476 BORAGINACE^E coldenia 



12 Cryptanthe Mostly slender annuals with alternate leaves and smaU 

 flowers on slender deciduous pedicels; nutlets attached from the base 

 upward to a pyramjtclal gynobase. 



13 Amsinckia Coarse annuals with alternate leaves and yellow flowers : 

 nutlets attached below the middle to an oblong pyramidal gynobase. 



14 Mertensia Perennial herbs with alternate leaves and blue or white 

 flowers on slender persistent pedicels : nutlets attached near the base 

 to a convex gynobase, wrinkled when mature and dry. 



15 Pneumaria Maritime fleshy branching herbs with alternate leaves 

 and blue to nearly white flowers : nutlets attached just above their 

 bases to a somewhat elevated gynobase, fleshy, smooth and shining 

 when mature*. 



= = Nutlets sessile, attached by the very base to a plain gynobase. 



16 Myosotis Annual or perennial herbs with white or blue flowers in 

 bractless racemes : nutlets thin-crustaceous, smooth. 



17 Lithospermum Perennial or annual 1 erb9 with white or yellow 

 flowers in bracted racemes : nutlets bony. 



Tribe 1 Ehretiex DC. Prodr. ix, 502. Herbs shrubs or trees. 

 Style once bifid or two-parted. Stigmas more or less capitate. Co- 

 tyledons plain. 



I COLDENIA L. Gen. n. 173. 



Low herbaceous or suffrutescent plants with entire leaves and 

 numerous small white sessile flowers usually in clusters. Calyx 

 5-parted, or in the original species 4-parted, the divisions narrow. 

 Corolla short-funnelform or nearly salverform, seldom much sur- 

 passing the calyx, the lobes rounded, imbricated or sometimes 

 partly convolute in the bud. Stamens included. Style 2-cleft 

 or 2-parted. Stigmas more or less capitate. Ovary entire or 

 laterally 4-lobed, 4-celled. Ovules anatropous, pendulous. Fruit 

 dry, separating at maturity into 4 one-seeded nutlets, or by abor- 

 tion fewer. Seeds without albumen. 



C. Nuttallii Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. iii, 296. Canescently pubescent 

 and sparsely hispid prostrate annual, repeatedly and divergently dichoto- 

 mous: leaves ovate or rhomboid-rotund, 2-4 lines long, on petioles longer 

 than the blade, with 2 or at most 3 pairs of strong and somewhat curving 

 veins, the margins somewhat revolute: flowers densely clustered in the 

 forks and at the ends of the naked branches: calyx-lobes linear, sparsely 

 hispid, equalling the tube of the pink or white corolla: filaments shorter 

 than the anthers, inserted nearly in the throat of the corolla; the tube of 

 which bears 5 short obtuse scales near the base : fruit deeply 4-lobed ; the 

 thin-walled nutlets rounded and united only at the centre, smooth and 

 shining, oblong-ovate, marked with a linear and raphe-like ventral scar: 

 embryo straight: cotyledons very deeply horseshoe-form, their elongated 

 bases almost enclosing the radical. Arid plains, eastern Washington to 

 California, Utah and Arizona. 



Tribe ii, Hclio'ropiex Endl. Gen. 6^6. Leaves entire, rarely 

 denticulate. Inflorescence more or less scorpioid. Style entire, 

 sometimes wanting. Stigma peltate-annular, forming a complete 

 ring, surmounted usually by an entire or 2-lobed hemispherical to 



