748 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



1. Mertensia franciscana Heller, Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 26: 549. 



1899. 



Mertensia pratensis Heller, ibid. p. 550. 



Mertensia amplifolia Woot. and Standi., Contrib. U. S. Natl. 



Herbarium 16: 165. 1913. 

 Mertensia grandis Woot. and Standi., ibid. 



Apache, Navajo, and Coconino Counties to the mountains of 

 Cochise County, mostly above 7,000 feet, moist shaded places in the 

 pine and aspen belts, type from near Flagstaff (MacDougal 232). 

 Western Colorado and southeastern Utah to New Mexico and 

 Arizona. 



2. Mertensia macdougalii Heller, Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 26: 550. 



1899. 



Grand Canyon (Coconino County), Pine (Gila County), Fort 

 Whipple (Yavapai County), 6,000 to 9,000 feet, mostly in the pine 

 belt, rare, type from near Mormon Lake {MacDougal 95). Known 

 only from Arizona. 



The margined nutlets of this species are unique in the genus. 



*3. Mertensia arizonica Greene, Pittonia 3: 197. 1897. 



This species is based upon specimens labeled as collected in Arizona 

 (E. Palmer in 1869) but is known definitely only from central and 

 southwestern Utah. The type is probably mislabeled (see foot- 

 note 24, p. 747, Williams, p. 62), but the species eventually may be 

 found in meadows at the lower edge of the pine belt in extreme 

 northwestern Arizona. 



Mertensia palmeri Nels. and Macbr. is also based upon a Palmer collection 

 labeled as from Arizona. According to Williams (see footnote 24, p. 747, Williams, 

 p. 43), the type represents M. paniculata (Ait.) G. Don, of the northern United 

 States and Canada, and could not have been collected in Arizona or adjacent 

 States. 



8. CRYPTANTHA 25 



Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, usually bristly; corolla white 

 or yellow; cymes prevailingly scorpioid but sometimes glomerate or 

 loosely racemose, with or without bracts ; nutlets smooth, tuberculate, 

 or wrinkled, with rounded, angled, or winged edges, attached through 

 a break in the pericarp along a ventral groove or a more or less tri- 

 angular lateral areola to a somewhat hemispheric or elongate gyno- 

 base ; plants of dry, open habitats. 



Several of the Arizona species are reported to have value as forage 

 for sheep in Arizona. The popular name nie vitas is applied to 

 white-flowered species in California. C. crassisepala is stated to be 

 used by the Hopi Indians in treating boils. Most of the species 

 grow in dry, sandy or gravelly soil. 



Key to the species 



1. Plants coarse, biennial or perennial: Section Oreocarya (2). 



2. Corolla tube elongate, distinctly surpassing the calyx; flowers usually 

 heterostyled (3). 

 3. Nutlets roughened , tuberculate or muricate, dull ; corolla white ; inflorescence 

 a somewhat interrupted cylindric thryse 1. C. fulvocanescens. 



25 References: Payson, E. B. a monograph of the section oreocarya of cryptantha. Mo. Bot. 

 Gard. Ann. 14: 211-358. 1927. Johnston, I. M. the north American species of cryp- 

 tantha. Gray Herbarium Contrib. 74: 1-114. 1925. 



