PARONYCHIA CHORIZANTHOIDES.
Annual, slender, minutely pubescent. Stem erect, 1-2 dm. tall, forking from a point 3-8 cm. above the base; leaves linear filiform, .8-2 cm. long, acute, with a stout midrib, sessile ; stipules lanceolate, silvery, acuminate ; calyx short-pedicelled, or nearly sessile, 1.5 mm. long, strigose at the base, finally urn-shaped, the base much enlarged; sepals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, with a stout midrib, abruptly contracted into the ascending cusps which are about one-half as long as the body at maturity; utricle nearly mm. broad.
The specimens on which the species here described as new is founded were collected by Dr. Edward Palmer at Bluffton, Burnet County, Texas, 50 miles west of Georgetown, October 10-15, 1879, according to printed ticket, or 1883, no. 1169, according to written label. Heretofore specimens of this collection have been referred to Paronychia setacea, which species, however, they but slightly re semble. Paronychia chori:-.anthoides, as the name suggests, bears a
remarkable resemblance to some species of Chorizanthe, chiefly on account of the involucre-like calices. In Paronychia chorthanthoidcs the bracts subtending the calyx are shorter than that organ, while in P. sctacea they are longer. The calyx of the new species is sharply diagnostic, being urn_shaped with a much enlarged base, the calyx of P. setacea being turbinate and narrowed at the base. The cusps terminating the sepals are much stouter and only about one-half as long as the very slender cusps of P setacca. Mr. Heller's number 1729, distributed as P. setacca, is Parenychia chorizantholdes, but, being quite young, it has not yet assumed the characteristic habit that Dr. Palmer's specimens exhibit.