Ceanothcs. RHAMNACE^. 2C7 



flowering branches divaricate ; leafy thyrsus interrupted ; rather loose ; ovary 

 sub2;lobo>e, withoat protuberances. 



"Mountains of St. Barbara, California, and also near the town. April. — 

 A stragglinfT shrub. Tlic abortive branchlets at lenjTth become spinose. 

 Leaves 8-12 lines long, somewhat coriaceous, 3-ncrved from the base, the 

 lateral nerves obscure : petioles about 2 lines long. Tliyrsus oblong, with 

 several remote fascicles in the axils of the leaves. Flowers blue. Fruit 

 about the si'/e of a peper-corn." Nut tall. 



* * Leaves \-ribbed, pinnalehj reined, 



13. C. spinoifua (Nutt. ! mss.) : "glabrous ; branches thorny ; leaves cune- 

 ate-oblong, or oblong, obtu-e or emarginate, lucid, entire, or obscurely glnn- 

 dularly serrulate towards the apex; flowering branchlets divaricate, leafy ; 

 thyrsus oblong; ovary subglobose, without protuberances. 



Mountains of St. Barbara. — A straggling shrub. Leaves somewhat cori- 

 aceous, obscurely veined, pubescent beneath in the young state, 8-10 lines 

 long. Flowers white or blue : pedicels 2-3 lines long." Nuttall. — Nearly 

 allied to the preceding species. There is a pair of obscure nerves from the 

 base of the leaf; but they are scarcely as large as the veins which proceed 

 from each side of the midrib. 



14. C. cune.atus (J:^\iX\..\ mss.): "branchlets pubescent; leaves fascicled 

 from numerous very short lateral branches, and apparently opposite, thick 

 and coriaceous, narrowly oblong-cuneiform, entire, obtuse, glabrous above, 

 "whitish and minutely tomontose-canesccnl beneath ; flowers in lateral 

 pedunculate nearly simple umbels; fruit with 3 projecting appendages at the 

 summit." — Rhamnus ? cuneatus, Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 124 ; Hook. ^ 

 Am. in hot. Beechey, p. 136. 



Dry gravelly islands and bars of the Wahlamet above the Falls, Nuttall ! 

 Douglas. California, Beechey. March.— A ^'..lCjo 6-in feet high, with 

 somewhat thorny grayish terete branches, very closely interwoven, sometirnes 

 forming thickets. Leaves half an inch or more in length, and about 2 lines 

 wide, very rarely with one or two teeth near the extremity ; the numerous 

 regular simple and oblique veins rather conspicuous on the lower surface. 

 Flowers in small axillary umbels: the peduncles and pedicels increasing in 

 length as the fruit ripens. Calyx and corolla white : petals cucuUate, un- 

 guiculate. Styles united above the middle, and then spreading. Fruit as 

 large as an ordinary pea, subglobose ; the exocarp somewhat pulpy, Avith 3 

 rather soft horn-like projections from the summit of the angles: the coherent 

 base of the calyx unusually large. Seeds even on both sides, black, polished. 

 — The whole plant (like several succeeding species) exhales a balsamic odor, 

 and the mature fruit is covered with a bitter varnish. Hooker describes the 

 branches as ferrugineous, which is not the case in our specimens : they are 

 so, however, in the C. macrocarpus, which, judging from our specimen, we 

 were certainly inclined to unite with the present species ; but Mr. Nuttall 

 assures us that it is perfectly distinct. 



15. C. macrocarpus (Nutt. ! mss.) : "branchlets canescent with a rusty-col- 

 ored pubescence ; leaves alternate, rather crowded, sometimes a little fascicled 

 in the axils, thick and coriaceous, obovate-cuneate, entire, often emarginate 

 glabrous above, whitish and minutely tomentose-canescent beneath ; flowers 

 in lateral pedunculate nearly simple umbels ; fruit very large, with three pro- 

 jecting horn-like appendages at the summit." 



Mountains of St. Barbara, California, Nuttall.'— A shrub 3-6 feet high. 

 Fruit twice or thrice as large as in the preceding. 



16. C. verrucosus (Nutt. ! mss.): "branches verrucose, and (as also the 

 viens of the lower surface of the leaves) somewhat canescent with a rusty- 



