212 EUPHORBIACEAE. 



1. CROTON L. Croton. 



Stellate-pubescent, more or less glandular and strong- 

 scented herbs or shrubs, with mostly alternate, entire, 

 toothed or lobed leaves, and monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers in terminal or axillary clusters. Staminate 

 flowers uppermost; calyx usually 5-parted; petals usu- 

 ally present, small or rudimentary, alternating with the 

 glands; stamens 5 or more, inflexed. Pistillate flowers 

 clustered below the staminate; calyx 5-10-parted; petals 

 usually wanting; ovary 3-celled; ovules 1 in each cell; 

 styles once, twice or many times 2-cleft. Capsule 

 splitting into usually 2-valved carpels; seeds smooth or 

 minutely pitted. 



1. C. calif ornicus Muell. Arg. SuflFrutescent, procumbent or 

 ascending, 4-12 dm. high, dichotomously branched; the branches 

 slender, cinereous throughout with a dense appressed scurf; petioles 

 slender, 2-3.5 cm. long; stipules obsolete; leaves generally oblong, 

 2.5-5 cm. long, 8-18 mm. wide, entire, 3-5-nerved; dioecious; 

 staminate plants more slender and short-branched; racemes simple; 

 flowers about 3 mm. broad, on pedicels 4-6 mm. long; sepals 5, 

 ovate; stamens 12-15; filaments ciliate; pistillate raceme mostly 

 2-3-flowered; styles 3, palmately 3-5-cleft or twice 2-cleft. Cap- 

 sule usually 5-6 mm. high; seeds oval or globose, 4.5-5 mm. long, 

 black. 



Common in dry ground throughout our range. 



2. C. californicus tenuis (Wats.) Ferguson. Stems erect, 3-7 

 dm. high, with very slender branches, densely scaly-stellate; leaves 

 narrowly oblong to lanceolate, 2-4.5 cm. long, 0.5-1 cm. wide, 

 entire; petioles 5-10 mm. long, less than half the length of the leaves; 

 staminate flowers about 2 mm. broad; stamens 10-12; seeds 3-4 

 mm. long. 



Same range as the type, and perhaps best considered only a form 

 of it. 



2. PISCARIA Piper. 



Stellate-pubescent glandular and heavy-scented an- 

 nual herbs, with alternate entire 3-nerved petiolate 

 exstipulate leaves, and monoecious apetalous flowers in 

 axillary cymes. Calyx 5-6-parted, slightly imbricate in 

 the staminate flowers, wanting in the pistillate. Sta- 

 mens 6-7, central on the hairy receptacle; filaments 

 exserted. Ovary with 4-5 small glands at the base, 

 1-celled, 1-ovuled; style simple, filiform, stigmatic at the 

 apex. Capsule obovate-oblong, 2-valved. Seed smooth 

 and shining; endosperm fleshy. 



