366 MYRICACEAE 



MYRICACEAE. Sweet-gale Family. 

 Shrubs or small trees. Leaves fragrant, alternate, simple, resinous-dotted. 

 without stipules. Flowers in oblong or cylindrical catkins, unisexual, solitary 

 and sessile in the axils of sealj' bracts; perianth none. Staminate floAver 

 with 4 to 16 stamens, the braetlets usually 2; pistillate flower surroimded at 

 base by 2 to 4 small scales or braetlets: ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled; stigmas 2. 

 filiform, sessile. Fruit a nutlet. Seed without endosperm. 



1. MYRICA L. Wax Myrtle. 

 The only genus. — ^lostly tropical, about 30 species. (Greek murike. the 

 ancient name of the Tamarisk.) 



Evergreen monceeious shrub; stamens 7 to Ifi, longer than the bracts; fruit waxy, berry-like. 



1. M. californica. 



Deciduous ilioecious shrub; stamens 3 or 4, shorter than bracts; fruit a minute glabrous 



nutlet -■ If- hartwegi. 



1. M. californica Cham. Wax IMyrtle. Thickly branched evergreen shrub 

 or small tree, S to 25 feet high ; leaves thick, dark green, glossy, oblong, or 

 oblanceolate-oblong, tapering above to an acute apex, narrowed below to a 

 petiole, 2% to 5 inches long, remotely serrate or almost entire; flowers mon- 

 ceeious; pistillate catkins in the axils of the upper leaves, 3 to 5 lines long; 

 .staminate catkins below, sometimes as much as 1 inch long; androgynous 

 catkins often occur between, with the staminate flowers at base; staminate 

 flower consisting of 7 to 16 .stamens, united by their filaments into a cluster 

 longer than the bract ; ovary ovate, stigmas bright-red, exserted ; fruit globose, 

 brownish purple, covered with a coat of whitish wax, 2 lines in diameter,, the 

 braetlets at the base minute. 



Sand-dunes, moist hillsides, or rocky declivities near the ocean, from Santa 

 jMonica northward along the entire California coast and beyond our borders 

 to "Washington. 



Refs. — Mykic.\ c.\uroRNiCA Chamisso in Linna;-a. vol. 6. p. '>Z5 (1831), type loc. San Fran- 

 cisco, Athlbcrt von Chamisso; Jepson, Fl. "W. Mid. Cal. p. 146 (1901). 



2. M. hartwegi Wats. Sierra Bay. Deciduous shrub 4 to 6 feet high ; 

 leaves thin, oblong and tapering at base to a short petiole, acute at apex, serrate 

 above the middle, 1% to 31/0 inches long, i/'i; to 1 inch wide ; staminate catkins 

 5 to S lines long; stamens 3 or 4. shorter than the bracts, their filaments united 

 at base ; pistillate catkins 2 lines or at length 3 to 6 lines long ; nutlet less 

 than 1 line long, smooth, glabrous, laterally subtended by 2 persistent braetlets 

 which surpass it. 



Sierra Nevada, about 5,000 feet : Big Creek near Mariposa Big Tree 

 Grove; Rosasco's, Tuolumne Co.; northern Sierra Nevada, Theo. Ilartweg. 

 no. 1958, type (probabl.y on Yuba River, not on the Sacramento River). 



Refs. — JIYEICA H.iRTWEtii Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. vol. 10, p. 350 (1875), in Bot. Cal. 

 vol. 2, p. 81 (1880). 



URTICACEAE. Nettle Family. 

 Herbs with simple leaves. Flowers small (ours less than 1 line long), greenish, 

 unisexual, clustered, the elu.sters disposed in catkin-like axillarj' spikes or loose 

 axillai-y heads. Petals none. Staminate calyx with 4 distinct or nearly distinct 

 sepals and as many opposite stamens, the filaments coiled or bent inward in the 

 bud so that when released, they fly upwards like a spring, scattering the pollen. 

 Pistillate calvx 2 to 4-toothed or -cleft, or of nearlv distinct seu'inents. Ovary 



