480 



RHAMNACEAE 



tomentose, more or less concealinc: tlie straip:ht lateral veins; flowers white; cap- 

 sules not lobed, 3 linos broad, provided with stout or minute horn-like crests. 



Dry hills, 1000 to 3000 I'eet : eismontane Southern California from Santa Bar- 

 bara Co. to San Diego Co. South to Lower California, Jan.-Apr. 



Locs. — Santa Inez Mts., Brewer 295; Ncwhall, K. Brandegcc ; Rubio Caiion, San Gabriel 

 Mts., Peirson 302a; Millards Canon, San Gabriel INTts., Peirson 302; Mt. Lowe, Geo. B. Grant 

 147; San Bernardino Valley (e. end), Jcpson 5507; Beaumont, Parish 4104; Palomar, Jepson 

 1531 ; bctw. Foster and Earaona, E. Brandegee ; San Pasqual grade, Jepson; Witch Creek, e. San 

 Diego Co., Alderson. 



Kefs. — Ceanothus crassifolius Torr. Pac. R. Eep. 4:75 (1857), type loc. Cajon Pass, 

 Bigelow; Torr. Bot. Mcx. Bound. 4G, pi. 11 (1859); Jepson, Man. 624 (1925). C. verrucosus 

 var. crassifolius K. Bdg. Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 2, 4:108 

 (1894). C. crassifolius var. planus Abrams, Bull. 

 N. Y. Bot. Gard. 6:415 (1910), type loc. Red Reef 

 Caiion, Topatopa Mts., Ventura Co., Abrams ^ Mc- 

 Gregor 124; Jepson, Man. 624 (1925). C. insularis 

 Eastw. Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 4, 16:362 (1927), type 

 loc. Santa Cruz Isl., A. Swain. 



4. COLUBRINA Rich. 

 Shrubs or trees with rigid divaricate 

 branches. Leaves alternate. Flowers small, 

 tomentose, in axillary umbels. Calyx-lobes 

 deciduous, herbaceous, the tube adherent to 

 the ovary. Petals small, sessile, hooded or 

 cupped. Style (in ours) 3-divided. Fruit 

 3-celled, dry, partly inferior, at length split- 

 ting into 3 carpels. — Species 16, all conti- 

 nents save Europe, also Hawaiian Isls. 

 (Latin coluber, a serpent, the application un- 

 known. ) 



1. C. texensis Gray. (Fig. 238.) In- 

 tricately branched shrub 4 to 7 feet high; 

 branchlets subspinose; young shoots densely 

 and finely tomentose; leaf -blades elliptic to 

 oblong-obovate, puberulent, entire or serru- 



late, 4 to 9 lines long, the petioles % to II/2 



Fig. 238. CoL-rrBRiNA texensis Gray. 

 a, fl. branchlet, X % ; 6, long. sect, of 

 fl., X 5; c, petal in early anthesis, X 

 10; d, petal in full anthesis, X 10; e, 

 capsule, X 2 ; /, cross sect, of ovary, X 5. 



lines long; umbels subsessile, 2^2 to 3 lines 



wide, often congested towards the ends of 



the branchlets, thus forming a somewhat spicate inflorescence; flowers IV2 to 2^ 



lines wide; calyx tomentose; petals yellow; capsules globose, 3 lines high. 



"Washes, benches or hillslopes, 800 to 1500 feet: Eagle Mts., north side of Colo- 

 rado Desert. East to Arizona and Texas, south to Mexico and Lower California. 

 Apr.-May, fr. June. 



Geog. note. — The diversity of form of Colubrina texensis, as it occurs in western Texas, is 

 such that it seems to comprehend rather readily within the limits of its variation our shrub of the 

 Eagle Mts. (Clary 935). 



Refs. — Colubrina texensis Gray, Jour. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 6:169 (1850). Bhamnus 

 texensis T, & G. Fl. 1:263 (1838), type from Texas, Drummond 67. C. calif ornica Jtn. Proc. 

 Cal. Acad. ser. 4, 12:1085 (1924), type loc. Las Animas Bay, L. Cal., Johnston 3496. 



5. ADOLPHIA Meisn. 

 Rigid oppositely branched shrubs with numerous thorny branchlets obscurely 

 jointed at base. Leaves opposite, petioled, stipulate, falling early. Flowers few in 

 axillary clusters or only one. Petals strongly hooded. Ovary 3-celled, free from 

 the calyx; style often jointed at or near the ovary, the portion above the joint 

 deciduous; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule 3-celled, 3-lobed, the lower one-third sur- 



