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. 6, Pt. 3

BOTANY.
Klamath lake. Root, without doubt, annual. Stems spreading nearly flat upon the ground,
much branched, and, like the foliage, &c., minutely hairy and glandular. Leaves petioled, not
dilated at the base; their lobes oblong or obovate, one or two lines long, the upper ones more
confluent. Flowers crowded in somewhat scorpioid clusters, bractless. Pedicels much shorter
than the calyx; bractlets none. Calyx in flower only about one and a half or two lines long,
in fruit becoming three lines long; the sepals linear, obtuse, hairy and viscid. Corolla yellow,
about the length of the calyx in anthesis, not increasing, but persistent, in fruit investing the
lower two-thirds of the ripe capsule; rather narrow campanulate, 5-lobed, the short ovate lobes
apparently quincuncially imbricated in mstivation, more or less hairy on the outside, within
destitute of plice or appendages, except a very narrow and thin ring at the very base girting
the base of the ovary, which rises into five slight and free lobes alternate with the stamens.
Stamens inserted on the very base of the corolla, rather shorter than it: filaments a little
dilated downwards: anthers short, didymous, incumbent; pollen globose. Ovary ovoid, densely
hairy, truly 2-celled by the union of the placenta in the axis; style not longer than the ovary,
nearly glabrous, 2-cleft at the summit, nearly persistent: stigmas capitellate, rather large.
Ovules mnumerous, 32-40 in each cell, namely, 16 to 20 in two rows on each half of each
placentae, amphitropous descending, more or less imbricated. Capsule three lines or a little
more in length, loculicidal, ovoid, flattish parallel with the valves, incompletely 2-celled; the
placenta in contact but not coherent at maturity; adnate to the middle of the valves for the
whole length, each maturing from 10 to 20 pendulous seeds. These are oblong, somewhat
angled, the thin testa delicately reticulated. Embryo slender, about the length of the
albumen.
As to the affinities of this plant, I cannot doubt that it is a close congener of Hooker and
Arnott's Eutoca. lutea, although I possess no specimens of that plant. Judging fromthe
published description and figure, this appears to differ from our plant chiefly in the slightly,
if at all, lobed leaves, the larger flowers, and more conspicuous corolla longer than the calyx,
the much longer style, and the fewer, only 8,(?) ovules. The seeds, moreover, are represented
with spiral markings, something like those of Microgenites, as figured in Gay's Flora Chilena.
The inconspicuous disk, adnate to the corolla in our plant, is not noticed in the other,
but it might readily be overlooked. Upon- this plant Alphonse De Candolle founded his genus
Miltitzia; and the present question is, whether that genus, now strengthened by a second
species, is to be adopted, or whether it should be merged in Bentham's genus Emmenanthe?
It will be seen that I incline to the latter view; but should retain Miltitzia as a subgenus,
distinguished by considerable difference in habit, by the ovoid (instead of the oblong)
ovary, and by the 10toothed small disk being adnate to the very base of the corolla,
instead of free from it. I perceive no other characters. The yellow or sulphur-colored and
marcescent corolla marks the genus.
Plate XV. EMMENANTHE (MILTITZIA) PARVIFLORA. Part of the plant of the natural size. Fig.
1. A flower. 2. Corolla laid open, with the stamens. 3. Pistil, the ovary transversely
divided. 4. A pistil, with the ovary vertically divided. 5. Portion of a placenta, with ovules,
6. A mature capsule, with the persistent calyx and corolla. 7. Transverse section of a capsule.
8. A valve of the capsule, with placenta and seed, seen obliquely. 9. A seed. 10. The same
vertically divided, showing the embryo.
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