54 CELASTRACEAE 



2. PACHISTIMA Raf. Amer. Month. Mag. 2: 176. 1818. 



Low glabrous shrub, with corky, 4-angled stems and minute caducous stipules. Leaves 

 opposite, coriaceous, serrulate, evergreen. Flowers solitary or clustered in the axils, per- 

 fect, 4-merous. Ovary adherent to the disk, 2-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; style very 

 short; stigma shallowly 2-lobed. Capsule oblong, compressed, 2-celled, loculicidally de- 

 hiscent. Seeds with a white, many-lobed aril at the base. [Name Greek, meaning broad 

 stigma.] 



A North American genus of 2 species. Besides the following, P. Canbyi A. Gray grows in the mountains 

 of Virginia and West Virginia. Type species, Pachistima Myrsinites (Pursh) Raf. 



In 1838 Rafinesque changed the original spelling Pachistima to Paxistima, and in 1840 Endlicher changed 

 it to Pachystima. All of these are orthographic variants of the original Greek words, Traxf^, thick, and ariyiia, 

 stigma. 



1. Pachistima Myrsinites (Pursh) Raf. Mountain Lover or Oregon Boxwood. 



Fig. 3090. 



Ilexl Myrsinites Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 1: 119. 1814. 



Myginda myrtifolia Nutt. Gen. PI. 1:109. 1818. 



Paxistima Myrsinites Raf. Sylva Tellur. 42. 1838. 



Oreophila myrtifolia Nutt. ex Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 259. 1838. 



Paxistima myrtifolia L. C. Wheeler, Amer. Midi. Nat. 29: 793. 1943. 



Low, much-branched, very leafy shrub, 3-10 dm. high, or sometimes spreading and almost 

 prostrate. Leaves ovate, oblong or oblanceolate, 15-30 mm. long, serrulate, coriaceous, dark 

 glossy green above, somewhat paler beneath, cuneate at base, acute or obtuse at apex, subsessile ; 

 peduncles 2-3 mm. long, 1-3-flowered ; petals reddish brown, ovate, 1 mm. long ; capsule 4-5 mm. 

 long. 



Coniferous forests, Transition and Canadian Zones; western British Columbia to Marin County, California, 

 east to Montana and New Mexico. Type locality: Lolo Trail near Hungry (Lolo) Creek, northern Idaho. 

 May-July. 



3. MORTONIA A. Gray, Smiths. Contr. 3= : 34. pi 4. 1852. 



Low intricately branched xerophytic shrubs. Leaves alternate, crowded, evergreen, 

 subsessile, coriaceous, 1-nerved, revolute on the margin, stipules minute, gland-like, cadu- 

 cous. Flowers small, white, in narrow terminal thyrsoid cymes. Calyx-tube obconic, 10- 

 ribbed; lobes 5. Petals 5. Stamen-filaments short. Ovary 5-celled; style columnar; 

 stigmas 5 ; ovules 2 in each cell, basal, erect. Fruit dry crustaceous, indehiscent, 1-celled 

 and 1-seeded by abortion. Seed oblong, not arillate; embryo erect. [Name in honor of 

 Dr. S. G. Morton, American naturalist of the nineteenth century.] 



A genus of 4 or 5 species, natives of the arid southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Type 

 species, Mortonia sempcrvirens A. Gray. 



1. Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A. Nels. Utah Mortonia. Fig. 3091. 



Mortonia scabrella var. utahensis Coville ex A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1^: 400. 1897. 

 Mortonia utahensis A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 47:427. 1909. 



Low intricately branched shrub, 8-10 dm. high, the branches pale yellow-green and hispidu- 

 lous. Leaves broadly oval to suborbicular, 8-12 mm. long, scabrous, thick with a fleshy-thick- 

 ened margin ; thyrse 3-6 cm. long ; bracts lanceolate, 3-5 mm. long ; calyx-lobes 2 mm. long, his- 

 pidulous, scarious on the margins ; petals white, obovate, 3 mm. long ; fruit oblong, 4 mm. long, 

 glabrous. 



Dry desert slopes, Lower Sonoran Zone; Mojave Desert in Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California, 

 to southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona and Utah. Type locality: southern Utah. March-May. 



4. GLOSSOPETALON A. Gray, Smiths. Contr. 5«: 29. pi 12, B. 1853. 



Low rigid and often spinescent shrubs, the slender branches greenish, angled with de- 

 current lines from the nodes. Leaves deciduous, alternate, small, simple, entire, indis- 

 tinctly veined, usually with 2-4 lateral veins parallel with the margin; stipules minute, 

 adnate to the enlarged and persistent base of the petiole, or wanting. Flowers small, soli- 

 tary in the axils or rarely terminal, short-pedicelled. Sepals 4-6, commonly 5,_ hyaline- 

 margined, ovate, persistent. Petals white, as many as sepals and alternate with them, 

 narrowly oblanceolate or ligulate, inserted under the edge of the fleshy, crenately lobed 

 disk. Stamens 4-10, often unequal, the longer opposite the petals and about equaling them. 

 Pistils of 1-3 distinct ovoid carpels; stigma entire, sessile; ovules 1-2. Fruit an asym- 

 metrical, narrowly ovoid follicle, dehiscing along the ventral suture. Seeds 1 or 2, with a 

 small white aril. [Name Greek, meaning tongue and petal, in reference to the ligulate 

 petals.] 



A genus of 7 or 8 closely related species inhabiting the arid regions of western North America. Type 

 species, Glossopetalon spinescens A. Gray. 



Branches, at least some of them, spinescent; stipules minute, subulate, often adnate to the enlarged persistent 



bases of the petioles; flowers axillary. 1. C- nevadense. 



Branches never spinescent; stipules none; flowers terminating short branchlets. 2. G. pungens. 



