ST. JOHN'S-WORT FAMILY 115 



2. Fremontia mexicana (Davidson) J. F, Macbride. Mexican Fremontia. 



Fig. 3231. 



Fremontodendron mexicana Davidson, Bull. S. Calif. Acad. 16: SO. 1917. 

 Fremontia mexicana J. F. Macbride, Contr. Gray Herb. No. S3: 14. 1918. 

 Fremontia californica var. mexicana Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 637. 192S. 



Arborescent shrub or small tree, 2-6 m. high, the branches widely spreading, branchlets 

 densely clothed with long-rayed stellate pubescence, this yellowish or ferruginous often becom- 

 ing blackened in age, usually deciduous the second year leaving a smooth reddish brown bark. 

 Leaves round-ovate in outline, 5-lobed with broad rounded lobes and narrow sinuses, deeply 

 cordate at base, 2.5-3.5 cm. long, conspicuously S-veined and thick, dark green above with 

 scattered often dark stellate hairs, pale beneath and densely stellate-pubescent ; petioles about 

 equaling or shorter than the blades, densely stellate ; calyx 6-7 cm. in diameter, orange becom- 

 ing tinged with red at base and on the midrib, stellate exteriorly, the rounded pits on the inner 

 surface of the lobes near the base not hairy ; capsule ovoid, acuminate, 3-4 cm. long ; seeds 

 black, shining. 



Open chaparral, Upper Sonoran Zone; Otay Mountain, San Diego County, California, southward into 

 northwestern Lower California. Type locality: described from cultivated tree, planted in San Diego, the original 

 source of which is not definitely known. See a discussion of its possible origin by Margaret Harvey 

 (Madrono 7: 109. 1943). 



2. AYENIA Loefl. Iter. Hisp. 199. 1758. 



Herbs or low woody plants, stellate-pubescent, hirsute or glabrescent. Leaves alter- 

 nate, serrate. Flowers small, axillary. Calyx 5-parted. Petals 5, long-clawed, the limb 

 cucullate-concave, the apex inflexed and adnate to the stamen-column concealing- the an- 

 thers. Stamen-column short, bearing 5 fertile stamens alternating with 5 staminodia; 

 anthers 3-celled. Ovary stipitate, 5-celled; ovules 2 in each cell. Style simple; stigma 

 capitate or obscurely 5-lobed. Capsule globose, muricate ; carpels 5, separating septicidally 

 and then splitting loculicidally. Seeds 1 in each carpel, transversely rugose ; endosperm 

 none; cotyledons spirally convolute around the radicle. [Name in honor of the Due 

 d'Ayen.] 



An American genus of about 15 species inhabiting the tropical and warm temperate regions. Type species, 

 Ayenia sidaeformis Loefl. 



1. Ayenia compacta Rose. Ayenia. Fig. 3232. 



Ayenia compacta Rose, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 8: 321. 1905. 

 Ayenia californica Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 637. 1925. 



Low shrub, 1-4 dm. high, much branched from the base, branches gray-green-tomentose 

 with 2-3-forked hairs." Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, 5-15 mm. long, serrate, rninutely stellate 

 on both surfaces, about twice as long as the slender petioles ; flowers solitary in the axils, on 

 slender pedicels, brownish, 2 mm. long; capsule 4 mm. in diameter, stellate-pubescent and muri- 

 cate with black glands. 



Rocky canyons, Lower Sonoran Zone; western edge of the Colorado Desert, Riverside County, California, 

 to central Lower California. Type locality: near Santa Rosalia, Lower California. March-May. 



Family 94. HYPERICACEAE.* 



St. John's-wort Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, sometimes small trees in tropical regions, v^ith opposite or 

 rarely verticillate simple entire or rarely glandular-ciliate or dentate leaves, no 

 stipules, resinous juice, and terminal or axillary, solitary or cymose-paniculate 

 flowers. Foliage pellucid-punctate or black-dotted. Flowers regular and perfect. 

 Sepals 5 or 4, imbricated, herbaceous, persistent. Petals of the same number, hy- 

 pogynous, generally oblique or contorted. Stamens numerous or few, hypogynous, 

 often in sets of 3 or 5 ; anthers versatile or innate, 2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent. 

 Ovary superior, 1-7-ceIled, composed of 1-7 carpels ; styles as many as the carpels ; 

 ovules numerous, in 2 rows in each cavity, anatropous. Fruit mainly capsular; 

 seeds with a straight embryo ; endosperm none. 



A family of about 40 genera and over 800 species, mostly of temperate and warm regions. Only the fol- 

 lowing genus is represented in the Pacific States. 



1. HYPERICUM [Tourn.] L. Sp. Fl. 783. 1753. 



Herbs or shrubs, with opposite, sessile, more or less punctate leaves, and mostly cymose 

 yellow flowers. Sepals 5, equal or nearly so. Petals 5, mainly oblique or contorted, con- 



* Text contributed by George Neville Jones. 



