave Desert. June. 



3. O. californica Wats. Similar to the preceding but stems more slender, 

 ascending, from a perennial running rootstock; herbage hoary pubescent; 

 calyx-tips free in the bud; bud (above calyx-tube) narrowly ovate, villous; 

 capsule not thickened at base; seeds oblong, turgid. 



Sacramento, Antioch sandhills and the San Joaquin Valley. Flowers ves- 

 pertine, remaining open two or three hours in the morning or on a cloudy day 

 until noon. 



4. O. ovata Nutt. Golden Eggs. Acaulescent; glabrous or the leaf mar- 

 gins and veins beneath ciliate; leaves oblong to ovate, acute, 3 to 6 in. long, 

 mostly entire, the under ones narrowed at base to rather long petioles; calyx- 

 tube very Blender, 3 in. long, the segments glabrous; petals orbicular, ' L > in. 

 long; capsules more or less below the surface of the ground, chartaceous, 1 in. 

 long, tardily dehiscenl ; seeds in this and the next in 2 rows in each cell. 



Common in the Ooasl Bangs valleys from Sherwood Valley, Ukiah and 

 Calistoga to Marin Co., Berkeley, San Francisco, Millbrae and southward to 

 Ban Luis Obispo. Feb. -Apr. 



