128 KEY AND FLORA 



and 1-seeded, either a stone fruit, as the olive ; a pod, as the 

 lilac ; or a winged fruit, as the ash. 



FRAX'INUS, Ash 



Trees or shrubs with compound leaves and dioecious or 

 polygamous flowers. Calyx small, 4-cleft. Petals 2 or none. 

 Stamens 2, with large anthers. Fruit winged from the top. 



a. F. dipet'ala Hook. & Am. Flowering Ash. A small tree 

 or shrub with 5-7 separate leaflets on petioles. Flowers showy, in 

 panicles. Calj-x 4-toothed. Petals 2, white, as long as the anthers. 

 This grows along streams in the Coast Momitains. 



h. F. Orega'na Nutt. Oregon Ash. A large tree with dark- 

 colored bark. Leaflets 5-7, entire, sessile, usually tomentose when 

 young, becoming smooth with age. Flowers without petals. From 

 Fresno County, in the mountains, to Oregon and Washington. 



GENTIANA'CE^. Gentian Family 



Glabrous herbs with entire opposite leaves without stipules. 

 Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, inserted on its 

 tube, and alternating with the lobes. Stigmas 2, sessile or 

 on one style. Ovary 1-celled. Fruit with 2 parietal placentae 

 dehiscent at the partitions. Seeds with abundant endosperm 

 around the minute embryo. 



ERYTHR^'A, Canchalagua 



Low, much-branched herbs, with numerous showy flowers 

 in cymes. Corolla rose-color, salver-form, with lobes con- 

 volute in the bud. Anthers twisting spirally after the pollen 

 is shed. Stigmas at first united, wedge-shaped or fan-shaped, 

 afterwards spreading. 



E. venus'ta Gray. Corolla deep pink, with yellow center ; divi- 

 sions half as long as the tube. This is the handsomest and most 

 widely distributed species. 



(True gentians are rare in California, and are mostly con- 

 fined to the high mountains.) 



