52 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NO. 15 



The frvut of armata is nearly ^ inch wide, rather tan colored and with 

 granular pulp, about 1-2 mm. thick, and seed somewhat oblately flat- 

 tened, the pulp being like that of the cocoanut but homy, with the em- 



bryo on tlie 



milk. It is evident that oil 



could be extracted from the fruit. The amount of pubescence 



armata 



variable and uncertain. Perhaps the flowers of 

 scribed as being perfect, as they always seem to be, but many plant 

 do not p oduce seed. We have one tree at Claremont that is always 

 sterile though flowering abundantly, near it is a tree that fruits cop- 

 iously, but there is no difference in the appearance of the flowers ex- 

 cept that the filaments of the sterile one are barely united. This fol- 

 lows tlie observed habit of Washingtonia Sonorae where there seem to 



be ten times as many staminate trees as fertile ones. 



known 



of the publication of the Botany of California by Watson. There seems 

 to be_ a very great difference in the character of the flowers between 

 Washingtonia and Er>'thea if the floral characters of E. Brandegei and 

 aculeata are as in the other species. Standley in his Shrubs and Trees 

 of Mexico doc? not seem to know anything about the two genera, attempt- 

 ing to separate the genera on the entire or split sheaths, a visionary 

 character. While the floral rVmrnrtPrc V>o Vr,r^wQ r,«fT,;„„ 



about 



armata 



The 



anthers 



oval and very short, tipping the greatly dilated filaments which are 



united below. The anthers 



Eryth 



The seeds of Erythea are much flattened on the embryonic side 

 and y2 to 1 mch wide and half as high and full of homy and oily 

 pulp resembling the meat of the cocoanut but denser. The embryo is 

 oblately spherical. These characters are taken from V ^^„i;= 



mata. 



and 



J. ae nowers are greenish-white and very small, not over 2-3 mm. 

 long. The plants fruit copiously in cultivation. The pulp of E. edulis 

 IS 2-3 mm. thick on tlie outside of the bony shell and black and juicy 

 but ra her solid. The fruit of E. armata is nearly ^ inch wide, red- 

 dish-yellow when mature, about half the size of E. edulis, with the out- 

 side pulp 2 mm. thick and granular and not juicy. The other seed 

 characters the same m eduhs _ except the size. The homy shell of the 

 seeds IS very_ hard. The fmits seem at first sight to be globose, but 

 closer inspection reveals them much flattened on one side and irre^lar. 



