Ceanothus. RHAMNACE^. 409 



9. CEAN6THUS, L. New Jersey Tea, California Lilac. (Kca- 

 vwOo's, a name applied by Theophrastus to some prickly plant, and transferred to 

 this genus by Linnsus.) — Shrubs or rarely small trees with often divaricate 

 sometimes spiny twigs, alternate or opposite frequently serrate 3-nerved or pin- 

 nately veined usually ample leaves with minute or spongy-thickened stipules, and 

 small but showy white, blue, or purplish flowers in often long-peduncled dense 

 axillary or terminal clusters. — Act. Soc. Upsal. 1741, 77, & Gen. ed. 6, no, 2G7 ; 

 Brougn. Mem. Rhamn. 62, & Ann. Sci. Nat. x. 369; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 181 ; 

 Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 378 ; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. x. 333 ; Baill. Hist. PI. 

 vi. 80 ; Trelease, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 106, & Trans. St. Louis Acad. 

 V. 361 ; Parry, Proc. Davenp. Acad. v. 162, 185 ; K. Brandegee, Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. Sci. ser. 2, iv. 174 ; Weberbauer in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. 

 Ab. 5, 412. — Chiefly of the Western United States, a few in Mexico and the 

 Atlantic States, 



* Leaves alternate, not pungent, entire or mostly glandular-toothed ; stipules thin and 

 mostly fugacious : fruit sometimes keeled or crested on the back of the carpels, but with- 

 out dorsal horns. — Euceanothus. 

 H— 1. Leaves ample in all but the last, thin, 3-nerved, toothed, deciduous : twigs subterete, 

 neither rigidly divaricate nor spinose : inflorescence rather simjde and mostly compact, 

 at the ends of leafless or nearly leafless peduncles : flowe'rs white : fruit about 2 lines in 

 diameter. 



++ Peduncles often rather stout, usually from lateral buds of the old wood. 

 C. sanguineus, Pursh. Tall shrub, with purple or reddish glabrous tAvigs : leaves broadly 

 elliptical, varying to ovate obovate or orbicular, rounded or cordulate at base, very obtuse, 

 paler beneath, soon glabrous or with a few long hairs on the veins beneath, serrate, 1 to 3 

 inches long, their frequently somewhat villous petioles about a third as long : peduncles 

 4 or 5 inches long, pale, fugaciously villous, floriferous on the upper half or occasionally 

 bearing scattered corymbs from. the base up: capsules obovoid, somewhat lobed at top, 

 nearly smooth and crestless. — Fl. i. 167; Nutt. Gen. i. 153; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 265, in 

 part; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 125; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. x. 334; Trelease, Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 107, 114; Parry, Proc. Davenp. Acad. v. 168; K. Brandegee, Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. Sci. ser. 2, iv. 180. C. Orei/anus, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 265 ; Hook. Bot. Mag. 

 t. 5177. — Brit. Columbia to N. California, Yreka, Greene, and Idaho. 



++ -H- Peduncles slender, from leafy shoots of the present sea.son. 

 C. OVatus, Desf. Low shrub, with at length brownish or purplish tomentose or puberulent 

 glabrescent twigs : leaves ratiier narrowly elliptical, rounded or mostly acute at base, obtuse 

 to acute, scarcely paler lieneath, Itecoming glabrous and glossy, crenate-serrulate, 1 to 2 

 inches long ; their petioles mostly 2 or 3 lines long : flowers in a single often short-pedun- 

 cled corymb terminating the branch, or a few additional similar or longer-peduncled clus- 

 ters from the upper leaf-axils : capsules nearly globose, somewhat lobed at top, smooth and 

 crestless. — Hist. Arbr. & Arbris. ii. 381 ; Wats. 1. c. ; Trelease, 1. c. 108; Parry, 1. c. ; K. 

 Brandegee,!. c. 179, 180. C. ova/is, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 92; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 265, 

 686 ; Torr. Fl. N. Y. i. 145, t. 20. C. glandalosus, Raf. New Fl. Am. iii. 57. — New England 

 to Manitoba, Colorado, Texas, and Alabama. In the Southwest the larger leaves are not 

 infrequently ovate, but deep green on both surfaces and of the texture usual in C. ovatus. 



Var. pubescens, Torr. & Gray. Persistently dingy villous-tomentose : the dull leaves 

 usually very broadly elliptical : inflorescence of two or three corymbs near the top of the 

 often more elongated peduncle. — Torr. & Gray, ace. to Wats. Bibl. Index, 166; Trelease, 

 I.e. 108. C. 7tio/lissimits, Tovr. in Frc'mont, Rep. 88. — Western ^jmits of the species. Ap- 

 proaching the next. 

 C. Americanus, L. (New Jersey Tea.) Low shrub with green or at length dull pur- 

 plish tomentose, puberulent or glabrous twigs : leaves ovate, rounded at base, or rounded to 



