Description of Three New Plants.
BY A. KELLOGG, M.D.
Linum L.
L. trisepalum Kellogg. [[Fig. 10.]]
Fig. 10.
Stem suffruticose; base flexuous, smooth, cinnamon brown, numerously branched above; branches green, slender, erect, subsimple, stellate pubescent from minute scabrous elevations, and also simply short pubescent; plant sub-triangular throughout. Leaves erect, sub-appressed, small, linear, obtuse, slightly narrowed at the base into a very short petiole, alternate. Flowers small, yellow, in sub-terminal racemoid panicles; pedicels as long, or twice the length of the flowers; calyx bi-bracteate (appendaged?); bracts minute (about half the length of the sepals), linear, foliaceous (rudimentary sepals); proper sepals three, nerveless, ovate, acute (or sub-acute), imbricated margins glabrous, as long as the capsule. Petals obovate, sub-cuneate, scarcely twice the length of the sepals; stamens ten (yellow), shorter than the calyx; styles one, short; stigmas three, or united the entire length; capsule spheroid obtuse, sub-triangular, three-valved, each valve two-seeded, false dissepiment incomplete.
A small shrubby species, six inches to [Transcriber’s Note: the second measurement was omitted] in height, found by Mr. Bolander on the White Hills back of Oakland.
P.S.—From the ripe fruit since obtained, the capsule is more ovate; separating invariably into three valves, only two to three ovules attaining to maturity; the seeds black, sub-compressed ovate, plano-convex or with two plain sides, the third convex, surface rough.
L. decurrens Kellogg. [[Fig. 11.]]
Fig. 11.
Stem annual, smooth, somewhat erect, sparingly branched, four to six inches of their summits racemed (the simple branches but slightly diverging from a vertical direction) much decurrent, from one to two feet in height. Leaves alternate, narrowly lanceolate, one-nerved, sharply acuminate (the lower-most leaves unknown). Flowers secund, large purplish blue, unilateral on long much decurrent pedicels, expansion of the pedicel above the articulation at the base of the calyx quadrangular; sepals five, ovate-oblong acute, margins scarious, seven-nerved, rather more than half the length of the capsule. Petals obovate, cuneate, claw short emarginate or crenate at the apex, marked by about five deeper blue veins. Styles five, free to the base, stigmas capitate. Stamens five, short; anthers oblong, white. Capsule ovate, very abruptly short pointed, completely ten-celled. Seeds oblong, hilum slightly narrowed.
Found by Mrs. Thayer on the head waters of Feather River.
Silene L.
S. Dorrii Kellogg. [[Fig. 12.]]
Fig. 12.
Stem simple or dichotomous above, minutely velvety glandular pubescent throughout, upper and cauline leaves lanceolate, acute or acuminate, sessile or sub-sessile, opposite, erect, slightly cilliate at base (radical leaves unknown). Flowers white, very small, sub-solitary on long peduncles; calyx tubular-campanulate, at length inflated, teeth short, acute (tipped with purple), tube ten-nerved; petals not crowned, minute border sub-two-lobed, lamina expanded, claws long and very slender; stamens ten, longer, at length shorter, filaments glabrous, anthers sagittate; styles two to three, separate, recoiled; stigmatose along the entire inner face. Ovary somewhat globose, apex slightly contracted; compressed seeds granular, stipe of the capsule very short.
A plant about three to five inches in height.
Collected by Mr. Herbert C. Dorr in Nevada Territory.
Dr. James Blake read a paper on the gradual elevation of the land in the environs of San Francisco.