times few, rarely solitary : styles usually united into one. Fruit
mostly capsular or succulent, crowned with the limb o f the calyx.
Seeds anatropous, either numerous, few, or rarely solitary, not aril-
late, usually with more or less fleshy albumen. Cotyledons flat or
plano-convex.—Herbs (all American), sometimes climbing or twining,
mostly armed with bristly stinging hairs, which secrete an acrid
juice, and rough with a barbed pubescence. Leaves alternate or
opposite, lobed or toothed, without stipules. Flowers commonly
large and showy, mostly yellow.
1. MENTZELIA. (Plunder?) Linn. ; Lam. ill. t. 425. Juss.in ann.
mus. 5. p. 24.
Mentzelia & Bartonia, Nutt., Pursh, tJ-c.—Acrolasia, Presl.
Tube of the calyx cylindrical or clavate ; the limb 5-parted. Petals 5, or
sometimes 10, plane, spreading or erect-spreading, mostly somewhat ungui-
culate: estivation convolute. Stamens indefinite (30-200 or more), or rarely
10-20 ; five or more of the exterior filaments often dilated, or petaloid and
sterile, the others filiform and often in 5 or more phalanges : anthers oval,
innate. Ovary coherent with the tube of the calyx, with 3 (rarely more?)
parietal placentae: ovules numerous or reduced to a single one on each placenta
: styles 3, filiform, connate so as to appear simple and often spirally
twisted, but usually divisible to the middle : stigmas simplé, minute. Capsule
crowned with the lobes of the calyx, 1-celled, 3- (or more ?) valved at
the summit, 3-many-seeded. Albumen thin or almost none: cotyledons
broad and flat.—Branching herbs, more or less rough and tenacious with
rigid barbed hairs. Leaves alternate, coarsely-toothed or sinuate-pinnatifid.
Flowers mostly sessile, 1-3 together, golden yellow, or rarely whitish.
We are constrained to adopt the suggestion of Hooker & Arnott (Bot. Beeckey,
suppl. p. 343 ; see also Hook. ft. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 222,) and to refer Bartonia, Nutt.
as well as Acrolasia, Presl. to Mentzelia. In his manuscript notes recently communicated
to us, Mr. Nuttall establishes the genus Tracbyphytum, to include
Bartonia albicaulis, Hook, and other species which have no inner series of petals
or dilated filaments, and 20 or more cubical seeds arranged in a single series on
each placenta; while his Bartonia is distinguished by its double rows of compressed
or winged seeds, and by having a portion of the filaments dilated or
changed into petals. But Trachyphytum, of which some species have wholly
the habit of the large-flowered Bartonias, is only distinguished from Mentzelia by
the rather more numerous seeds ; and Bartonia micrantha, Hook. Am., which
has 5 petaloid filaments, has a 3.seeded capsule. Could the Bartonia of Nuttall be
retained as a genus, we fear that the name would require to be changed; as the
Bartonia of Muhlenberg and Willdenow (1801) is much older, and was published
two years before Centaurella, Michx. (1803)
§ 1. Seeds 3-9, often minutely striate: filaments all nearly equal and filiform,
or 10 of them longer and more or less dilated: flowers expanding in 'direct
sunshine.—E umentzelia.
1. M. oligosperma (Nutt.): “ rough with multibarbe hairs, dichotomous:
leaves lanceolate-ovate, often acuminate, on very short petioles, cuneate at
the base, incisely toothed or somewhat lobed ; petals cuneate-oblong, cuspidate,
entire, a little longer than the [20 or more] stamens; capsule very
narrow, about 3-seeded; seeds [finely striate with sinuous lines] linear-
oblong.” Nutt. ! in hot. mag. t. 1760 ; DC. ! prodr. 3. p. 343. M. aurea,
Nutt. ! gen. 1. p. 300; Torr.! in ann. lye. New Yorlc, 2. p. 199.
In rocky places, Missouri! Arkansas ! and Texas ! to the Rocky Mountains.
May- July .— If Root tuberous and succulent. Flowers deep golden-
yellow, 8-10 lines in diameter, expanding in sunshine, evanescent. Seeds
at length triangular, elongated.—Five or more of the filaments are usually
slightly dilated.
2. M. rhombifolia (Nutt.! mss.) : “ somewhat rough with multibarbe
hairs, dichotomous; leaves rhombic-ovate, mostly obtuse, almost sessile,
repandly-crenate and angular; petals cuneate-oblong, somewhat pointed;
capsule narrow, about 3-seeded; seeds angular, oblong.
Plains of Red River, Arkansas.— 21 Nearly allied to the preceding, but
with very different foliage, the leaves being nearly as broad as long, clothed
with short appressed hairs, and with few and slight denticulations.” Nuttall.
—We have not seen the flowers.
3. M. Floridana (Nutt, m ss.): slightly roughened, the hairs mostly multibarbe,
dichotomous; leaves deltoid-ovate, acute, unequally toothed, truncate
and 2-lobed at the base, distinctly petioled ; petals cuneate-oval, obtuse,
a little longer than the (about 30) stamens; capsules clavate, about 6-seeded ;
seeds oval, flatfish, abruptly narrowed towards the base, minutely striate.
East Florida, Dr. Baldwin and Mr. T. Peale, fide Nuttall. Tampa
Bay, Dr. Leavenworth ! — Tl Leaves slightly scabrous. Flowers rather
small, golden-yellow. Capsules hispid with multibarbe hairs. Seed conformed
to the shape of the embryo, with scarcely any albumen. Cotyledons
broad and flat, longer than the radicle. The petals, according to Nuttall, are
obtuse, with a small blunt point.—Apparently nearly allied to M. hispida.
§ 2. Seeds 20 or more, in a single series on each placenta, minutely tubercu-
late-scabrous, somewhat cubical: filaments all filiform: petals 5, expanding
in direct sunshine : root annual.—T rachyphytum, Nutt. mss.
4. M. Lindleyi: muricate-hispid ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, sessile or
slightly clasping, deeply pinnatifid; the lobes lanceolate or linear, often
toothed, the terminal one prolonged and mostly acute ; bracteoles at the base of
the calyx pinnatifid; flowers (large) solitary or 2-3 together at the extremity
of the branches ; petals obovate, pointed with a short acumination, twice the
length of the lanceolate acute or acuminate calyx-segments; filaments very
numerous, all filiform; capsules hirsute, elongated, somewhat thickened upwards;
seeds numerous— Bartonia aurea, Lindl.! bot.reg.t. 1831; Hook.!
bot. mag. i. 3649.
California, Douglas !—Stem 2-3 feet high, branched. Petals 1-14 inch
in length, deep golden yellow, expanding in bright sunshine. Capsules 1-2
inches long, arcuate-recurved.—The pubescence consists of hispid hairs,
bulbous at the base, and minutely denticulate; with much smaller very
minutely retrorsely barbate hairs intermixed.—In referring this species to the
genus Mentzelia, we are unwillingly obliged to change the specific name, to
prevent confusion between it and the Mentzelia aurea of Nuttall’s Genera.
We therefore propose that it bear the name of the justly celebrated botanist
who first described it.