excellent paper on this genus, distinguish three kinds of corolla appendages: (a) scales with free tips; (b) scales aduate their whole length; and (c) hairy lines. Of the three species described in this paper, two have appendages of the first kind, with distinctly free tips. The other species has very narrow and very hairy scales and was probably included by Fischer and Meyer in the last class. Either of the original descriptions of Nemophila Menziesii and of N. insignis would apply equally well to either of our two common large, blue Nemophilas. Hooker and Arnott who considered N. insignis a variety of N. Menziesii note no difference but the relative size of corolla and calyx. Now the form with reduced or abortive anthers has almost constantly flowers of about half the size of those of the perfect form. Is it not possible that Hooker and Arnott had these two forms before them when they united the species? However this may be, the descriptions proper are practically identical and can, therefore, be applied but to one plant. In a note Hooker and Arnott state that the leaves of N. Menziesii are exactly those of N. parviflora, which if constantly true, would exclude the name from use for either of the two plants to which it has been applied in recent works. It seems impossible to determine which plant received the name of N. Menziesii on account of the meagreness of the description. The type specimen is of little use, as Prof. Greene, who has lately seen it, states that it is without flowers and, therefore, impossible of determination. N. insignis, on the contrary, was figured in the Botanical Register in 1834, undoubtedly from the same plants from which Bentham drew up his description. From this there can be little doubt to which species this name was applied, though the form of the corolla scales is not very clearly brought out. A somewhat incomplete specimen of a large, blue-flowered Nemophila collected by Mr. Burtt Davy on Loma Prieta has leaves very closely resembling those of what seems to be the type of N. parviflora. The flowers are very hairy at the base of the corolla and apparently without scales. This may be the original N. Menziesii, but more complete material would be necessary before hazarding an opinion. All that at present seems certain regarding the name N. Menziesii is that it was applied to some member of this group and that it was the first so applied. The original description covers very well the whole group and this taken in conjunction with the close resemblance of the different members seems to render it advisable to use the name N. Menziesii, H. & A., to designate the whole group and to consider the divisions of the group as sub-species. We can thus apply the names N. insignis, Dougl., and N. atomaria, F. &. M., to the plants which originally received those names. The common plant of the counties north of the Bay has never been properly segregated and is thus left without a name, a lack which I have supplied below. N. intermedia. From 6 to 12 inches long, with ascending branches from the base, more or less hairy, leaves pinnately parted into 5 to 9 entire, or 2- to 5-lobed, divisions, petioles somewhat widened at the base and ciliate, the upper all opposite; corolla .75 to 1 inch wide, bright blue to white, distinctly blue-veined, more or less punctate with dull purple dots; inter-staminal scales extending nearly to the sinuses, long, narrow, hairy and with expanded tips; ovary rounded, ovules 12 to 24. This plant is included with several others under the name of N. Menziesii, H. & A., by Gray in the Flora of North America, ii, 156; it is part of N. insignis as defined in the "Botany of the Bay Region." Living plants have been examined from the counties of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Lake, Alameda and Contra Costa. The range of this plant is more northerly and westerly than that of N. insignis which prefers hot localities and especially sandy soils. N. INSIGNIS, Dougl. In habit very like the above but less succulent and generally more hairy, leaves somewhat more divided; calyx with broader ovate-lanceolate divisions and shorter and broader appendages, shining and distinctly veined; corolla one inch or more broad or the imperfect flowers half that size, from light to deep purplish blue, not distinctly blue-veined, the circular white center more or less punctate; inter-staminal scales short, wide and short hairy; ovary longer than in N. intermedia and with 20 to 32 ovules, Benth. Linn. Trans. XVII, 275, (1833) and Trans. Hort. Soc. I, 479; Gray, Flora of N. A. I, 155; Greene, Bot. Bay Region 252 in part. N. Menziesii, var., H. & A. Bot. Beech. 372. Living plants of this species have been examined from the counties of San Francisco, Alameda (cultivated), Contra Costa, Amador, Tulare and Los Angeles. N. ATOMARIA, F. & M. With the habit of N. intermedia but less hairy and growing only in springy places among the hills; corolla less than one inch wide, white with a slight tinge of violet on the outside of the tube, closely dark-spotted nearly to the edge, densely hairy within the tube; inter-staminal scales narrow and long-hairy; ovary rounded and less hairy than that of the two foregoing species, ovules about 16. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. (1835). Bot. Reg. t. 1940 The figure of the scale is drawn from a plant from Cazadero, Sonoma Co. The color of the flowers is variable in the first two species, but N. insignis is generally more deeply colored, of a less pure blue and with a white center of more distinct circular outline. The spots are very variable in both species. At Lake Merced, San Francisco and at Pomona the corolla of N. insignis is almost destitute of spots, while specimens of the same species from Tulare are more densely spotted than any specimens of N. intermedia that I have seen; but in neither species do the spots extend to near the edge of the corolla as in N. atomaria. EXPLANATION OF PLATE. I. Nemophila insignis, Douglas, corolla scale. Each of the figures is magnified twenty diameters. |