with a petiole 5-15 mm. long, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 3-10 cm. long, 

 cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, light-green, slightly serrate, rarely somewhat 

 pubescent; flowers greenish, minute, the staminate in dense bracted clusters, the 

 pistillate in short panicles; fruit narrowly oblong, dark-purple, 12-15 mm. long. 

 Incl. f. vestita (E.J. Palm.) M.C.Johnst. 



In swamp forests, edge of water of streams and ponds and lowland woods, in 

 s.e. Okla. (McCurtain Co.), n.-cen., e. and s.-cen. Tex., spring; s.e. U. S., n. to 

 S.C., Tenn., Ind. and 111., w. to Okla. and Tex. 



The fruits of this species have been likened to soft, miniature, wrinkled sausages. 

 2. Forestiera pubescens Nutt. Elbow-bush, spring herald, stretch-berry, 



DESERT OLIVE. 



Rounded shrubs with arcuate branches, to about 3 m. tall, with spiny glabrous to 

 soft-pilose branchlets; leaves simple, opposite or fascicled, with petioles 1-3 mm. 

 long, deciduous, ovate to obovate or oblong-oblanceolate, 1.5-4 cm. long, 6-11 

 mm. wide, cuneate at base, acute to obtuse at apex, the somewhat revolute margins 

 shallowly crenulate or serrulate, distinctly punctate-dotted beneath, either totally 

 glabrous (var. glabri folia Shinners, F. sphaerocarpa Torr.) or pubescent on both 

 surfaces (F. neomexicana Gray and var. arizonica Gray); flowers polygamo- 

 dioecious, in clusters, the staminate sessile, the pistillate pedicellate; scales of 

 flower buds obovate to suborbicular, 1.5-2.5 mm. long, yellowish, ciliolate near 

 base; stamens 2 to 4; anthers yellow, 0.5 mm. long, subglobose, the filaments 

 about 2 mm. long; drupes ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, blue-black, somewhat glau- 

 cous, 4-8 mm. long; style slender, 1-1.5 mm. long, deciduous. 



On river and valley flats, canyon slopes, along streams, in open pastures and 

 brushy prairies where not too heavily browsed, Okla. (Arbuckle and Wichita mts., 

 and Caddo Co.), cen. and w. Tex., N.M. (widespread) and Ariz. (Apache to 

 Mohave, s. to Graham, Gila and Yavapai cos.), Mar.-June; Okla. and Tex., w. 

 and s.w. to Calif, and mts. of Chih. 



The plants of Oklahoma and most of Texas, including the mountains of the 

 Trans-Pecos, Coahuila and Chihuahua, have blades only about twice as long as 

 broad and are the more typical F. pubescens. Those of the western states and from 

 the margin of Salt Flat in Culberson and Hudspeth counties, Texas, and of canyons 

 on the High Plains country have blades about three times as long as broad and are 

 referable to F. neomexicana. But there is complete intergradation in western Texas. 

 Alleged differences in pedicel length are unreliable and differences in pubescence 

 are found even in one population. There is no very meaningful way to recognize 

 two species in this complex. 



Children are known to chew the fruits of this species with ordinary chewing- 

 gum to produce a sort of "bubble-gum." 



Fam. 107. Loganiaceae Mart. Logania Family 



Herbs, vines, shrubs or trees (tropical) with opposite unlobed leaves and stipules 

 or a stipular line or membrane between them; flowers regular, perfect, 4- or 

 5-merous, gamopetalous, variously arranged; calyx deeply lobed or with separate 

 sepals; corolla salverform to tubular or campanulate; stamens perigynous, as many 

 as the corolla lobes and alternate with them; ovary 2-celled, free from calyx; fruit 

 a capsule or pod. 



Traditionally, about 800 species in 30 or more genera in tropical and warm- 

 temperate regions of both hemispheres. 



1308 



