BOTANY. 
165 
PASSIFLORACEiE. 
Passiflora incarnata, Linn.; Torr. and Gray , FI. 1. p. 538. Western Texas; May. 
GROSSULACEiE. 
Ribes aureum, Pursli. Big Springs of the Colorado, &c.; April. 
CACTACEiE. 
Cereus cajspitosus, Eceinocactus Texensis, and Opuntia frutescens, Engelm., occur in the 
collection. 
UMBELLIFER^b 
AMMOSELINUM, n. gen. Margin of the calyx obsolete. Petals ovate, entire, nearly plane. 
Stylopodium very short, as are the diverging styles. Fruit ovate, laterally compressed. Car¬ 
pels with five equal, prominent, corky, and scabrous ribs, in the intervals of which there are 
single oil-tubes, and two in the commisure. Carpophore 2-parted. Seed straight, semiterete, 
slightly concave on the face.—An annual diffuse herb; the leaves decompound with linear ulti¬ 
mate segments; flowers in compound umbels, white; leaflets of the involucre and involucels 
simple or compound. 
Ammoselinum Popei. —Sandy soil; Llano Estacado, and head-waters of the Colorado ; March 
and April. . Mr. Wright found it in Western Texas, hut he collected only a few specimens, and 
it was not distributed with his plants. Some ripe seeds that he collected were cultivated in the 
Cambridge Botanic Garden, and arrived at perfection. Dr. Parry, while engaged on the Mex¬ 
ican boundary survey, under Major Emory, sent home a single flowering specimen of the plant, 
found at Eagle Pass in January, 1853. From no other sources have we received any specimens 
of this apparently new genus. It grows about a span in length, and though usually diffuse, 
some of Captain Pope’s specimens must have grown erect, and only a little branched; hut they 
seem to have been crowded together. The stem and branches are angular, and the angles, as 
well as the midribs of the leaves, are rough; in other respects the plaut is nearly glabrous. 
The leaves are triternally divided, with narrowly linear segments. Umbels compound, or 
sometimes decompound. Involucre of several leaves, which in strong-growing specimens are 
large, and resemble the leaves of the stem, being cut into linear segments: the leaves of the in¬ 
volucels are sometimes cut also, hut more commonly they are almost entire. Rays of the umbel 
seldom more than three or four, unequal: rays of the umbellets 8-10, very unequal. Flowers 
very small. Fruit about two and a half lines long and two lines broad, compressed laterally, 
so that the longer diameter is twice as great as the shorter; the ribs scabrous with little points. 
The lateral ones are less prominent, and are confluent with an accessory, thick, corky margin, 
which extends through the commissure. We have with reluctance added another genus to the 
already extensive family of Umbelliferaa, already abounding with ill-defined genera, especially 
as it is founded on a single species. It is most nearly allied to Chaerophyllum, hut differs in 
the entire petals, ovate fruit with acute ribs, and shallow furrows of the seed, as well as in the 
involucrum. 
Cymopterus montanus , Nutt. in Torr. and Gray , FI. 1 , p. 624 ; Gray , PI. Fendl. p. 56, and 
PI. Wright , 1, p. 79. Eastern part of the Llano Estacado and on the upper Colorado; April. 
Polytainia Nuttallii, DC. Prodr. 4, p. 196. On the Colorado, Texas; April. In flower. 
Daucus pusillus, lick. FI. l,p. 164. On the Colorado, Texas; April. 
