LINACEAE. 209 



sap (oxalic-acid), and mcstly palmately 3-foliate leaves. 

 Stipules commonly present as scarious margins to the 

 bases of the petioles ; leaflets mostly obcordate. Flowers 

 perfect, in umbel-like or forking cymes or rarely solitary, 

 on mostly rather long peduncles. Sepals 5, often un- 

 equal. Petals 5, white, purple or yellow. Stamens 

 10-15. Ovary 5-lobed, 5-celled; styles united or dis- 

 tinct; ovules 2-many in each cell. Fruit a loculicidal, 

 globose or columnar capsule. Embryo straight; endo- 

 sperm fleshy. 



1. XANTHOXALIS Small. 



Sepals imbricated, regular. Petals hypogynous. Sta- 

 mens 10, monadelphous at base, 5 longer and 5 shorter, 

 all anther-bearing. Ovules several in each cell; styles 

 5, distinct, persistent; stigmas terminal. Seeds with a 

 loose aril-like dehiscent outer coat. 



1. X. calif omica Abrams. Csespitose perennial, the prostrate 

 and rooting or ascending stems suffrutescent and more or less 

 branched below, 15-20 cm. long or more, from a short, erect, woody 

 caudex; leaves 3-foliate; leaflets 4-10 mm. long, often broader; 

 petiole somewhat stipular-dilated at base; flowers 6-10 mm. broad, 

 yellow, 1-3 on elongated, axillary peduncles which are short-bracteate 

 at summit; petals obovate, twice as long as the calyx, usually 

 emarginate; capsules oblong, 1-1.5 cm. long. 



Common in the chaparral belt of southern California. This has 

 been erroneously referred to the New Mexican X. wrightii (Gray) 

 Small. 



2. X. comiculata (L.) Small. Annual, c£espitose, prostrate and 

 rooting at the nodes, somewhat rough-villous; leaflets 6-10 mm. 

 long, mostly broader; stipules evident, rounded or truncate at sum- 

 mit, adnate; flowers 6 mm. long, solitary or umbelled, otherwise as 

 in the last. {Oxalis comiculata L.) 



Occasional about lawns and greenhouses. 



Family 52. LINACEAE. Flax Family. 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate or opposite leaves and 

 perfect regular flowers. Stipules mostly small or none. 

 Sepals 5, rarely 4, imbricated, persistent. Petals of the 

 same number and alternate with them; filaments mona- 

 delphous at the base; anthers versatile, 2-celled. Ovary 

 15 



