C. Coronopus grows in clayey soil from Kansas to Utah, California and Mexico. It is very variable and the more hairy forms grade into the less hirsute ones of the preceding. In the typical form the pubescence is sparse or nearly none, and the lobes of the leaves are short. Texas: Wright, no. 534, 1849; Mex. Bound. Surv. no. 1036; Bigelow, 1852 (Mex. Bound. Surv.); Lindheimer, no. 484, 1847-8; Reverchon, no. 1569; E. Hall, no. 496, 1872; Edw. Palmer, no. 920, 1880; A. A. Heller, no. 1647, 1894; Dr. V. Havard, no. 166, 1881; W. Garret, 1881. Colorado: T. S. Brandegee, 1872. New Mexico: Fendler, 675, 1847; C. Wright, no. 1593, 1852; M. E. Jones, no. 4147, 1884; E. L. Greene, 1880. Arizona: Dr. E. A. Mearns, no. 214, 1884; McDougal, no. 524, 1891; Mrs. R. W. Hoyt, 1893; C. G. Pringle, 1883. Utah: Capt. Bishop, 1872; Mrs. Thompson, no. 144, 1872. Mexico: Berlandier, no. 3023; Thurber, no. 730, 1852; Parry & Palmer, no. 653, 1878 (in part); Edw. Palmer, no. 926 (in part), 927 & 928, 1880. The most striking of the different forms of this species is a very low (I dm. high or less) and bushy one, more stellate-pubescent and with much smaller leaves which are pinnatifid with very narrow lobes. It is represented by the following: Texas C. Wright, no. 534, 1849; Bigelow, 1852 (Mex. Bound. Surv.). New Mexico: C. Wright, no. 1594, 1851-2; Rusby, no. 302, 1880. Mexico: Dr. Gregg; Parry & Palmer, no. 653 (in part) 1878. 6. Oryctes Wats. ORYCTES Wats. Bot. King's Exp. 274. 1871. Low, viscid-puberulent annual, with entire undulate leaves. Calyx campanulate, 5-cleft, with lobes longer than the tube, in fruit enlarged, membranaceous, but not inflated, closely fitting the fruit, neither ribbed nor angled, faintly veined. Corolla tubular with five short lobes, yellowish or purple. Stamens inserted below the middle of the tube, included, unequal, with very short anthers opening by a longitudinal slit. Fruit nearly dry, light colored. Seeds nearly orbicular, very flat, faveolate-reticulate with a thin membranaceous margin. Oryctes consists of one species, discovered and described by Dr. Watson. The original collection lacked specimens in good fruit, and his description is a little imperfect. Good fruiting specimens have been collected by Shockley, and these show that the fruiting calyx is enlarged just as much as it is in Chamaesaracha, which the plant also resembles somewhat in habit, and that the seeds are wing-margined. 1. Oryctes Nevadensis Wats. Bot. King's Exp. 274. 1871. Gray, Syn. Fl. 2: part 1, 232. Less than 1 dm. high, erect, branched, somewhat scurfy and viscid-pruinose, a little pilose with flat hairs; leaves ovate, obovate or lanceolate, decurrent on the petiole, entire, undulate, somewhat thickish; flowers in fascicles of 2-4 in the axils of the leaves, on short peduncles; calyx-lobes lanceolate, obtuse, shorter than the corolla; corolla tubular, about 6 mm. long, ochroleucous, blue or purplish; sinuses induplicate; berry nearly dry, light colored. Western Nevada: Watson, no. 941, 1868 (type); Shockley, 1888. |