584 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



corrals for fowl and also are utilized by the Indians for constructing 

 crude huts and outhouses. The Coahuila Indians of southern Cali- 

 fornia are said to eat the flowers and capsules. It is reported that 

 belt dressing* of good quality is manufactured from the wax that coats 

 the stems. The Apache Indians relieve fatigue by bathing in a 

 decoction of the roots and also apply the powdered root to painful 

 swellings (Collom ms.). 



80. COCHLOSPERMACEAE. Cochlospermum family 

 1. AMOREUXIA 



Plants herbaceous, with short flowering stems from a large tuberlike 

 root; leaves long-petioled, the blades palmately lobed or parted with 

 more or less wedge-shaped lobes; flowers few in a terminal raceme, 

 large and somewhat irregular, the petals of unequal width and the 

 numerous stamens in 2 sets, those of one side of the flower with longer 

 incurved filaments; petals orange, all but the lowest one bearing 1 or 

 2 large red spots; anthers opening by terminal pores, the upper anthers 

 yellow and on shorter filaments than the purple lower anthers; capsule 

 large, with a thick outer wall and a thin inner wall, these separating 

 at maturity. 



The flowers are beautiful and the capsules are curious on account of 

 the hyaline endocarp, through which the seeds may be seen as through 

 a window after the exocarp falls away or is removed. The fruits are 

 said to be used as food in Sonora and Chihuahua, and the roots were 

 roasted and eaten by the Indians of southern Arizona. They are 

 reported to taste like carrots or parsnips. 



Key to the species 



1. Stems and petioles puberulent; leaf blades glabrous; capsule broadly ovoid, 

 less than 4 cm. long, short-acuminate, puberulent; seeds reniform, the 

 outer coat close, hirsutulous; cotyledons oblong, at least twice as long as 



Wide 1. A. PALMATIFIDA. 



1. Stems and petioles short-pilose; leaf blades pilose on the veins beneath; capsule 

 ellipsoid, 4 to 7 cm. long, long-acuminate, copiously short-pilose; seeds 

 globose, the outer coat loose, pilose; cotyledons nearly orbicular. 



2. A. GONZALEZII. 



1. Amoreuxia palmatifida Moc. and Sesse ex DC, Prodr. 2: 638. 



1825. 

 Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, near the Mexican 

 boundary, 4,000 to 5,500 feet, rocky slopes and mesas, July and 

 August. Southern Arizona and Mexico. 



2. Amoreuxia gonzalezii Sprague and Riley, Kew Roy. Bot. Gard. 



Bui. Misc. Inform. 1922: 102. 1922. 

 Santa Rita Mountains, Pima County (Wooton in 1914). Southern 

 Arizona and northwestern Mexico. 



81. KOEBERLINIACEAE. Junco family 



1. KOEBERLINIA. Junco 



Intricately branched, very thorny shrubs with green bark; leaves 

 reduced to small scales; inflorescences lateral, few-flowered, umbellike 

 or short-racemose; flowers perfect, regular; petals 4, somewhat hooded; 



