EVENING-PRIMROSE FAM I L Y. 



329 



almost filiform spreading and nearly leafless branches, the bracts 

 almost subulate; petals deeply 2-cleft into linear-oblong lobes, rotate- 

 spreading, rose-purple, 3 to 4 lines long;' capsule pediceled, about 1 

 in. long, sharply 4-angled and acuminately beaked; seeds £ to 1 line 

 long. 



Dry ground, everywhere common. July-Oct. Main stem often 

 very stout and thick below, and rapidly diminishing upwards. 



8. E. spicatum L. Fire-wekd. Stems erect, mostly simple 

 from a stout root, 2 to 5 ft. high, glabrate below, the inflorescence 

 canescent; leaves alternate, lanceolate, nearly entire, 4 to 6 in. long, 

 the lateral veins confluent in submarginal loops; flowers large, in 

 long racemes with small slender bracts; calyx cleft almost to the 

 ovary; corolla slightly irregular, lilac-purple; petals 5 to 7 lines long, 

 entire; stamens purple, in a single row, with filaments dilated at base; 

 style exceeding the stamens, hairy at base, at first recurved; capsule 

 2 to 3 in. long. 



Common in the Sierra Nevada and North Coast Ranges, appearing 

 in great abundance on forest-burned areas; collected within our limits 

 only in Sonoma Co. near Guerneville, Davy. July. Entire inflo- 

 rescence often purple, especially in the bud. 



E. obcordatum Gray, alpine in the High Sierras, is a span high 

 with bright rose-colored obcordately 2-lobed petals and yellow stamens. 



5. BOISDUVALIA Spach. 

 Erect annuals with alternate leaves. Flowers small or minute, in 

 leafy spikes or axillary along the branches. Calyx-tube (above the 

 ovary) short, obconic, the lobes erect. Petals 4, obovate, sessile, 

 2-lobed, purple to white. Stamens 8, those opposite the petals 

 shorter; anthers basifixed. Capsule 4-celled, 4-valved, sessile. 

 (Jean-Alphonse Bois-duval, French naturalist and physician, author 

 of Flora Francaise, published at Paris in 1828.) 



Petals white, cleft into 2 unequal lobes V. B. bipartite. 



Petals rose-color, purple or violet, cleft into 2 equal lobes; capsule 

 membranous. 



Capsule terete, septifragal, the septa wholly persistent on the placenta, 



which is thus 4-winged 2. B. densillora. 



Capsule terete, loculicidal, the septa adherent to the valves in dehiscence. 



Floral leaves ovate or oblong 3. B. campestris. 



Floral leaves linear 4. B. stricta. 



Capsule 4-sided, coriaceous; dehiscence unknown . . . .5. B. cleistogama. 



1. B. bipartita Greene. Nearly 1 ft. high, simple or with decum- 

 bent branches from the base, the' herbage pale and villous; leaves 

 linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or those of the inflorescence ovate- 

 lanceolate, entire or obscurely denticulate; petals white, very deeply 

 parted into 2 unequal lobes, the smaller about § the length of the 

 other, the open corolla thus seemingly composed of 8 petals, 4 long 

 and 4 short; capsule villous; seeds few and large. 



Arroyo del Valle, Alameda Co., Greene, June 14, 1895. 



2. B. densiflora (Lindl.) Wats. Erect, commonly H ft. high, 

 branched above, leaves lanceolate, 2 in. long, the floral ovate, 



