Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 4, Pt. 3

BOTANY.
like F. Carolinensis, and likewise destitute of a crown. It is, perhaps, F. verticillata, Hook.
Fl. Bor.-Amn., but not of Walter. It has a nearly naked panicle, and lunate solitary glandular
pits.
ERYTIIREA MUHLENBERGII, Griseb. in DC. Prodr. 9, p. 60, quoad pl. Calif. Fields, Benicia;
April.
MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA, L. Near San Francisco; April.
CONVOLVULACEiE.
CONVOLVULUS (CALIFORNICA, Choisy in DC. Prodr. 9, p. 405. Santa Rosa creek, California;
May 1.
IPOMEA SAGITTATA, Desf.? I. sagittifolia, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. p. 151. Hills near
Punta de los Reyes, California; April 17. This is probably the plant of Hooker and Arnott,
but not. Convolvulus sagittifolius, Michx. The leaves are broader, and the auricles are deeply
emarginate, or even 2-lobed at the summit. The one-flowered peduncles are longer than the
leaves, and furnished with two small alternate lanceolate bracts a short distance below the
flower. Corolla nearly as large as in Calystegia sepium, whitish, with pale purple stripes.
CONVOLVULUS ARyENSIS, Linn.; Choisy in DC. Prodr. 9, p. 406; var. VILLOSUS, Ch7oisy 1. c.
Hill sides, Sonora, California; May 9. Stems prostrate, branching from the root. Leaves varying from ovate to narrowly lanceolate, strongly hastate or sagittate. Pedauncles longer than
the leaves, with a pair of opposite lanceolate mostly sagittate bracts'a little below the flower.
CONVOLVULUS (n. sp.?): canescenti-tomentosus; caule prostrato e basi ramoso; foliis latocordatis brevissime acuminatis, auriculis angulari-bilobis; pedunculis unifloris axillaribusHill-sides, Downieville, Yuba river, California; May 22. Our specimens have only young
flower buds, so that the genus cannot certainly be ascertained.' The plant has never come
under our observation before.
CUSCUTA CALIFORNICA, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. p. 364; Choisy in DC. P'odr. 9, p. 457.
Parasitic on Phacelia circinata and other plants, in various parts of California; February, May.
SOLANACE.
SOLANUM UMBELLIFERUM, Eschsch. Merm. de St. Petersb. 10, p. 280, and in Linncea, 1828, (litt.)
p.148; Dunal in DC. Prodr. 13, pars. 2, p. 93. S. Californicum, Dunal. 1. c.. 86. Cocomungo, March 17, and San Francisco; April 3. A common species in California. It varies
much in the size and form of the leaves, degree of the pubescence, and number of flowers in the
raceme or umbel.
NICOTIANA QUADRIVALVIS, Pursh Fl. 1, — p. 141; Dunal in DC. Prodr. 13, pars8. 1, p.571. N.
multivalvis, Lindl. Bot. Beg. t. 1057? Rocky arroyos, near the Colorado of the West; February 17.
NICOTIANA PLUMBAGINIFOLIA, Dunal in DC. Prodr, 13, pars. 1, p. 569. OVar? BIGELOVII:
annua; caule glanduloso-pubescente subsimplici; foliis oblongo-lanceolatis acutiusculis glabriusculis, inferioribus in petiolem angustatis, superioribus sessilibus basi angustatis; panicula
terininali laxiuscula; calyce glanduloso-pubescente, laciniis lanceolato-linearibus inequalibus,
corolla hypocraterimorpha, tubo elongato calyce 2-3-plo longiore, limbi laciniis lato-ovatis
-obtusiusculis. Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus river; May. We are unwilling to propose this as
a new species, since there are so many others in the same genus that are very imperfectly
known. Our plant does not agree with any Nicotiana described by Dunal, (1. c.,) but it seems
to approach the nearest to N. plumbaginifolia.
LYcIUM, "n. sp. near L. FRAGROSUM," Miers in lit. In canons along Williams' river, February 8. Mr. Miers will describe this new species in a-monograph of Lycium that is to appear
in the second.volume of his Illustrations of South American Plants, shortly to be published.
127'