416 EUPHORBIACEAE 



Drj' mesas, rocky slopes or sandy washes, 100 to 2500 feet : mountains on north 

 side of Colorado Desert. Apr.-May. 



Locs. — Cottonwood Spr., CottonAvood Mts., Riverside Co., Jepson 12,558; Eagle Mts., Clary; 

 Corn Sprs., Chuckwalla Mts., Munz 4" KecTc 4882 ; Beal Well, Chocolate Mts., Jaeger. 



Field note. — On the dry hills about Cottonwood Spring northeast of Mecca, this shrub, for 

 several miles in various directions, is everywhere common. In aspect it is distinguishable from 

 all the other associated shrubs by its singular skeleton-like habit combined with its angular 

 branching. It does not, like certain desert shrubs, produce a multitude of branches or branchleta 

 but only relatively few. The almost right-angle divarication of branches, or indeed frequently 

 right-angle divarication, is of such a nature that the arms of a dichotomy will cross and make a 

 rectangle. The leaf -rosettes and flower-clusters are produced on very short spurs on old wood, 

 so that the shrub almost from the ground, is clothed with the leaf -rosettes, thus accenting markedly 

 the distinctiveness of its appearance. 



Refs. — Securineqa fasciculata Jtn. Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. 7:441 (1922). Bernardia fas- 

 cicnilata Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 18:153 (1883), type loc. Monclova, Coahuila, n. Mex., Palmer 

 1233. BalUophytum fasciculatum Jtn. Contrib. Gray Herb. 68:88 (1923). Var, halui Jepson, 

 Man. 595 (1925). Tetracoccus hallii Bdg. Zoe 5:229 (1906), type loc. Chuckwalla Bench be- 

 tween Canon Sprs. and Chuckwalla Spr., Hall 5865. S. hallii Jtn. Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. 7:442. 



2. TETRACOCCUS Engelm. 



Shrubs with entire linear leaves. Flowers reddish, small, dioecious. Staminate 

 flowers in umbellate clusters of 1 to 5 on axillary pedicels shorter than the leaves; 

 calyx 6 to 10-parted, with about 6 to 8 stamens surrounding a circle of reniform 

 disk-glands at their base. Pistillate flower solitary, pediceled; calyx similar to the 

 staminate; ovary 4-celled, the cells with 2 ovules; styles 4, simple, distinct. Cap- 

 sule 4-celled and 4-lobed, the valves separating from a stout 4-angled columella; 

 seed usually solitary, strophiolate. — Species 1. (Greek tetra, 4, and kokkos, fruit, 

 referring to the 4-lobed capsule.) 



1. T. dioicus Parr3^ Two to 5 feet high, the branches rather slender; leaves 

 opposite or some alternate, the blades ^ to li/4 inches long, very shortly petioled; 

 staminate flower-clusters 3 to 5 lines long; staminate calyx ^ line long, the stamens 

 much exserted and a little woolly at base. 



Dry hills, 800 to 2000 feet : western San Diego Co. South to Lower California. 

 Mar. 



Locs. — Betw. Temecula and Pala, Orcutt; Rainbow, Parish 9130 ; Jamacha, Alice A. Murphy. 



Refs. — Tetracoccus dioicus Parry, West Am. Sci. 1 :13, 35 (1885), type from L. Cal. (Table 

 Mt., Parry; Santo Tomas, Orcutt) ; Jepson, Man. 595 (1925). T. engelmannii Wats. Proc. Am. 

 Acad. 20:373 (1885), based on Parry's Table Mt. spm. (not "St. Thomas") and Orcutt's St. 

 Thomas, both from L. Cal. 



3. EREMOCARPUS Benth. 



A low gray annual with entire 3-nerved leaves. Staminate flowers pediceled in 

 terminal corymbs; calyx 5 or 6-parted; stamens 6 or 7 on a hairy receptacle; fila- 

 ments exserted. Pistillate flowers 1 to 3 in the lower axils, without calyx; ovary 

 1-celled, with 4 or 5 small glands at the base; style undivided, stigmatic at apex; 

 capsule 2-valved, 1-seeded. — Species 1. ( Greek eremos, solitary, and karpos, fruit. ) 



1. E. setigerus Benth. Turkey Mullein. Stems dichotomously branched, 

 forming a prostrate mat 1 to 3 feet wide or a low broad plant 5 to 8 inches high, or 

 reduced to a dwarf 1 to 2 inches high; herbage stellate-pubescent and rough-hispid 

 (especially below) with stinging hairs; leaves alternate or the upper opposite, the 

 blades thick, ovate, the smaller varying to almost orbicular, y^ to 2i/^ inches long, 

 the petioles nearly as long or longer; ovary and style densely pubescent; capsules 2 

 lines long; seeds smooth and shining, l^/^ lines long. 



Dry open low hills, plains and valleys, chiefly in gravelly or sterile clay soils, 

 10 to 2500 feet or sometimes to 5200 feet : throughout cismontane California, espe- 



