Descriptions of New Californian Plants—No. I.
BY PROF. ASA GRAY.
Streptanthus Nutt.
S. Breweri, n. sp. [§ Euclisia.]
Wholly glabrous and glaucous, annual, branched from near the base; cauline leaves (except the lowest) strongly cordate-clasping, with a closed sinus, entire or denticulate, the uppermost sagittate; flowers purple, on very short ascending pedicels, the lowest often leafy-bracted; the buds often a quarter of an inch long, obtuse, or barely acute; the sepals with scarious but blunt recurved tips; siliques narrowly linear, ascending or erect, straight or slightly incurved (1½-2½ inches long, less than a line wide,) compressed but torulose, the nerve of the valves obscure; seeds wholly marginless.
This most resembles S. tortuosus Kellogg (which is S. cordatus Torr., in Bot. Pacif. R. R. Whipple’s Rep. but evidently not of Nuttall), from which the above character indicates the differences.
There are three forms in the collection: 1. A dwarf state, in flower only, from Mt. Shasta, at an altitude of 8,000 feet. 2. A very glaucous form, with more numerous and rather smaller flowers, and with fruit, from the top of a dry mountain of the Mt. Diablo Range, near head of Arroyo del Puerto, at an altitude of 3,200 feet. 3. Another, in flower and fruit, with more naked and virgate branches, a foot or two in height, from San Carlos Mountain, near New Idria, 5,000 feet altitude. This is remarkable for having the calyx hoary-downy, but the plant is otherwise glabrous and glaucous.
S. hispidus, n. sp. (§ Euclisia.)
Very dwarf, (2-3 inches high, from an annual root,) hispid throughout, even to the siliques; leaves cuneate or obovate-oblong, coarsely toothed or incised, the cauline-sessile but hardly at all clasping; raceme short and loosely flowered; pedicels spreading or at length recurved in flower (which is red or red-violet) but the linear compressed siliques (1½ inch long, a line wide,) are erect; stigma almost sessile; immature seeds winged.
Mt. Diablo, dry places near summit.
This ranks next to S. heterophyllus.
Viola L.
V. ocellata, Torr. and Gray, var.
Glabrous, smaller; leaves somewhat thickish; peduncles elongated. Very curious and distinct. From Tamalpais.
Arenaria L.
A. brevifolia Nutt.? var. Californica.
Much branched or diffuse, cymosely many-flowered; petals and sepals somewhat narrower.
Leaves as in Nuttall’s plant, thickish, plane, mostly obtuse and spreading. Valves of the capsule entire. Filaments opposite and twice the length of the sepals, more dilated and glandular at the base. Seeds minute, minutely muricate, turgid. The fruit and seed are known only from Frémont’s specimens communicated to Dr. Torrey (No. 284 of Coll. 1846,) from California, a taller and less diffuse form than that now collected by Prof. Brewer, and more like Nuttall’s, from Tatnall County, Georgia. But my original specimen of the latter little-known plant is too incomplete to make certain the identity; and the two are widely sundered in geographical station. Still no adequate characters yet appear to distinguish specifically. Prof. Brewer collected his plant April 18th, in the valleys among high ridges in Sonoma, where it abounded.
Calandrinia H. B. & K.
C. Menziesii, Hook.
In various forms in southern California. Capsule slightly if at all exceeding the calyx; seeds rather turgid, shining; petals mostly much exceeding the calyx.
C. Menziesii, var. macrocarpa.
Stems and racemes at length more elongated and loosely-leaved; pedicels in fruit much spreading or recurved; capsule ovoid-fusiform, projecting beyond the calyx; seeds smaller, compressed and opaque.
Dry hills of the Santa Inez mountains, near Santa Barbara.
Perhaps a distinct species, but I want to see it confirmed by other specimens.
Linum L.
L. Breweri, n. sp.
Annual; glabrous; stem very small, not striate, with few flowers crowded at the apex; leaves filiform, smooth, alternate and opposite; stipules conspicuously glandular; pedicels shorter than the calyx; sepals oblong-ovate, acute, one-nerved, margin not scarious, glandular, less than half as long as the bright yellow, obovate-oblong petals; anthers elongated-oblong; sterile filaments almost wanting; styles three, distinct; stigma somewhat acutely pointed.
Dry hill sides of the Diablo Range, near Marsh’s Ranch, May 29th.
Plant barely two to three inches high, “but seen in the valley larger, with many flowers, not yet expanded.”
This, like L. Californicum, appears to be uniformly tri-carpellary; flowers about the size of those of that species, and the anthers elongated-oblong; but the leaves narrower; the stigmas not at all capitate or enlarged, but minute and acute; fruit not seen.
Trifolium, L.
T. bifidum, n. sp.
Somewhat villose or glabrous; stems from small (annual?) root, slender, spreading; stipules ovate-lanceolate, setaceously-acuminate, entire; leaflets linear-cuneate, lateral ones rarely dentate, bifid or incised at the apex with a mucronate point between the lobes; peduncles twice or three times as long as the leaves; heads naked, six to twelve flowered, or more; flowers pedicelled, at length reflexed; calyx five-parted, dentate, subulate-setaceous, somewhat hirsute, and nearly equal to the persistent, rose-colored scarious corolla.
Near Marsh’s Ranch, between Monte Diablo and the San Joaquin, among grass in a ravine near the water, May 29th.
Stems six to sixteen inches long. Heads and flowers about the size of those of the small form of T. gracilentum, to which species it is allied. Ovary two-ovulate, seeds single.
Astragalus L.
A. curtipes, n. sp. (§ Phaca, *Inflati.)
Minutely canescent, at length glabrate, a foot high; stipules connate, opposite the leaf; leaflets twelve to sixteen pairs narrowly oblong, retuse petiolulate, glabrous above; raceme in fruit short; calyx-teeth slender, subulate, slightly shorter than the campanulate tube; legume membranaceous, inflated, glabrate (1½ inches long,) semi-ovoid, (the ventral suture nearly straight, the dorsal very gibbous,) scarcely acute at either end, jointed to a rigid stipe, which does not exceed the tube of the calyx.
Dry hill sides, San Luis Obispo. Corolla not seen.
A. oxyphysus, n. sp. (§ Phaca, *Inflati.)
Tall, very softly canescen-villous; stipules small, scarious, distinct; leaflets 8-11 pairs, oblong; peduncles much surpassing the leaf; raceme elongated; bracts small and subulate; teeth of the silky calyx subulate, half the length of the cylindraceous tube; corolla white or greenish; legume obovate-acuminate, the base attenuate into a recurved stipe which somewhat exceeds the calyx.
Monte Diablo Range, near Arroyo Puerto, on dry hills.
A most distinct and striking new species.
A. Breweri, n. sp.
Allied to A. tener Gray, Rev. Astrag. (Phaca astragalina, var.? Hook. and Arn., and probably A. hypoglottis, var. strigosa, Kellogg,) but more branched from the annual root, and with broader leaflets, (4-5 pairs, oblong-obcordate); head 5-7 flowered, compact; immature legume globose-ovate, silky-canescent, not stipulate, erect, six-ovulate, one-celled, the dorsal suture slightly intruded.
Fields in Sonoma Valley, April. Common.
Dr. Ayres read letters from Mr. A. Garrett, and presented the following paper: