I S'
CLARKIA elegans.
Elegant Clarkia.
Linnean Class and Order. O C T A N D R IA M O N O G Y N IA .
Natural Order. O N A G R A R IA i. Decand. p ro d r .S . p .S b .
C L A R K IA . Supra fol. 157.
C. elegans, foliis ovato-laiiceolatis acuminatis, petalis integris, filamentis
basi barbatis ; omnibus fertilibus, ovariis pilosis.
Clarkia elegans. Douglas Mss. Lin d i, in bot. reg. 1 .1575.
Herb annual, erect, a foot to 2 feet high, branched and
spreading. Branches \ong, fiMorm, purple, smooth and shi-
ning, and covered with a bluish bloom. Leaves scattered, on
short footstalks, ovate-lanceolate, or lanceolate, acuminate,
sparingly denticulate, smooth, of a dull glaucous green, an
inch or two in length, the base rather agute. Flowers axillary,
solitary, distant, in prolonged, loose spikes. Calyx
h a iij; the tube short, ventricose, and campanulate; the
limb 4-partite, with lanceolate, acute segments, generally
united together in pairs. Petals 4, a rich lilac, broadly
rhomboid, crumpled and crenated at the edges, on long,
narrow, linear claws, which are paler, about equal the length
of the lamina, and dark-red at the base. Stamens 8, all fertile;
4 inner ones opposite the petals, twice shorter, and
altogether smaller. Filaments Yinesr, compressed, bearded at
the base. Anthers linear, recurved, dark-red, attached near
the base, composed of 2, parallel, connate cells, opening
lengthways. Pollen pale violet, granular. Style filiform,
slender, bitigma white, with 4, rounded ovate, entire, spreading,
thickly papillose lobes. Capsule of 4 cells, and 4
valves, narrow, rather more than half an inch long, straight
or curved, shining and deeply furrowed, clothed with straight'
white, spreading hairs. Seeh obovate, angular, ventricose.
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