Description of Two New Species of Plants.
BY A. KELLOGG, M.D.
Conyza Less.
C. salicena Kellogg. [[Fig. 6.]]
Fig. 6.
Stem fruticose, erect, three to four feet in height; branches subglabrous or slightly puberulent, angular; leaves lanceolate, short petiolate, cuneate, base entire, triplinerved, apex acute with few remote teeth on the upper third, lamina fleshy, varnished, subglabrous, minute glands scattering, slightly puberulent chiefly beneath (two to three inches in length, about half an inch in breadth), panicle subcorymbose; heads pedicellate, mostly subtended by linear nerved bracts; involucral scales ovate-oblong, sub-acute, scarious, margins irregularly cut-toothed or somewhat erose, cut-ciliate; achenia pubescent; pappus equal, white, scabrous; florets, teeth villous on the tips and back, tube short; anthers not caudate; receptacle convex, naked, punctate.
This plant is closely allied to the South American C. triplinerva, but differs in the shrubby character of the stem—the leaves also are not “ovate-lanceolate,” but lanceolate, and somewhat glandular, and like the branches puberulent—the heads are subtended by bracts, the involucral scales are not “linear lanceolate,” but ovate-oblong and sub-acute, etc. The white pappus is not short, but equal if not longer than the florets—the achenia are not “glabrous,” etc. Found at Clayton, Contra Costa County.
Collinsia Nutt.
C. divaricata Kellogg. [[Fig. 7.]]
Fig. 7.
Stem erect, divaricately branching, one to three inches high, pubescent, interspersed with a few short glandular hairs. Cotyledons oval or oblong obtuse, entire, petioles as long as the lamina; middle cauline leaves on shorter petioles, ciliate at the base or subsessile, ovate or oblong sub-acute, entire at the base, coarsely three to five-toothed, nerves obsolete, all pubescent above, glabrous below; superior pairs, sessile, lanceolate, acute, entire.
Flowers small, axillary, and solitary on long divaricate ascending peduncles, articulated at the base by a swelled joint, purplish pink alike throughout, twice the length of the calyx, upper lobes broadest, margins crenulate, saccate base of the tube much compressed above, glabrous within, throat constricted, the external expansion purple spotted above, filaments hirsute, stigma minutely bilobed. The obconical expanding calyx narrowed and slightly depressed above at the base, and correspondingly swelled below, segments ovate acute, fleshy, glabrous; margins minutely ciliate, somewhat unequal, or three larger and two smaller; capsule globose, pink and purple spotted above, seeded. Flowering in March and April.
This very minute species—often barely an inch or more in height—had hitherto escaped our observation, until little friend George Bloomer discovered it, while on a trip with us to the hills in this vicinity. The whole plant at length often assumes a scarlet or purplish hue. It certainly is not the C. violacea of D. C. and appears quite as distinct as any species known to us.
Mr. Bolander made some remarks on the peculiar growth of Carex decidua, in Marin County, not on the borders of the creeks, but in the middle of them. He also spoke of Hierochloa fragrans R. S., as a remarkably fragrant plant, and as furnishing beautiful grass for lawns.