STERCULIA FAMILY 507 



covered with a dense brown felt and short bristly hairs, % to 1% inches long, 

 persistent. 



Dry hills, 1500 to 5500 feet : Coast Ranges from Mendocino Co. to San Luis 

 Obispo Co.; Sierra Nevada from Tehama Co. to Kern Co.; coastal mountains of 

 Southern California. May-July. 



Geog. note. — In the Coast Kanges, the stations for Fremontia californica are rare or local- 

 ized, as also in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills, but the shrub is abundant from Mariposa 

 Co. to Kern Co., and is common on the north base of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino moun- 

 tains though rare on the south side,, being still rarer southward, but occurring in San Diego Co. 

 The area of greatest development is in the foothills of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties, where, 

 as an important constituent of the chaparral, it often occupies a marked band 1 to 2 miles ynd.e 

 and illuminates the canon sides with a glow of gold in its flowering period. Trunks in the 

 southern Sierra Nevada foothills are 3 to 8 inches in diameter at a foot above the ground. Near 

 Tehachapi station a tree 16 feet high had in 1917 a trunk diameter of 5% inches at 4 feet above 

 the ground; the trunk was 7 feet high. On the northeast slopes of Bear Mt. in the Tehachapi 

 Mountains it forms a rather dense pygmy forest 12 to 15 feet high. Leaves on crown-shoots 

 after chaparral fires have blades often l^ij to 2% inches long. 



Locs. — Coast Kanges: Cow Mt., Miyakma Range, ace. Purdy; Hell's Half -Acre, upper Putah 

 Creek, a. Lake Co., E. H. Piatt; KnoxvUle Ridge, ne. Napa Co., Jepson 9036; Madrone Falls, 

 Berryessa grade, Napa Co., J. W. Castner ; betw. North Fork Lewis Creek and San Benito River, 

 se. Monterey Co., Jepson; San Luis Obispo, J. E. Roadhouse. Sierra Nevada: Paynes Creek, 

 Tehama Co. foothiUs, J. Grinnell; Yosemite, Alice King; Bootjack, Mariposa Co., Jepson 12,786; 

 Cedar Brook, Mariposa Co., Jepson 8405 ; Dunlap, Fresno Co., Jepson 2764 ; Whipstock Flat near 

 Badger, Tulare Co., Jepson; Cedar Creek, North Fork Kaweah River, Jepson 592; Timber Pt., 

 East Fork Kaweah River, Jepson; Grouse Valley, South Fork Kaweah River, Jepson 4705, 4714; 

 North Fork Tule River near Milo, Jepson; Middle Tule River, Jepson 4859. Tehachapi Mts.: 

 Tehachapi, Jepson 7425. S. Cal. : Cushenbury Canon (Zoe 4:340) ; Rock Creek, San Gabriel Mts., 

 Peirson 116; Bull Creek, San Jacinto Mts., Hall 958; Santa Rosa Mts., Clary 955; San Diego 

 (Zoe 4:340). 



Var. mexicana Jepson. Calyx-glands not hairy, or only slightly so, otherwise as in the 

 species: Cazadero, comm. J. W. Flinn; Redwood Peak, Oakland Hills, Docia Patchett; San Luis 

 Obispo Co., Summers; Ft. Tejon, Davy 2358; Mt. Pinos, Hall 6425; Lytle Creek Canon, San 

 Gabriel Mts., Hall 1222; and southward into Lower California. 



Refs. — Fremontia californica Torr. PL Frem. 6 (1853), type loc. mts. at the upper end of 

 the Sacramento Valley, Fremont; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 236 (1901), ed. 2, 262 (1911), Man. 

 626, fig. 629 (1925). Fremontodendron calif ornicum Cov. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4:74 (1893). 

 Var. MEXicANA Jepson, Man. 637 (1925). Fremontodendron mexicanum Dav. Bull. S. Cal. Acad. 

 16:50 (1917), type loc. "15 mi. from San Diego", Kate 0. Sessions (Davidson Hei'barium 3234). 

 Fremontia mexicana Mcbr. Contrib. Gray Herb. 53:14 (1918) ; Stapf, Bot. Mag. t. 9269 (1929). 



2. AYENIA Loefl. 



Small shrubby plants with small flowers. Calyx 5-parted. Petals with a long 

 filamentous claw ending in a hood; hoods inflexed, adnate to the stamen-column 

 and covering the anthers. Fertile stamens 5, these alternate with 5 truncate stami- 

 nodia at summit of stamen-tube; anthers with 3 parallel cells. Ovary on a stipe, 

 5-celled, 2 ovules in each cell. Capsule globose, muricate, splitting septicidally 

 into 5 one-seeded carpels which separate from a central column; carpels loculicid- 

 ally 2-valved. Seeds strongly rugose; endosperm none. — Species about 15, North 

 and South America. (Named for the Due d'Ayen.) 



1. A. californica Jepson. Stems several from the base, woody below, % to 1 

 foot high, or often diffuse or trailing and to 2y^ feet long; herbage minutely pu- 

 berulent or canescent; leaf -blades ovate to oblong-ovate, serrate, 3 to 10 lines long, 

 the petioles % to 3 lines long; flowers 1 to 1^4 lines long, brownish; capsule 1% 

 lines long. 



Dry caiions, 100 to 1500 feet: mountains on the west side of the Colorado 

 Desert. Mar.-Apr. 



Locs. — Palm Sprs. of San Jacinto, Parish 4146; Santa Rosa Mts. (canons sw. of Coachella 

 Valley), Clary 656; San Felipe Narrows, e. San Diego Co., Jepson 12,526. 



Ref. — Ayenia californica Jepson, Man. 637 (1925), type loc. Palm Canon of San Jacinto, 

 Jepson 1407. 



