128 
BOTANY. 
ASCLEPIADACEiE. 
Asclepias ericoarpa, Benth. PI. Hartiv. p. 323, No. 1835. Hill-sides, Knight’s Ferry, 
Stanislaus river, California ; May *7. 
Asclepias (Otaria) n. sp.? Dry arroyos, on the Great Colorado of California. Our speci¬ 
mens are imperfect, having been gathered late in the season, when the leaves had fallen. The 
plant evidently belongs to the section Otaria of Decaisne, but we can refer it with certainty to 
none of the species described in the Prodromus. It is tall, (apparently 3-4 feet high,) some¬ 
what branched above, with a minutely pubescent stem. The umbels are numerous, in a termi¬ 
nal panicle or raceme, 15-20-flowered. The flowers are apparently white, about as large as in 
A. variegata. The petals are reflexed, and the oblong entire cuculli are only about one-third 
longer than the sessile gynostegium. Horn subulate-falciform, slightly exserted. The pod is 
about 5 inches in length, even, oblong, tapering to a long point. It seems to be nearly allied 
to A. subulata of Decaisne, but that is said to have the cuculli twice as long as the gynostegium, 
and until the leaves are known we cannot be sure that it is a new species. 
Acerates cordifolia, Bentli. PI. Hartw. p. 323. Knight’s Ferry, Stanislaus river, California; 
May 8. We have this plant also from the Rev. Mr. Fitch. In all our specimens the gynos¬ 
tegium is much shorter than the corolla. The cuculli are about the length of the gynostegium, 
obliquely truncated downward, and closely appressed to the processes of the anthers. 
OLEACE2E. 
Fraxinus pistaciasfolia : glabra seu tomentuloso-velutina ; foliolis 2-4-jugis subpetiolulatis 
ovatis oblongis lanceolatisve serratis vel fere integerrimis pallidis vel supra lucidis venosis •; 
petiolo canaliculato nunc apicem versus marginato; samara ex apice in alam spathulato- 
oblongam portione seminifera subtereti immarginata vix longiorem producta. F. velutina, 
Torr. in Emory’s Rep. (forma tomentosa.) Rocky ravines of Williams’ River; January 3: 
fruit only. A species occurring in almost all the New Mexican collections, excessively variable 
in its foliage, and so much more generally smooth than pubescent (still less velvety) that we 
propose to supersede the little-known name under which an extreme form of it was briefly 
described in Emory’s Report some years ago. 
Fraxinus Oregona, Nutt. N. Amer. Sylv. 3, p. 59, t. 99. F. pubescens, var. Hook. FI. Bor.- 
Am. 2, p. 51. F. grandifolia, Bentli. Bot. Sulph. p. 33. Napa Valley, California, in deep 
ravines and along rivulets ; May 5. A small-leaved form. 
ARISTOLOCHIACEiE. 
Aristolochia Californica (sp. nov.): caule volubili fruticoso ; foliis ovato-cordatis integer¬ 
rimis membranaceis utrinque pubescentibus ; pedunculis solitariis medio unibracteatis ; perian- 
thio glabriusculo inflato, limbo trilobo, lobis fere mqualibus subconniventibus. Near Corte 
Madera, California ; April 16, (in flower.) A tall climbing species. Leaves 3-4 inches long, 
obtuse, velvety-pubescent when young, thinly but softly pubescent when mature. Peduncles 
an inch and a half or two inches in length, thickened and pubescent under the flower, furnished 
near the middle with a small ovate bract. Flower dull purple at the base and tip, paler in the 
middle, about an inch and a half long from the base to the curvature. This rare plant (which 
we have only received besides from Dr. Hulse, who collected it in the Sacramento valley) re¬ 
sembles A. tomentosa, Nutt.; but that has naked peduncles and narrow villous flowers, the lobes 
of which are widely spreading. 
Asarum Hooiceri, Fielding , Sert. Plant, fol. & t. 32. A. Canadense, /9. Hoolc. EL Bor.- 
Amer. 2, p. 139. Hill-sides and low places, Downieville, Yuba ; Duffield’s Ranch, and mount- 
