112 HYPERICE^. 



ovate, 1 in. long, densely hairy ; cells villous within : seeds ovate, 2 

 lines long, pubescent. — Frequent in the lower mountains southward. 

 Occasional, in a small bushy form, in Shasta and Nevada counties. A 

 shrub of singular aspect, highly ornamental when in flower, especially in 

 its southern and more tree-like development. It is not impossible that the 

 northern and shrubby one, the very existence of which is virtually 

 denied in the new Silva of North America, may prove a marked variety 

 or second species. Fremont's type must have been the southern form. 

 The mucilaginous properties of the bark have led to its employment as a 

 substitute for that of the Slippenj Elm of the East ; and that name has 

 been applied to our tree. 



Ordeb XVII. HYPERICE/E. 



J. St. Hilaire, Exposition des Families Naturelles, ii. 23 (1805). 

 Hypebica, Juss. (1789). 



A small family, analogous to Malvacex, but scarcely allied to them ; 

 here represented by a few species of the one principal genus of the order. 



HYPERICUM, Dioscorides (St. John's-woet). Glabrous perennials ; 

 the bright green herbage punctate with pellucid or dark-colored dots. 

 Leaves opposite, simple, entire, exstipulate. Inflorescence cymose ; 

 flowers yellow. Sepals 5, imbricate in bud. Petals 5, convolute in bud, 

 rotate in expansion. Stamens go, usually connate at base, into 3—8 

 clusters. Styles 2—5, nearly or quite distinct ; ovary 1-celled with 3 

 parietal placentae, or 3-celled by union of the placentae with the axis. 

 Capsule with many minute seeds. 



1. H. couciimuiii, Benth. PL Hartw. 300 (1849) ; H. bracteatum, Kell. 

 Proc. Calif. Acad. i. 65 (18.55). Erect, slender, wiry, very leafy, suffrutes- 

 cent at base, ^o — 1 ft. high : leaves thickish and somewhat conduplicate, 

 linear or linear-oblong, acute : cyme few-flowered : fl. 1 in. broad : sepals 

 ovate, acuminate : stamens oo , in 3 fascicles. — Common on dry bushy 

 hillsides in hard clayey soil, at middle elevations of the Coast Range, 

 from San Mateo Co., Behr, northward. May, June. 



2. H. Scouleri, Hook. Fl. i. Ill (1830) ; H. formosum, var. Scoulen, 

 Coult. Bot. Gaz. (1886), p. 108. Erect, slender, simple or branched above, 

 altogether herbaceous from running rootstocks, 1 — 2 ft. high : leaves 

 thin, shorter than the internodes, 1 in. long or less, oblong, obtuse, 

 sessile, clasping : fl. large, in more or less panicled cymes : sepals oval 

 or oblong, obtuse, 2 lines long or less : petals }4 i^i- long : stamens oo , 

 in 3 fascicles : capsule 3-celled. — In wet grassy places throughout the 

 mountain districts at middle altitudes. If this be specifically identical 

 Mdth the Mexican II. formosum, it will stand almost alone among plants 

 not of alpine or even subalpine habitat enjoying a range of almost three 



