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VOL. V. AUGUST, 1goo. No. 3

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY, No. IX.

MARCUS E. JONES.

PEUCEPHYLLUM ScHorri Gray hasasynonym in /nyonia dyso-
diotdes Jones. The writer worked out the proper place of this genus
in the Composite, and after being unable to match it by any materi-
al or published species or genus he sent it east for comparison for
fear that it might prove to be some obscure genus not known to
him. Receiving a reply that it could not be matched there he
then ventured to publish it. Mrs. Brandegee, after receiving a
specimen of it, informed the writer that it matched some material
of her’s referred to Peucephyllum. A second comparison at Har-
vard proved that it was identical with Peucephyllum Schottii. Dr.
Gray having wrongly referred the genus to the Senecionidee
instead of the 7age/inee, it was not found on the first comparison.

CHAINACTIS MACRANTHA Eaton. The writer had long noticed
that almost all specimens of the species in herbaria had a wilted
or collapsed look, and also that growing it never seemed to be in
good condition. On a recent trip into the desert the writer
studied the plant growing and found it to be a night bloomer,
the flowers collapsing early in the morning. A little after sun-
down the flowers open wide and the outer ones bend over and
spread out, forming a large head of pearl-white flowers, as the
pink outer part becomesinvisible then. C. stevioides seems to be a
trifle stiffer in the evening, but there is scarcely a perceptible dif-
ference in the flowers by day or night. All other species of
Chenactis that the writer knows are day bloomers, or rather,
keep open all the time.

GILIA PUNGENS and all its varieties, G. Californica, and G. Wat-
sont are all night bloomers, nearly all the other species of Gi/ia

42 Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. [ZOE

are open all the time after they first come out. The night
bloomers are all fragrant so far as I remember.

Lycium ANDERSONI Gray. ‘This is a shrub characteristic of the
desert region in the juniper belt of the Great Basin. It has the
usual scraggly, stunted, tangled, and spiny look, forming a
rounded mass about 2% feet high and is rigid and with fleshy
leaves, reminding one of Sarcobatus though denser and less
high. It looks like a plant that would revel in alkali, but on the
contrary it never grows in alkaline soil, nor do its leaves taste
salty as those of such plants do. It prefers gravelly washes but
occasionally grows on plains in the desert. The stems are tufted
and bent, roughened throughout with many minute cracks which
expose the thin layers of bark. The bark does not peel up into
flakes but shows many thin edges and splits into flat threads.
The older bark is spotted with many black specks. The twigs
taper into needle tips and are white and knotty in the axils of the
leaves, and come out nearly at right angles to the stems. The
stems are often twisted and much bent. The wood is greenish
and compact but rather brittle. The fruit is generally scarce,
but this season occasional bushes were found which were loaded
with the cherry-red berries, the larger ones being 13 inch long,
round or slightly ellipsoidal, slightly acid, rather = about
as solid as a ripe huckleberry.

ASTRAGALUS KENTROPHYTA Gray var. rotundus ‘This is the
same as A. tegefarius var. rotundus Jones, Cont. VII, 650. The
writer has for a long time tried to believe that 4. fegetarius was
distinct from A. Kentrophyia, but it is impossible to keep it up
as anything but a sub-species at most. It is one of the very rare
cases where a species that has its home in theoak or even in the
juniper belt has a variety that inhabits the spruce belt almost to
timber line. ;

Astragalus Craigi, Coll. by Howell on John Day’s River,
Or., May, 1885.

Habit of A. drepanolobus and diurnus Perennial, widely
spreading, a foot long, nodes about 1 inch apart, slender stems
and peduncles sulcate; petiole from ™% to % the leaf; middle
leaves the largest, 3 inches long, of 4-5 pairs of obovate, long-

VoL. 5] Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. 43

petiolulate, sub-alternate, emarginate, thickish, 3-4 lines long leaf-
lets: whole plant nearly glabrous; pubescence fixed by the base,
of short, appressed hairs; peduncles axillary throughout, %4-1
inch long with rachis the same, racemosely 6-8 flowered; bracts
minute, triangular; pedicels slender, 1 line long; flowers white, 3
lines long, arched, reflexed; calyx tube campanulate, 1 line long,
not oblique, narrowed below, teeth triangular, a little shorter and
not arched; banner purple-veined, 2 lines long,oval, abruptly arched
to go° at calyx tips, sides reflexed, % line wide; wings oblong»
ascending, 1 line longer than keel; keel a little exceeding the
calyx teeth, rounded, obtuse, short, incurved, tip erect and
straight; pods arcuate, oblanceolate, triangular-acute, when
young laterally compressed, when mature inflated and cross sec-
tion oval-reniform, sulcate dorsally and septum a little intruded,
not nearly reaching the ventral suture, 3-3% lines high and
wide, sessile, nearly glabrous, papery, horizontal, with the calyx
vental reflexed, not sulcate ventrally, nor ventral suture raised}
stipules triangular, adnate, not connate, small, green. Distri-
buted as A. drepanolobus. This has the habit of 4. drepanolobus
and the inflated pod of A. Geyeri. Dedicated to Prof. Craig, in
whose herbarium it was found.

Astragalus Cusickii Gray. This interesting species was first
discovered many years ago by Mr. Cleburne, a part of his
original material being in my herbarium, but it was only a few
years ago that it came into my possession. Cleburne’s speci-
mens were gathered at the entrance of the great Snake river
cafion, just opposite Huntington, Oregon, in Idaho. Cusick’s
specimens were gathered also in Idaho and in the same cafion,
but further north, near the town of Ruthberg. Last year the
writer found the species growing abundantly at the type locality,
and also at Goff, Idaho, near the mouth of the Little Salmon
river. This season I also found it in full flower and fruit at Cle-
burne’s locality, and had a chance to study it growing. It
always grows on steep and gravelly hillsides in the Purshia
(oak) belt. It has the habit of A. filzpes Gray and the flowers
‘are scarcely distinguishable from that species, but the ballon-
shaped pods show that it is closely related to 4. Hookerianus.

44 Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. [ZOE

It grows in close tufts 214 feet high and is erect, like //zpes.
When young the flowers are almost pure white, turning to cream-
color with age, 34 inch long, horizontal; calyx 1% lines long,
almost round in cross-section, nearly truncate at base, inserted a
trifle below the middle, white, both sides straight, mouth gib-
bous, the lower side decidedly longer; teeth 4 line long, deltoid-
triangular; banner fiddle-shaped by being much contracted ™% the
way up from the base, abruptly arched to vertical at a point 1%
to 2 lines beyond the calyx tips, a little hooded at tip and with a
somewhat thickened claw, nearly oval in outline but appearing
oblong, sides reflexed only in the middle, but much so there, and
with the reflexed part about a line wide, sulcus very deep and a
mere slit at base, but it shallows and becomes very broadly V-
shaped above, water-lined, erect part 3 lines long, truncate at tip,
wings about 2 lines wide and one line longer than the keel;
obliquely oblong and rounded, both of them concave to keel and
flaring beyond it, nearly straight; keel blade about 2 lines long,
abruptly rounded and with straight and erect tip, 114 lines high,
acute, yellow-tipped; pods horizontal, cross-section half-oval,
broadly shallow-sulcate ventrally, compressed at the short-stipitate
base, very thin and papery, with oily or watery drops inside, trans-
lucent, red-nerved and stippled above, nearly straight. Fruit
ripe in May.

ASTRAGALUS MULFORD& Jones. This was described provision-
ally from a single specimen collected by Miss Mulford at Weiser,
Idaho, there being no data to indicate its habitat. Last year the
writer found it almost out of fruit, and this spring again in full
flower and fruit. Unlike the species to which it seemed the most
related its habitat is on the hottest south slopes of yielding sand
beds on the upper edge of the juniper belt. Back of Weiser
there are bluffs several hundred feet high of friable clays, sands
and infusorial earth, which weather into steep slopes with soil so
soft that a person’s feet sink down several inches as he walks or
climbs overit. This isthe home of thisspecies. The roots are sin-
gle, thick and fleshy at the erect tip, and run down many feet nearly
straight into the ground; at the crown they branch into many smaller
crowns which form an open mat a few inches wide, from the mats

VOL. 5] Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. 45

arise the slender decumbent stems much after the fashion of 4.
Nuttallianus, but more erect, only the outer stems being pros-
trate. The flowers are like those of A. Nutfallianus and are
about 3 lines long; banner 2 lines wide and 2% lines long above
the bend, dirty-white and water-lined, abruptly bent to over go°
% a line beyond the calyx tips, deeply and broadly sulcate to the
tip with a sulcus % a line deep and a line wide which occupies
all of the upper half of the banner, sides reflexed about Y a line
wide opposite the end of the keel but not at all at tip, banner
nearly square, emarginate, with just the faintest trace of a white
spot in the center; wings obliquely-elliptical, nearly a line wide
in the middle, the right-hand one being folded past the end of
the keel and the left-hand one flaring much, but both touching
each other at the tip, both concave to the keel and obscurely
notched below the tip, fully a line longer than keel and arcuate
upwards, white, not distinctly water-lined; keel very short,
abruptly bent at the end into nearly % a circle, slightly darker
at tip, very blunt; calyx campanulate, a line long, with subulate
teeth % a line long in addition, straight, a little obliquely inserted
at the acutish base; pedicels slender, % a line long, as long as
the ovate bract; fruit with ventral suture in some cases, distinctly
concave, though normally convex, 2-celled by the intrusion of
the dorsal suture which is a line wide exclusive of the shallow
sulcus, papery pod smooth or minutely hairy, hoary when young,
pendent, acute at both ends, triquetrous and with concave sides;
stipe 14 lines long; stipules large, green normally, 2 lines long,
triangular, adnate, not connate, the lower ones often hyaline and
imbricated; stems a little angled, not sulcate. This was in flower
and fruit April 19, 1900, but keeps blooming for some weeks.

ASTRAGALUS GLAREOSUS Dougl. The writer spent some time in
the home of this species, but did not remain long enough to com-
plete his studies on this and the allied forms; sufficient informa-
tion was gained to nearly satisfy him that this and A. inflexus
are identical except that the latter is more caulescent.

ASTRAGALUS MALACUS Gray. This species as it generally oc-
curs is remarkably well characterized, only in its southern range

46 Contributions to Western Botany, No. 1X. [zO¥

does it seem to vary much. It was found on April 27, 1900, near

' Weiser, Idaho, considerably out of its usual range. Specimens
gathered there show flowers 34 inch long, pink-purple; wings

‘and keel same color; wings nearly straight, broadly linear, a lit-
tle narrower toward the tip, a line wide, narrower than the keel
and a line longer; banner ovate, sides reflexed to the sulcus
throughout, the reflexed part fully 114 lines wide at base of ban-
ner; sulcus V-shaped below and more shallow above; keel rounded
in an are of a circle and very obtuse, blade 7 lines long and claw
not exserted; white spot on banner large and purple-veined, ob-
long; calyx thin, much compressed, lower side straight, upper
side arched, inserted in line with the base; teeth linear-subulate,
calyx 5-nerved, pink; young pods white-hairy.

ASTRAGALUS PuRSHII Douglas var. TINCTUS Jones has the flow-
ers almost exactly those of A. Ufahensis in color (a brilliant pink-
purple); banner broadly elliptical; gently arched to 45° from the
end of calyx tube; sulcus narrowly U-shaped for 4 lines in length,
then widens to about ™% a line near the tip, and at the tip it van-
ishes, it is very narrow at the base of blade; white spot spatu-
late, a line wide at tip, comes within a line of the end of the
blade; sides of banner reflexed for 2 lines in width in the middle
on each side, all but the sulcus being reflexed; banner barely
notched; wings broadly linear, concave to keel, narrowed at tip,
almost straight, 1% lines wide at base, rounded at tip and obtuse,
narrower than keel and exposing both its upper and lower sides;
keel gently arched to go° from the base, dark-purple-tipped, very
obtuse, straight, blade barely 3 lines long; calyx inflated (as is
the case with the type and with 4. Utahensis also), much com-
pressed laterally, red-lined, constricted at tip, 6 lines long, subu-
late teeth 2 lines more, both upper and lower sides of calyx a lit-
tle arched, a little fleshy and narrowed at the base; pods abruptly
incurved at tip in the Idaho forms.

ASTRAGALUS ARTEMISIARUM Jones. It seems like a very slim
foundation to build a species on the color of the flowers and the
presence or absence of pulp in the pod, which are the characters
which separate this from 4. Beckwithii, but diligent search this

VOL. 5] Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. 47

season fails to show any intergrades. The pods are more mot-
tled, much more rigid, the whole plant less leafy, leaflets smaller,
and the whole inclined to be glaucous.

ASTRAGALUS BECKWITHII Torr. Watson, in his revision in
King’s Report, never seems to have suspected the genetic relation-
ship ofthis plant, as he placed it with the ‘‘Argophylli,’’ with
whose species it has not the slightest relationship. Its true place
is with the ‘‘Inflati’’ and it is a very close congener to 4.
oophorus.

ASTRAGALUS BECKWITHII Torr. var. Weiserensis, Leaflets
about an inch long, ovate to oval-ovate, contiguous, glaucous,
very obtuse, 4 to 5 pairs, thick; stems, peduncles and petioles
very sulcate and stout; pods little mottled, coriaceous, slightly
corrugated, distinctly transversely veined below, much obcom-
pressed, about 2 lines high, 4 lines wide and an inch long, arcuate
to % circle, pungently acute, oblong-elliptical in outline, ventral
suture raised % a line high as a thin and papery keel; flowers
few, shortly racemose or almost capitate, about an inch long,
nearly white; banner abruptly bent to 80° at a point a line beyond
the calyx tips, cream-colored, broadly oblong, somewhat fiddle-
shaped, being contracted % the distance above the base, sides
reflexed only near the middle, water-lined, with no white spot,
the base of the blade sticks down like ears on each side below the
keel-tip, base very thick and rigid and fleshy, swelled and larger .
at keel-tip and tapering from there to the end of the claw; sulcus
conical and much constricted below, disappears at tip of banner
in a groove; wings broadly linear or elliptical-oblanceolate, over
a line wide, deeper cream-colored and water-lined throughout, tip
rounded but almost acute, entire, arched a little, flat to keel and
flaring a little at tip, not as wide as, but two lines longer than the
keel; keel straight, tip straight, erect, blunt, yellow, the blade
3 lines long; calyx decidedly compressed, oblique, hyaline, trun-
cate at base and oblique there, lower side straight, upper side
arched, smooth, teeth subulate, 2 to 2% lines long, tube as long;
bracts subulate-lanceolate, 6 lines long, green; pedicels %4 to a
line long, stout; flowers horizontal; stems rather short, rarely

over 6 to 10 inches long and decumbent. ‘Taken asa whole this

48 Contributions to Western Botany, No. [X [zor *

is a much more robust and coarser plant with more inflated pods.
It grows at Weiser, Idaho, on mesas and is common.

STANLEYA CONFERTIFLORA (Rob. ) Howell. Mr. Howell, who
goes the Brittonians one better in erecting all varieties and forms
into species without distinction, has accidentally made a fine species
in this Stanleya. Though it is somewhat related to |S. viridiflora
it is a better species than S. e/afa Jones. ‘The writer discovered
it on April 27, 1900, near Weiser, Idaho, and later saw it in
several places and had a chance to study it in all its phases. It,
like all the other species, prefers rather loose clay soil where lit-
tle else will grow, and grows only in the juniper belt. It is bien-
nial, with a single stem from a stout, single, straight and erect
root; the stems never branch except when injured, though the
crown occasionally produces more than one stem; about half of
the plant is the wand-like and very showy and long spike of
flowers, yellow as gold; stems round, neither angled nor winged;
leaves entire and like those of Aradis perfoliata; pedicels an inch
long, ascending, rather stout, enlarged at both ends; sepals light
green, linear, 34 line wide, obtuse, flat, faintly nerved, becoming
reddish-yellow with age, very inconspicuous, erect, spreading
only when old and then often twisted, thin but thickened at very
base; petals very delicate and crimped, thin, 34 line wide, fully
6 lines long, gradually. reduced to a flat but nearly filiform claw
8 lines long, which is thickened at base; petals greenish-yellow,
turning to white as they dry, white by the time the anthers begin
to open, fully out before the sepals open except at the very tip,
the anthers also being still inclosed in the sepals; anthers 2-celled,
3 lines long, broadly linear, obtuse, straight, as the cells begin to
open at the tip they coil tightly as they open, they are attached
by the end; filaments are like the claws of the petals but not flat,
filiform, about 9 to 12 lines long when fully out, all the floral
parts perfectly smooth; immature pod 4 inches long, linear, on a
stripe a trifle stouter than the filaments and as long, pod minutely
and abruptly and bluntly apiculate; spikes dense, 1 to 2 feet long;
whole plant is usually about 3 feet high.

VioLa BECKWITHII T. & G. This plant is locally abundant at
Weiser, Idaho. It has a little different habit from the species

VOL. 5] Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. 49

growing in Utah, but the same peculiar pubescence, the early
flowers come out before the leaves, and it grows in practically the
same situations, dry mesas. The 2 side petals have an oblong
area at base, opposite or a little above the end of the stigma,
which is covered with yellow, club-shaped hairs, there are none
on the other petals; the lower two petals purple-veined below and
tips of veins brush-like; stamens 5, with filaments about a line
long and 34 of a line wide, flat, thick, 3 of them without a keel
and purple-tinged in the middle, the 2 lower ones with a very
broad and flat keel, % as high as long, flat on the edge and thick,
all have a nearly square to ovate-oval, wing-like and very thin
tip a line long, brick-colored, rounded, concave to stigma; anther
cells attached to the inside of filament the whole length, 2, open-
ing the whole length but after the stigma has protruded; style
club-shaped, a little bent at the tip of the ovate pod, 1% lines
long; stigma fornicate, covered with flat hairs. ‘The white petals
have a yellow base, the purple petals a greenish base. This was
in full bloom April 2oth, rgoo.

Linum Kincit Watson. Petals rotate spreading, obovate or
oval, lacerate or uneven on the edge, faintly veined, yellow; claw
very short, a line wide; styles 5, widely spreading, filiform, yel-
low, 3 lines long; anthers oblong-ovate, acutish, Sagittate, erect,
stamens erect so that they stand above the spreading styles; stig-
mas very small; filaments a line shorter than the styles; capsule
ovate or oval. The edges of the sepals are lacerate-toothed.
This is taken from the plant while growing, and from the type
locality of Watson.

Linum Lewisit Pursh. This grows in the oak belt and never
is found in the upper spruce belt, where the other species men-
tioned grows. It grows on dry and gravelly soil and singly, like
the annual species. It is very slightly woody at base but never a
true shrub like LZ. Aingiz, Flowers 3{inch wide, rotate, but with
a short, campanulate base a line high, considerably lighter than
sky-blue and with a tinge of purple, petals rhombic-obovate,
nearly truncate, slightly lacerate, without claw, many-veined,
veins at base of petal 5, very dark blue-purple and prominent,
quickly branching, like a fan, and these again splitting and be-

50 Contributions to Western Botany, No. 1X. [zor

coming fainter, till they are barely visibte at the tip of the petal,
no interlacing veins anywhere; for about a line above the base
and about a line wide there is a dark-blue ring around the corolla
(beginning where the veins first branch), below this to the base
the petals are golden yellow and so a yellow eye is formed in the
‘center of the flower; filaments linear-subulate, blue on the upper
\%; stamens with versatile anthers % a line long; styles 5, from
double to % longer than the stamens, filiform, barely globularly
enlarged at tip; ovary nearly globose; 3 inner sepals wider and
obtuse, hyaline, 2 outer ones ovate and acute, green, not nerved;
buds pendent; flowers erect; petals convolute in the bud, with
blue veins on the outside and yellow-hairy at the base within;
leaves and sepals coriaceous and glaucous; the stems are tufted
from the crown but unbranched. This species is quite common
throughout the Great Basin.

THE GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT.

The writer was much interested in crossing the Great Desert
west of Salt Lake City, which, on the maps, is called the Great
American Desert, to see Nature’s provision for redeeming the
barren waste. This desert is supposed to cover all of the region
west of the shores of Great Salt Lake, from near Kelton, south-
ward to the north end of the Fish Springs range (the first range
east of the Deep Creek mountains, or Mt. Ibapah) and westward
as far as the Toano range, which is the first range west and north
of the Deep Creek mountains. All this region, and more, was
once the bed of Great Salt Lake and probably was covered
with water less than 5,000 years ago. It is almost level and
averages 4,400 feet above the sea. But the area that is actually
without vegetation is only a small part of this region. It begins
at a point almost due east of Mt. Ibapah and runs northward for,
say 30 miles, and is about 20 miles wide. Then the western side
runs almost due north toward Pilot Peak for another 20 miles
and then swings eastward. The eastern side of the area turns
northeastward about opposite the north end of the Granite range
and extends nearly too miles toward Great Salt Lake. ‘The
whole barren area lies between the Granite range and the Deep

VOL. 5] Contrzbuteons to Western Botany, No. 1X. 51

Creek mountains, till it passes beyond the northern end of the
Granite range, after that it occupies the center of the flat area
south of Pilot Peak and east of Dutch Mountain (which is the
northern extension of the Deep Creek mountains) there is prob-
ably no part of it that is over 40 miles wide. ‘This barren area
has no pebbles, gravel, or sand, it is wholly a compact yellow
clay, like putty, carrying a small percentage of soluble salts,
probably not exceeding ro per cent. in any case. ‘These salts
are mixed in about the following proportions: chloride of sodium,
8 per cent.; chloride of magnesium, 1 per cent.; sulphate of
sodium, .7 per cent.; sulphate of potassium, .3 per cent.; sulphate
of calcium, .og per cent. In addition to the above there is a
variable amount of carbonate of sodium which will raise the
total percentage of soluble salts somewhat, but this latter is never
great in the barren area, it seems to be confined mostly to the
surface, though there are places outside of this part of the desert
where the carbonate of sodium is in excess of the chloride of
sodium and is evidently caused by the decomposition of the
Palzeozoic limestones and adjacent rocks. ‘There are places in
this desert where, by a process of natural (in distinction from
articificial) precipitation, the more soluble salts have been de-
posited separately from the chloride of sodium, and in separate
places. In such cases, when the soil contains only common salt
(chloride of sodium) on drying it becomes perfectly solid,
smooth and without a crust, but dries very slowly, and is un-
affected by the agencies mentioned below, but when the soluble
elements are complex, as is the case in the barren area, then, on
drying, there is a white crust formed of concentrated salts which
is raised % to an inch above the moist soil below and is mixed
with more or less yellow clay which it has taken up on parting
from the soil below. Sometimes this crust is mostly salts, and
generally it is at least %4 soil, and light and fluffy but glistening
with salts. This crust the high winds, which prevail over the
desert, take up and carry far away in clouds. If a rain should
follow one of these storms of wind, then the soil and salts are
washed out of the air and we have, what seems to be peculiar to
Salt Lake City, salt showers. These are rare in the city, but

52 Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX. [zor

remarkable when they do occur. By this, the only possible agency
the great alkaline deserts are being gradually made less salty
and alkaline, the barren area more contracted, and an incipient
water channel is forming which, in winter, at least, will drain
off the salts of the desert into Great Salt Lake. By this means
we see the barren area being deepened as well as contracted, and
at the same time the surrounding area increased and raised. ‘This
raising is greatly assisted by the character of the vegetation and
its peculiar mode of growth. It should be noted that the con-
stant blowing off of the concentrated salts of the surface would,
in time, take away most of the alkaline elements of the soil, till
the alkalinity were reduced to at least 3 per cent., or may be less,
even though much of it gets back again by being washed out of
the higher adjoining ground. The whole tendency of the wind and
drainage is to dump all the saline elements into Great Salt Lake,
and it is a noteworthy fact that the wind is doing what the water
cannot do in this regard. Another agency for sweetening the
desert lies in the leaves and stems of the alkali-loving plants.
They are conspicuously salty and thus lift above the soil the
saline elements, when they die each carries a small portion of
alkali locked up in it, and when the wind carries the dead leaf or
twig away it also takes the salt.
The pioneer plant in the redemption of the desert is Spirosta-
chys occidentalis Watson. Salicornia herbacea L. also grows in
soil as salty, but its value is infinitessimal because of its mode of
growth and its annual habit. We find Spirostachys encroaching
on the desert on all sides. It extends miles further out than any
other plant. The seeds, on germinating, form thick and bent
roots which are tangled and increase much faster than the stems
which arise from them. As they grow they lift up the soil in
larger and larger masses. A plant only six inches high generally
makes a mound half as high and several inches wide. This is
increased both in height and extent as the plants grow till the
mound sometimes reaches ro feet high, but usually they reach 2
feet, and are about double to triple this extent horizontally. The
winds of the desert, instead of blowing off the soil from the roots,
and so reducing their height, deposit their dust among the roots

VOL. 5] New Spectes of Galium. 53

and stems and make the mounds larger. The winter's rains and
melting snow percolate through the mass and leach out the alka-
line elements till very soon we find the mounds occupied by Savrco-
batus, Kochia, and at length A/riplex confertifolia and species of
Tetradymia, the Spirostachys having long ago died. Among an-
nuals we also find Streptanthus longirostris as one of the first occu-
pants of Spirostachys mounds. ‘The further away we get from the
barren area the larger the Spirostachys mounds become till we are
five to ten miles off. ‘Then the mounds are so thick and so many
that it is difficult to drive through them. After that the Spiros-
tachys is seldom seen, it having died out and been replaced by
the species mentioned. From this point also the mounds decrease
in size, as the new occupants of the mounds are not able to resist
the wearing action of the wind. At length, we have a plain
thickly covered with the usual desert shrubs and only slight ele-
vations around them. ‘This is the process which Nature is now
using to redeem the Great Salt Lake Desert, and it has completed
about nine-tenths of its task.

NEW SPECIES OF GALIUM AND NOTES ON A FEW OF
THE CALIFORNIAN FORMS.

G. TrxcrorrumM submontanum, Usually erect unless grow-
ing in a moist situation; stem-angles more or less hispid;
leaves four, five or six in the whorls, often shorter than in the
type, margins and mid-rib often scabrous; flowers with a three
or four-parted corolla; fruiting pedicels capillary, often longer
than the leaves, not divaricate.

Southern California, north to Oregon and Washington, east to
Nevada: Northern Transcontinental Survey, T. S. Brandegee,
1883; Reno, Nevada, Walter E. Bryant; M. K. Curran, Sept.
1888; Yosemite Valley, Mrs. Dodd, 1891; Vicinity of San Ber-
nardino, S. B. Parish, No. 4579; Bouldin Island, San Joaquin R.,
Mrs. Brandegee, July 9, 1893 (in part); Hast Lake, S. Fork
King’s R., Alice Eastwood, July 8, 1899.

This is apparently the most common form of the trifidum group
in California. Its nearest ally is G. tinctorium diversifolium.

54 : New Species of Galium. [ZOE

*

G. TrNncTroriumM diversifolium. Rather diffusely branched,
stem angles more or less scabrous; leaves in fours, fives
or sixes, often slightly scabrous on the margins and mid-rib;
eorolla three- or four-parted, pedicels stouter than in G. éénctorium
submontanum,; fruiting pedicels barely exceeding the leaves,
stoutish, usually strongly divaricate.,

Arizona, California, Mexico: Willow Spring, Arizona, Palmer,
No. 514; Bouldin Island, San Joaquin R., Mrs. Brandegee,
July 9, 1893 (in part); Tamalpais, Brandegee; Valley of
Mexico, Pringle, No. 6785.

Palmer’s Arizona plant, No. 514, was assigned to G. fénctorium
by K. M. Wiegand in Torr. Bull. xxiv, 397, but it agrees
with the other specimens examined in the number of leaves,
which is greater than in G. ¢inctorium of the Eastern States. The
variety also has the pedicels strongly divaricate in fruit, which is
not characteristic of G. tinctorium. ‘This variety is somewhat
intermediate between G. ¢rifidum Claytoni and the type of G.
tinctorium.

G. siccatum. Perennial, one to four feet high, erect and
very much branched and bushy when growing in some situations,
or reclining in others; the whole plant cinereus-puberulent; leaves
in fours, not rigid, linear, four to eight lines long, one-half to one
line broad, barely mucronulate, mid-rib not prominent; inflores-
cense cymose-paniculate, flowers polygamous, greenish-yellow,
numerous; fruit a line broad, densely hispid with straight bristles.

California, from San Diego north to San Benito County, and
east to the Mojave: Del Mar, San Diego County, T. S. Brande-
gee; Wilson’s Peak, Los Angeles Co., A. J. McClatchie, May,
1896; Eagle Creek, San Benito Co., W. R. Dudley, June “
1899; [Eagle Creek plant grew out of rocks.] Antelope Valley,
northwest of Mojave Desert, W. R. Dudley, No. cz.

G. siccatum is most closely related to G. angustifolium, but may
easily be distinguished from the latter, as the whole surface of
G. siccatum is cinereous-puberulent.

G. Coloradoense. Suffrutescent-perennial, twelve to eight-
een inches high, inuch branched from the base, woody portions

VOL. 5] New Species of Galium. 55

brownish-red from the presence of coloring matter, glabrous;
leaves in fours, linear, mostly six to nine lines long, one line
broad, inclined to be rigid, glabrous or very slightly pruinose on
the margins; mid-rib rather prominent below and continuous with
the stem-angles; flowers axillary and terminal, polygamous; fruit
densely hispid with straight bristles, pedicels reflexed.

Colorado, Southern Utah; Mancos, Colorado, A. Eastwood,
June, 1892; S. W. Colorado, T. S. Brandegee, Nos. 1175, 1176.

Nos. 1175, 1176 are perhaps referred to by Gray, in the Synop-
tical Flora, as possibly belonging to G. Mathewsii, Gray, but the
plant is certainly distinct from that species. Its nearest ally is
G. multiflorum Watsont.

G. ambiguum. Wholly herbaceous, growing in low tufts from
creeping stems, plant grayish with hirsute pubescense; leaves
in fours, but appearing several in the upper whorls from the pres-
ence of two short branches at the nodes, linear to linear-lanceo-
late, acute or acuminate, thin and flaccid; flowers polygamous or
dicecious, greenish-yellow, ovary pubescent, immature fruit appa-
rently fleshy, glabrous; mature fruit not seen.

Description based on a single plant bearing the datum, Yolo
Bolo, Yolo Co., Cal., T. S. Brandegee, Sept. 20, 1892.

It is a somewhat ambiguous species, perhaps to be placed after
G. Californicum.

G. sparsiflorum. Perennial, erect or sometimes reclining
ing; stems a foot or two long, glabrous or nearly so; leaves in
fours, unequal, oval or ovate, mostly rather large, eight lines
long and five lines broad, or leaves of some plants exceeding this
size, others not attaining it, cuspidate-pointed, often indistinctly
three-nerved, thin and membranous, varying from nearly gla-
brous to pubescent with minute and short hairs; flowers axillary
or terminal, pedicels capillary; fruit baccate, glabrous, at length
reflexed.

Central California: Big Meadows, Plumas County, Mrs. R. M.
Austin, 1878; Deer Creek, Sequoia Grove, Tulare County, W.
R. Dudley, No. 643, 1895; Antelope Cafion, Tehachapi Moun-
tains, W. R. Dudley, No. 377: Giant Forest, Tulare County,

56 New Spectes of Galium. [ZOE

W. R. Dudley, No. 1214; In or near Yosemite Valley, Lembert,
No. 32; Converse Basin, South Fork King’s River, Fresno
County, Alice Eastwood, July 14, 1899.

G. sparsiflorum is allied to G. Califarnicum, H. & A. No. 377,
Dudley, is a stouter plant than the type with hispid leaves and
more abundant fertile flowers, perhaps a variety,

G. subscabridum. Perennial, erect or diffusely branching
ing, a foot or more high; stems ‘glabrous or nearly so; leaves in
fours or opposite on the branchlets, unequal, oval, ovate or ovate-
lanceolate, acute or acuminate, six to eight lines long, three to
four lines broad, those on the branchlets half as large, one-nerved,
mid-rib rather prominent below, margins and surfaces minutely
scabrous; flowers not seen; fruit fleshy on stout recurved pedi-
cels, these axillary or terminal, solitary, about three lines long.

Central California: Wawona, J. W. Congdon, June, 1883;
Sequoia Mill, Fresno County, A. Eastwood, July 19, 1892.

This plant is most closely related to G. Bolanderi, but need in
no way be confused with it.

G. muricatum, Perennial, diffuse and apparently spreading
by slender creeping root-stocks; stems very weak, three to
eight or more inches long, minutely scabrous; leaves in fours,
elliptical, acuminate, three to four lines long, one to one and one-
half lines broad, one-nerved, hispid on the margins and upper
surface, very slightly so or not at all on the lower; flowering
peduncles axillary and terminal, usually in two’s or three’s, cap-
illary, minutely scabrous; flowers apparently white, corolla four-
parted, fruit not seen.

A single plant collected at Westport, Mendocino County, Cal.,
by T. S. Brandegee, June 19 (no year given). An anomalous
form, perhaps, to be placed near G. Miguelense, though it is not
very closely allied to that form.

G. chartaceum. Perennial, less than a span high, branched
from near the base, erect, stems very nearly glabrous or
minutely hispid at the nodes; leaves in fours, one-nerved, some-
what chartaceous in texture, oblanceolate to obovate, cuspidate-
pointed, hispid with rather long hairs on the margins and upper

‘

VOL. 5] New Species of Galium. 57

surface, glabrous on the lower; flowers axillary and terminal, in
clusters at the ends of the branches, apparently yellowish, corolla
four-parted, pedicels short; fruit not seen.

A single plant, San Francisco, Cal., collected by Mrs. Brande-
gee, July 4 (no year given). G. chartaceum, is another anomalous
species to be placed provisionally near G. Miguelense, though like
G, muricatum it is not closely related to that species.

A few of the foregoing descriptions, such as are based upon a
small amount of material, may have to be modified somewhat
when more specimens are available, but they have been formu-
lated only after a careful examination of a large number of sheets
of W. American Galiums. Nearly all of the Western species of
Galium are so variable that to base descriptions upon the extreme
of any one might exclude many forms which upon the examina-
tion of considerable material are shown to properly belong to the
species. Even species common to both the Eastern and Western
States, and which are fairly well defined in the East, become ex-
ceedingly variable in the West. Some forms of G. trifidum Pacifi-
cum, Wiegand, and G. tinctorium submontanum, approach each
other very closely. G. trifidum Pacificum, however, almost in-
variably has a three-parted corolla, while G. tinctorium submon-
tanum has the corolla either three- or four-parted and also has a
larger number of leaves in the whorl. The whole trifidum group
is certainly composed of very closely related forms, and G. ¢incto-
rium is considered as a species here simply because in the East it
is fairly well marked and it seems more convenient to so consider
it. G. trifidum is probably more variable than G. tinctortum, but
the varieties of both species in the East as well as in the West
-must be considered as approaching each other very closely in
some instances.

G. cymosum, Wiegand, and G. arcuatum, Wiegand, formerly in-
cluded under G. ¢rifidum, the writer has not seen, but from the
descriptions given in Torr. Bull., xxiv., they would appear
to be sufficiently distinct from other forms of the “7jidum group
to be retained as species. — :

58 Short Articles. _ [ZOE

In the examination of a quantity of material of G. Californicum,
H. & A., the writer finds that species to be so variable that G.
occidentale, McClatchie, cannot be retained as a species or even as
a variety.

The writer wishes to acknowledge, in the preparation of both
this paper and a paper on the Geographical Distribution of North
American Galiums, to be printed later, the aid of the following
persons who have kindly loaned the collections of Galiums in
their possession: Miss Alice Eastwood, Curator of the Herba-
rium, California Academy of Sciences; Prof. Aven Nelson,
University of Wyoming; Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Brandegee, Mr. S.
B. Parish, Mr. A. D. E. Elmer, Mr. W. N. Suksdorf, and Mr. 1,
B Flett. The writer is also under special obligations to Prof.
William R. Dudley, to whose numerous suggestions and criti-_
cisms is due whatever merit the papers may possess.

WILLIAM F. WRIGat.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Calif., May 18, rgoo.

SHORT ARTICLES.

SOME PLANTS OF MENDOCINO CouNTY NEW TO THE
FLORA OF CALIFORNIA.

On looking over a collection of plants made by Mrs. Alexander
McCallum, at Glen Blair, not far from Fort Bragg, in Mendocino
County, the following species were noted as not having been pre-
viously reported from California.

CALLA PALUSTRIS L. This species, common in Europe and
the Atlantic States of North America, was collected in a place
known locally as Little Valley, not far from Glen Blair. The
specimens are identical with those which are in the Herbarium of
the California Academy of Sciences from other localities. The
discovery of this adds another member to the representatives of
the Aroideze on the Pacific Coast, the other Lysichiton Kamschat-
kensis, being found at Noyo, which is a few miles distant from
Glen Blair.

VOL. 5] : Short Articles. 59

LAMPSANA coMMUNIS L. ‘This Composite was collected on the
road from Glen Blair to Ten Mile River. It has probably been
introduced, as it has also been collected at Santa Barbara. There
is a specimen in the Herbarium of the Academy from the latter
place. collected by Dr. Stearns.

RIBES LACUSTRE Poir. This was also collected in Little Val-
ley. It is identical with the species of the Atlantic Coast and is
quite unlike the variety molle Gray of the Sierra Neaada.

Rosa NuTKANA Presl. This is the common rose in Little
Valley and is the largest flowered species of California. It has
been collected also by H. E. Brown, on the north side of Mount
Shasta, being No. 349 of his collection.

These are all represented in the Herbarium of the California
Academy of Sciences, the specimens from Mendocino County
having been presented by Mrs. McCallum.

CNICUS GIGANTEUS Willd., in Santa Cruz County, California.

This thistle is a native of the Southern Mediterranean region.
There is a specimen in the Herbarium of the California Academy
of Sciences, collected by Dr. Dukerly in the Province of Con-
stantine, Algiers. The plant from Santa Cruz County was dis-
covered by the Honorable Horace Davis, growing on his country
place near Glenwood. There were two plants growing side by
side and they reached the great height of twelve feet and two
inches, with a diameter at base of two inches. The summit
spread out into a great panicle, containing hundreds of sessile
heads in bunches at the ends of branchlets, with the ovate in-
volucres as hard, almost, as bullets and altogether so heavy as to
bend the stout stem to the ground. ‘The leaves are broad
and amplexicaul not deeply lobed and with the divisions
_ spine-tipped; the lower surface is white tomentose, the upper
scabrous, with short appressed bristles. The involucres are about
an inch long with many small scales; these are green at base,
have a yeilowish spot at apex and are tipped with a short, stiff,
yellow or brown spine, they are somewhat arachnoid tomentose.
The flowers are purple.

60 Short Artecles. [ZOE

Specimens were sent to the Gray Herbarium for comparison
with specimens there. Edwin B. Uline, who kindly made the
comparison and looked up the description in books not available
to the author, writes as follows: ‘“There is only one specimen of
Cnicus giganteus Willd. in our herbarium and that, too, was col-
lected in Algiers. It has heads slightly larger than the speci-
men you sent, but otherwise it is, in all particulars, identical.
It also conforms well to descriptions and plates.”’

The country where this was found is a land where there are
many vineyards, cared for by Italians, chiefly. Doubtless the
plant has been introduced through these people. Mr. Davis has
destroyed the two plants and has, perhaps, obliterated the species
from this continent, but the probabilities are that it is to be found
elsewhere and this note may serve to identify it to the next

, collector. ALICE EASTWOOD.

A NEw SPECIES OF CHORIZANTHE FROM LOWER CALIFORNIA.

Chorizanthe inequalis. Slender, diffuse; branches numer-
ous from the base, cymose, procumbent, more or less elongated,
thinly pubescent; leaves basal, oblanceolate, obtuse, tapering to
a narrow petiole, pubescent with scattered hairs; bracts at the
nodes two in number, slender, somewhat broader in the middle,
acicular; involucres solitary or crowded; tube 3 mm, Jong,
grooved; limb deeply cleft, divisions unequal; larger recurved,
divergent, awned; alternate minute; flower single, 2 mm. long,
pink and glabrous, in shape campanulate, short pedicellate, tube
included, limb exserted; segments unequal, outer round obovate,
obtuse or truncate, inner oblong, much shorter, both entire and
erose; stamens 9; anthers oval; akene short. San Telmo, Baja
California, May 31, 1893. Collected by Mr. T. S. Brandegee.

The species is nearest C. sfaticotdes Bth. and C. flava, Brandg.
From the first it is distinguished by the wide spreading lobes of
the involucre and the pubescence of the leaves, which is not
tomentose; from the second by its short, broad flower and un-
equal perianth lobes. Susan G. STOKEs.

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