FIGWORT FAMILY. 



407 



limited geographical area. The extremes of these forms are often 

 very striking and some of these very pronounced varieties have been 

 described as distinct species. Their continuance as such, however, 

 can only be had by rigidly ignoring the equally interesting and 

 multitudinous array of intermediate forms which, in their season, 

 crowd the valley floors, hillsides, and canons. A long series of inter- 

 grading specimens may be collected in favorable localities, such as 

 Napa and Sonoma Valleys and the foothills and mountains adjacent. 

 But it must be said, indeed, that a thorough examination of these 

 forms has scarcely been begun. They have yet to receive that careful 

 and prolonged study in the laboratory and field which their impor- 

 tance and biological interest alike demand. The following named 

 varieties are wholly provisional but will be of some service to the 

 field student. 



Var. Californicum. Annual; 4 in. to 2 ft. high, simple or branch- 

 ing, stoutish; leaves round or roundish, often broader than long (as in 

 all the following varieties, especially the sessile upper ones), dentate or 

 sharply serrate, often with narrow salient lobes at base; flowers 1 to 

 1£ in. long. — Common in the Sacramento and Coast Range Valleys. 

 Apr.-May. 



Var. grandis Greene. Similar to the preceding but said to be 

 perennial; stems fistulous, 2 to 3 ft. high; leaves ample (as much as 

 3.} in. long), on short petioles; flowers l\ to 2 in. long. — Rank form 

 found along ditches and slow streamlets in the Bay Region. May- 

 July. 



Var. insignis Greene. Annual (as all the following), 6 to 20 in. 

 high; foliage very scanty; lowest petioles long; corollas 1 to 1£ in. 

 long, with a large purple splotch and several small purple dots on 

 the lower lip. — Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Apr. One of the most 

 showy plants of the genus. 



Var. arvensis (M. arvensis Greene). Size of the preceding or 

 larger; lower leaves often with several pairs of small leaflets near the 

 main blade; floral leaves sometimes soft-villous; orifice of the mature 

 calyx broad-campanulate, commonly truncate. — Wet fields: Howell 

 Mountain and elsewhere. 



Var. nasutus (M. nasutus and glareosus Greene). Teeth of the 

 calyx in mature fruit often very strongly turned towards the upper 

 one which is thrice the length of the others; corolla large or little 

 surpassing the calyx. — Mountain rivulets and springs of the North 

 Coast Ranges and doubtless elsewhere. Apr.-May. 



14. M. floribundus Dougl. Annual; stems slender, at first erect, 

 later diffuse,«5 to 15 in. long; herbage more or less slimy-viscid and 

 musk-scented; leaves ovate, ^ to 1 in. long, dentate, short-petioled; 

 pedicels mainly longer, sometimes shorter than the leaves; calyx 

 narrowly campanulate (in fruit ovate), 2 to 3 lines long, the teeth £ 

 line long, hardly unequal; corolla light yellow, exceeding the calyx, 

 mostly twice as long; capsule globose-ovate, obtuse. 



Springy places and stream snores in the mountains: Sierra Nevada; 

 Coast Ranges (but not reported from the Bay Region). May-June. 

 There are dwarf forms 2 to 3 in. high. 



