176 PLATANACEAE. 



much exceeded by the oblong lobes; petals white, fan-shaped, mar- 

 gins convolute; filiform filaments and style much exserted; berry 

 small, glabrous, black. 



Oak Knoll, near Pasadena, McClatchie; San Bernardino Valley, 



Parish. 



5. R. speciosum Pursh. Evergreen shrub, 1.5-3 m. high, with 

 leaiy red bristly branches; subaxillary spines 3, united at base; 

 leaves subcoriaceous, dark green, smooth and shining above, rounded, 

 3-lobed, lobes short, crenately toothed; peduncles pendulous, 2-5- 

 flowered; flowers bright red, drooping; calyx 12-18 mm. long, its 

 tube short, somewhat inflated, lobes oblong, not spreading; petals 

 about I the length of the calyx-lobes; filaments filiform, much ex- 

 ceeding the calyx; anthers small, oval; berry small, densely prickly. 



Frequent in the foothills. March-April. 



Family 44. PLATANACEAE. Plane-tree Family. 



Large trees with thin exfoliating bark, alternate 

 petioled palmately lobed leaves and small green monoe- 

 cious flowers in dense globular heads. Receptacle some- 

 what fleshy. Calyx of vS-8 externally minute sepals. 

 Corollas of as many thin glabrous petals. Staminate 

 flowers with stamens as many as sepals and opposite 

 them; filaments short; anthers longitudinally dehiscent. 

 Pistillate flowers with 2-8 distinct pistils; ovary linear, 

 1-celled; style elongated; stigma lateral. Fruit a dense 

 head, composed of numerous narrowly obpyramidal 

 nutlets which are densely pubescent below with long 

 hairs; seed pendulous; endosperm thin; cotyledons linear. 



1. PLATANUS L. Plane-tree or Sycamore. 

 Characters of the family. 



1. P. racemosa Nutt. A large widely branching tree, 10-25 

 m. high; leaves stellate-pubescent when young, becoming glabrate, 

 10-15 cm. broad and scarcely as long, mostly 5-lobed, truncate or 

 somewhat cordate at base; lobes acute, the lower smaller, bluntly 

 cuspidate at the ends of the veins; petioles shorter than the leaves; 

 stipules larger on young twigs; staminate heads several; pistillate 

 heads 3-5. 



Common along all the streams, mostly below 3000 feet altitude. 

 March. 



