Se 
CROTONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 39 
Il. Staminate flowers petaliferous; petals absent, or often rudimentary 
in the pistillate. 
A. Scaly. 
C. arayrantuEemus Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 215. 1808; 
Geiseler, Crot. Monog. 49. 1807; Engelm. and Gray, 
Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. 5: 233. 1847; Torrey, Bot. 
U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv. 195. 1859; Muell. Arg. 
in DC. Prod. 15%:576. 1866; Wood, Class Book 631. 
1861. C. punctatus Coulter, Bot. West. Texas 397. 
1894. Oxydectes arygranthemus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 
Plant. 611. 1891. 
Suffruticose, erect, 3 to 6 dm. high, approximately 
branched above, scaly, argenteous or sometimes ferruginous ; 
lower leaves oval to obovate, upper ones oblong to lanceo- 
late-oblong, 1 to 5 cm. long, narrowed toward the base 
(an obtuse or rounded base in the oval-leaved forms from 
south-west Texas), apex obtuse to rounded, scales scattered 
above, at length almost glabrous, argenteous below ; petioles 
about one half to one fourth the length of the leaves; sti- 
pules obsolete; racemes sessile, many flowered, 2 to 5 cm. 
long; staminate flowers many, upwards of 15, on pedicels 
1 to 4 mm. long, with setaceous and very deciduous bracts, 
normally pentamerous ; sepals lanceolate, acute; petals 
oblong, glabrous on the inside, scaly outside; stamens. 
about 10; filaments with tumid base; pistillate flowers 2 to 
several, short pedicelled or subsessile at base of raceme; 
calyx cup-shaped with 5 to 7 acute clefts ; apetalous ; gland- 
ular disc 5-lobed or entire; styles 3, 2 to 4 mm. long, each 
3- to 4-palmately cleft at tip; capsules oval, about 5 mm. 
tall, slightly depressed at the apex, trigastric ; seeds oval, 4 
to 5 mm. long, unequally biconvex; caruncle prominent 
and stipitate; calyx accrescent, about one half the length 
of the capsule. — Georgia to southwest Texas and New 
Mexico. — Plate 5. 
Specimens examined from Georgia (Le Conte; Quitman, no. 188; 
Small, Albany, 1895); Florida (Curtiss, nos. 2522, 4272, 4932; Duval Co.; 
