BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. 



151 



Santa Cruz Mountains. The var. diffusa Parry (C. diffusa Benth. ) 

 has the cauline leaves all reduced to narrow or very small bracts and 

 the margins of the involucre usually white. 



5. C. pungens Benth. Somewhat slender, villous-pubescent, the 

 branches prostrate or at first erect, 2 to 12 or liS in. long, sub- 

 dichotomous; leaves spatulate or oblanceolate, \ to 1| in. long, oppo- 

 site petioles of the cauline leaves 3 lines long, those of the radical 9 

 lines or less; bracts linear or subulate acerose; involucres clustered on 

 short lateral branchlets 2 to 3 lines long, unequally toothed, the 

 alternate shorter; teeth of the involucre scarious margined, strongly 

 uncinate; calyx narrowed at base, cleft about % the way down; seg- 

 ments equal, oblong, erose-dcnticulate at summit, mucronulate; 

 stamens 9, unequal, filaments plainly adnate to the lower part of the 

 tube; styles slender, equaling the stamens. 



Sand hills, San Francisco Peninsula southward to Monterey. 0. 

 cuspidata Wats, is plainly a synonym. 



6. C. Clevelandi Parry. Plants prostrate, branched from the 

 base, 4 to 10 in. broad, hairy pubescent; radical leaves ovate-spatulate, 

 cauline leaves narrow and pungent; involucre with unequal divergent 

 uncinate teeth; outer calyx segments shortly cleft, broadly ovate, 

 erose; inner narrow and laciniate; stamens 3. 



Coast Ranges north of San Francisco Bay, toward the interior: 

 Napa and Lake Cos. 



7. C. uniaristata T. & G. Stems prostrate, 2 to t> in. long, with a 

 short soft pubescence; leaves broadly spatulate, the bracts oblanceo- 

 late, cuspidate; involucres numerous but rather loosely cymose on 

 the branches or sometimes densely clustered; involucral teeth not 

 margined but awned; one awn long and straight, the others very 

 short and hooked; flowers cream-colored; outer segments of the calyx 

 entire, obovate, the inner as long, oblong; stamens 3. 



Base of Mt. Diablo, June, 1884, M. K. Curran (the inner calyx 

 segments not entire); more common southward: Salinas. Palmer. 



4. OXYTHECA Xutt. 

 Slender annuals with the internodes more or less covered with 

 stipitate glands and a repeatedly dichotomous inflorescence. Leaves 

 in a rosette at base. Bracts foliaceous and more or less connate, often 

 in 3's. Involucres few-flow 7 ered, more or less distinctly pedicellate, 

 campanulate or turbinate, 3 to 5-eleft, the teeth bearing a bristle or 

 awn, or awnless. Flowers mostly exserted. Calyx segments equal, 

 glandular-pubescent on the outside. Stamens 9. Achene commonly 

 lenticular. (Greek oxus, sharp, and theke, case, in allusion to the 

 spiny involucre.) 



1. O. hirtiflora (Gray) Greene. About C> in. high, glandular- 

 puberulent; leaves oblong-spatulate, with scabrous ciliate margins 

 and a broad red mid-vein; bracts hispid; involucre- awnless, turbinate, 

 £ line long, deeply and unequally 4-lobed, on erect or nodding pedi- 

 cels 1 to 3 lines long; flowers 3 to 5, yellowish, tinged with red, £ line 

 long; achenes triangular, exserted. — (Eriogonum hirtiflorum Gray.) 



