462 RHAMNACEAE 



B. Leaves opposite (except in 2 species), mostly thick and small, entire or with pungent- 

 tipped TEETH BUT NEVER GLANDULAR ; STIPULE-BASES PERSISTENT, BECOMING WARTY 

 AND CORK-LIKE ; FLOWERS IN SESSILE UMBELS ; CAPSULES COMMONLY 



WITH HORNS AS WELL AS CRESTS. — Subgenus Cerastes. 

 1. Leaves alternate or exceptionally opposite; flowers white; S, Cal. 



Leaf -blades mostly obcordate; capsules hornless 22. C. verrucosus. 



Leaf -blades elliptic-obovate, entire, mostly retuse or notched at apex ; capsules with stout horns.... 



23. C. mcgacarpus. 

 2. Leaves opposite ; rigidly branched shrubs. 



Desert ranges or mountain slopes or areas bordering the deserts. 



Horns slender or small, usually spreading ; leaves entire to dentate all around.. 24. C. greggii. 



Horns stout, usually erect j leaves with 7 or 8 teeth on a side 25. C. pinetorum. 



Cismontane. 



Leaves not revolute. 



Erect or spreading shrubs. 



Flowers white; leaves commonly entire (rarely dentate at apex) ; common, wide- 

 spread 26. C. cuneatus. 



Flowers blue or purple (exceptionally white) ; central Coast Eanges. 



Leaves pungently dentate on upper half; coastal *27. C. rigidus. 



Leaves mostly with 4 or 5 teeth on a side; North Coast Eanges, mostly back of 



the coast 28. C. jepsonii. 



Prostrate or semiprostrate shrubs. 



Leaves coarsely few-toothed towards apex; flowers blue; northern Sierra Nevada 



and high North Coast Eanges 29. C. prostratus. 



Leaves subentire; flowers white; southern Sierra Nevada ZO. C. fresnensis. 



Leaves more or less revolute, pungently dentate or entire, the lower surface densely white- 

 tomentose; Southern California 31. C. crassifolius. 



1. C. diversifolius Kell. Pine Mat. Stems prostrate, 2 to 4^/2 feet long, with 

 short ascending or erect branchlets; young stems short-villous; leaf -blades thin, 

 broadly elliptical, obtusish or sub-acute at apex, mucronulate-serrulate and some- 

 times undulate, i/^ to % (or 1^4 ) inches long, green and pubescent above, pale 

 and hirsutely tomentose beneath, the veins sometimes prominent; petioles 1 to 3 

 (or 6) lines long; panicles simple, small and few (3 to 8) -flowered, 5 to 7 lines long, 

 on much longer peduncles; flowers blue or almost white; capsules with apical 

 wing-like ridges, II/2 to 2 lines in diameter. 



Open pine woods on ridges and flats, 3000 to 6000 feet : Sierra Nevada from 

 Kern Co. to Shasta Co.; inner North Coast Range from northern Lake Co. to 

 Trinity Co. May-June. 



Field note.- — Ceanothus diversifolius is procumbent or prostrate in habit, forming low soft 

 gray-green mats which are very leafy and make a remarkably close ground cover. The usually 

 somewhat rounded leaves and the very small inflorescence characterize this species which, whUe 

 frequent or even abundant in a locality, as on Panoche Peak, Mariposa Co., is nevertheless, rela- 

 tively, something of a rarity in the forest as a whole. 



Locs. — Sierra Nevada: Greenhorn Pass, Purpus 5704; South Fork Middle Tule Eiver, Jepson 

 4871; Kaweah Eiver, Coville ^ Funston 1376; Millwood, Fresno Co., Jepson 2782; Patterson Mt., 

 Fresno Co., ace. A. E. Wieslander ; Wawona, Jepson 5651; betw. Hazel Green and Big Mdws., 

 Mariposa Co., Jepson 14,015; Crane Creek, Yosemite, Jepson 4648; Duffield Eanch, Confidence, 

 Tuolumne Co., Bigelotv; Calaveras Big Trees, T. Brandegee 45; Antelope, Amador Co., Hansen 

 1097; Dutch Flat, T. Brandegee 44; Mt. Shasta, F. H. Williains. North Coast Eanges: Elk Mt., 

 n. Lake Co., Tracy 2348; Buckeye Mt., Trinity Co., H. S. Yates 549. 



Eefs. — Ceanothus diversifolius Kell. Proc. Cal. Acad. 1:58 (1855), type loc. Placerville, 

 E. W. G'arvett; Jepson, Man. 617 (1925). C. decumbens Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 10:335 (1875), 

 the first specific locality stated being Mariposa Grove {Bolander 6331). 



2. C. lemmonii Parry. Plumas Bush. Low spreading shrub (II/2 to 3I/2 

 feet high) with long rigid or at least firm branches and light gray bark; branch- 

 lets usually short, tomentose or pubescent; leaf -blades elliptical to broadly ovate, 

 3 to 12 lines long, microscopically serrulate, plane, nearly glabrous above, pale 

 and pubescent beneath; petioles very short or almost none; panicles simple, oblong 

 or globose, 5 to 12 lines long, the tomentose peduncles little or no longer; flowers 

 blue; capsules 1% lines broad, rather strongly crested. 



