OLIVE FAMILY 349 



L Forestiera neo-mexicana A. Gray. Desert Olive. Fig. 3782. 



Forestiera acuminata var. parvifolia A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 4: 364. 1860. 

 Forestiera neo-mexicana A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 12: 63. 1876. 

 Adelia neo-mexicana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 410. 1891. 

 Adelia parvifolia Coville, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 4: 148. 1893. 



Glabrous shrub or small tree, 1-5 m. high, with smooth light gray bark and smooth often 

 yellowish branches. Leaves oblanceolate, 2-6 cm. long, 5-16 mm. wide, rounded to acute at 

 apex, narrowed to a slender petiole at base, entire to serrulate, rather thick; flowers dioecious 

 or the pistillate plant sometimes with a few perfect flowers appearing with or before the leaves, 

 each fascicled, subtended by a number of small brownish bud-scales and 4 larger greenish 

 yellow ciliate bracts; staminate flowers sessile; pistillate on a slender pedicel 5-7 mm. long, 

 with a rudimentary calyx at base of the ovary ; fruit a bluish black ellipsoid drupe, 7-8 mm. long. 



Flats and stream banks, Sonoran Zones; Inner Coast Ranges, Mount Hamilton Range, Alameda County, 

 south to the San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, and eastward in the Mojave Desert to Inyo County 

 and eastern San Bernardino County, California, extending to Arizona, southern Utah, southern Colorado, 

 New Mexico, and western Texas. Type locality: near Santa Fe, New Mexico. March-April. 



3. MENODORA Humb. & Bonpl. PL Equin. 2: 98. pi 110. 1809. 



Low shrubs or suffrutescent herbs, glabrous or rarely pubescent. Leaves simple, 

 entire or toothed, the upper alternate, the lower often opposite. Flowers perfect, solitary 

 and terminal or dichotomously panicled or corymbose. Calyx deeply 5-15-lobed, divided 

 into linear lobes. Corolla from funnel form to subrotate, 5-6-lobed. Stamens 2, the fila- 

 ments short, attached to the corolla-tube. Ovary 2-celled,, emarginate; style slender; 

 ovules 2 or 4 in each cell, attached at the base. Fruit a capsule, 2-parted or 2-cleft, the 

 wall membranous and circumscissile or irregularly dehiscent. Seeds usually 2 or 4 in 

 each cell ; endosperm none. [Name from two Greek words, meaning force and gift.] 



A genus of about IS species, native of North America, South America, and southern Africa. Type species, 

 Menodora helianthemoides Humb. & Bonpl. 



Plants not spinescent; corolla yellow, subrotate, the lobes longer than the tube; ovules and seeds 4 in each cell. 



Upper leaves much-reduced and bract-like, plant glabrous or nearly so. 1. M. scoparia. 



Upper leaves but little reduced; plant usually scabrous. 2. M. scabra. 



Plants intricately branched, the branchlets stout, divaricate and spine-tipped; corolla white, funnelform, the 

 lobes shorter than the tube; ovules and seeds 2 in each cell. 3. M. spinescens. 



L Menodora scoparia Engelm. Smooth Menodora. Fig. 3783. 



Menodora scoparia Engelm. ex A. Gray, Bot. Calif. 1: 471. 1876. 



Menodora scabra var. glabrescens A. Gray m S. Wats. Cat. PI. Wheeler Exp. IS. 1874. 



Plant suffrutescent and branched at base, 25-75 cm. high, the branches erect, cymosely 

 few-branched at apex, slender, glabrous or nearly so. Lower leaves opposite, oblong-obovate 

 to oblanceolate, 10-25 mm. long, gradually narrowed to a sessile or subsessile base, pale green 

 and glabrous or sparsely puberulent, upper leaves remote and reduced ; flowers solitary in the 

 upper leaf-axils on pedicels 15-25 mm. long; calyx-lobes 5-7, subulate, 3-5 mm. long; corolla 

 subrotate, yellow, the lobes ovate, about 7 mm. long ; capsule-lobes approximate ; seeds 4, each 

 acutely angled on the ventral side, and rounded on the back, pitted. 



Desert slopes, Sonoran Zones; New York, Clark, and Providence Mountains in the eastern Mojave Desert, 

 and desert slopes of the Laguna Mountains, California, to Arizona, Coahuila, Sonora, and Lower California. 

 Type locality: mountains about Saltillo, Coahuila. May-Oct. 



2. Menodora scabra A. Gray. Rough Menodora. Fig. 3784. 



Menodora scabra Engelm. ex A. Gray, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 14: 44. 1852. 

 Menodora laevis Woot. & Standi. Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 16: 158. 1913. 

 Menodora scabra var. laevis Steyerm. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 137. 1932. 



Perennial with a suffrutescent base from a stout woody root, the stems few to many, 8-35 

 cm. high, finely scabrous, sometimes sparsely so, corymbosely branched at apex. Leaves opposite, 

 narrowly oblanceolate to oblong-oblaiiceolate, 6-25 mm. long, the upper alternate, only slightly 

 reduced; calyx-lobes 7-11, linear-filiform, delicate; corolla subrotate, yellow, the lobes ovate, 

 7-8 mm. long ; capsule-lobes approximate, the membranous wall irregularly and tardily breaking 

 up ; seeds 4 in each lobe, each forming a quarter-round, rounded on the back, acutely angled on 

 the ventral side and keeled, conspicuously pitted, tan-colored, 4-5 mm. long. 



Dry desert ridges and barancas, Sonoran Zones; Mojave Desert, California, Arizona, southern Utah, south- 

 ern Colorado, New Mexico, and western Texas south to Durango and Lower California. The only known 

 ■ California station is in the New York Mountains. Type locality: Ojo del Muerto, south of Santa Fe, New 

 Mexico. May-Oct. 



3. Menodora spinescens A. Gray. Spiny Menodora. Fig. 3785. 



Menodora spinescens A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 7: 388. 1868. 



Menodora spinescens var. mohavensis Steyerm. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: ISS. 1932. 



Low intricately branched shrub with mostly ascending branches and divaricate spinescent 

 branchlets, 2-5 or rarely 10 dm. high, light olive-green and minutely puberulent. Leaves linear- 



