376 



PRIMULACEiE. 



Co. and northward. Also in the Sierra Nevada: Mokelumne Hill; 

 Butte Co. May to tirst part of June. 



5. ANDROSACE L. 



Small montane or alpine herbs, with rosulate radical leaves and few 

 to several scapes bearing an involucrate umbel of small white or pink- 

 tinted flowers. Calyx-lobes 5. Corolla somewhat salverform, its 

 lobes 5 (or 4), its tube shorter than the calyx, its throat constricted; 

 stamens short and inserted low down upon the tube. Style mostly 

 short. Capsule subglobose, dehiscent by valves. Seeds few or many. 

 (Androsakes, Greek name of a now unknown sea-plant.) 



1. A. septentrionalis L. Annual, erect, 1} to 3 in. high; leaves 

 of the radical tuft linear to lanceolate, rarely oblong, entire or 

 obscurely toothed, 3 or 4 lines long; scapes erect, 1 to 3; inflorescence 

 umbellate; involucral bracts ovate or lanceolate, occasionally very 

 broad at base; pedicels filiform, unequal, ^ to 1 in. long; corolla not 

 exceeding the calyx-lobes, 1 line long; calyx-lobes mostly shorter 

 than its tube, subulate-lanceolate. 



Summit of Mt. Diablo, Apr. 10, 1878, Lemmon; Berkeley Hills, 

 J. P. Tracy, Apr., 1900. Greene's A. acuta is doubtless the 

 equivalent of this. 



0. DODECATHEON L. Shooting Star. 

 Low perennial herbs of late spring, with radical leaves and a naked 

 scape bearing an umbel of few or many flowers. Corolla o-parted, 

 with very short tube and dilated thickened throat, the long and 

 narrow divisions reflexed in flower (as also the calv x-lobes). Stamens 

 on the throat of the corolla; filaments short and Hat. monadelphous, 

 but at length separable above. Style filiform, exserted. Fruit a 

 capsule with columnar placenta, surrounded at base by the now elect 

 calyx". (Greek dodeka. 12. and theps, god. the Primrose being under 

 the care of the deities. Singularly handsome flowers similar to those 

 of the cultivated Cyclamen. An American genus of 10 species 

 according to some authors; by other's regarded as consisting of a 

 single polymorphic species. For our region we think it expedient to 

 recognize those given below.) 



Flowers rose-purple; plants commonly 6 to 12 in. high. . .1. D. Hendersoni. 

 Flowers white or cream color; plants 3 to 4 in. high 2. D. patulum. 



1. D. Hendersoni Gray. Mosquito Bills. Sailors Caps. 

 Scapes red or reddish, to 14 in. high, from a strong cluster of fleshy- 

 fibrous roots; leaves elliptic, often widest below the middle, the 

 margin more or less crisped, 1 to 1 J in. long, on petioles about as long; 

 umbels 3 to 13-flowered, the pedicels 3£ in. long or less; flowers 5, 

 rarely 4-merous; calyx cleft into ovate-lanceolate lobes; petals purple 

 with a transverse yellow band at base, which is edged above by white 

 and bounded below by a black-purple area, oblong, 7 lines long; fila- 

 ments black-purple; ' anthers clavate. 2 lines long; capsule oblong, 

 eircumscissile well below the summit. 



