556 THYMELAEACEAE 



not Mnrah muricatus Kell. (1855). E. watsonii Cogn.; DC. Monog. Phan. 3:819 (1881) ; Jepson, 

 Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 3'21 (1901), ed. 2, 271 (1911), Man. GG2 (1925). Megarrhisa muricata Wat8. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. 11:139 (1876). Micrampdi^ watsonii Greene, Pitt. 2:129 (1890). 



3. BRANDEGEA Cogn. 



Perennial herbs witli large thick roots. Leaves with 3 to 5-parted blades. 

 Flowers small or minute. Corolla rotate, 5-parted almost to the base. Staminodia 

 in the pistillate flower none. Ovary 1-celled, the filiform beak very oblique; ovule 

 1. Fruit narrowly obovoid, indehiscent, smooth or sparsely echinate, thin-walled. 

 —Species 4, California and Mexico. (T. S. Brandegee, 1843-1925, student of the 

 Mexican flora.) 



1. B. bigelovii Cogn. Stems slender, trailing; leaf -blades sub-orbicular in 

 outline. 1 to 2V4 inches long, deeply 5-parted into narrow (1 to 5 lines wide) 

 spreading lobes, the basal lobes mostly verj^ small, or sometimes obsolete (the blade 

 then 4 or 3-parted), the upper surface densely sprinkled with disk-like pustules; 

 corolla 1 line long; body of fruit 2 to 21/2 lines long, either smooth or with a few 

 prickles above the middle or on the beak. 



Sandy washes, 200 to 2500 feet : mountains between the southeastern Mohave 

 Desert and the Colorado Desert. South into Lower California; east to Arizona. 

 Apr. 



Locs. — Hanks "Well, se. San Bernardino Co., Newlon 551 ; betw. Eice and Blythe, Mum ^ 

 Earwood 3564 (with both echinate and smooth fruits) ; McCoy Wash, Hall 5948; Bed Canon, 

 Chuckwalla Mts., Parish 8291, 8292 ; Cottonwood Spr., Cottonwood Mts., Jepson 12,593 ; Shavers 

 Well near Mecca, Mum ^ Eeclc 4760; Painted Canon, Mecca Hills, Jepson 11,671. W, Ariz.: 

 Cibola Valley, Colorado Eiver, Jepson 5274. 



Refs. — Brandegea bigelovii Cogn. Proc. Cal. Acad, ser. 2, 3:58 (1890) ; Jepson, Man, 663 

 (1925). Elaterium bigelovii Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 12:252 (1877), type loc. lower Colorado 

 Valley, Palmer, Bigelow. Echinocystis bigelovii Cogn.; DC. Monog. Phan. 3:804 (1881). Echi- 

 nopepon bigelovii Wats. I.e. 24:52 (1889). We find that in the same collection from the same 

 locality the fruit may be smooth or with a few prickles above the middle or on the beak, where- 

 fore we include here B. parviflora Wats.; Rose, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 5:120 (1897). Echino- 

 cystis parviflora Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 17:373 (1882), type loc. West Canon (Tahquitz Canon) 

 near Palm Sprs., e. base Mt. San Jacinto, Wright, ace. Parish in Rose I.e. ; Parish, Bull. S. Cal. 

 Acad. 2:81 (1903). Echinopepon parviflora Wats. I.e. 24:52 (1889). 



THYMELAEACEAE. Mezereum Family 

 Ours deciduous shrubs with simple entire alternate leaves. Flowers perfect, 



with corolla-like shallowly 4-cleft calyx. Stamens inserted upon the calyx, twice 



as many as its lobes. Corolla none. Ovary superior, 1-celled ; ovule 1, pendulous. — 



Genera 40, species 400, all lands except those of arctic zones. 



Bibliog.— Baillon, H., Thymelaeaceae in Nat. Hist. Plants 6:102-139, figs. 67-87 (1880), 



Gilg., E., Thymelaeaceae (Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflzfam. 39^:216-245, figs. 75-85,-1894). 



1. DIRCA L. Leatherwood 



Flowers in fascicles from buds containing flowers and leaves. Scales of the 

 bud yellowish or whitish, silky, forming an involucre to the flowers, soon falling. 

 Calyx slightly oblique, tubular below, expanded into a short throat above. Sta- 

 mens 8, exserted, inserted at the base of the throat. Style slender, exceeding the 

 stamens. Fruit drupe-like, reddish. — Species 2, North America. (Greek name 

 of a celebrated fountain in Boeotia, the plants growing in moist places.) 



1. D. occidentalis Gray. Western Leatherwood. Erect shrub 2 to 5 (or 

 11) feet high, with soft pliable wood and leathery bark; leaf -blades oval or ob- 

 ovatish, IV2 to 21/1 inches long; flowers yellow, sessile, in clusters of 2 or 3 from 

 lateral and terminal buds, turned downward at an angle; calyx 4 lines long, its 

 lobes a little erosulate ; stamens commonly 8, sometimes 9, rarely 10. 



North and east hill or caiion slopes, 400 to 1400 feet: Santa Cruz Mts.; Oak- 

 land and Berkeley hills; Marin Co. Feb. -Mar. 



