SAXIFRAGACE. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 133 
LYONOTHAMNUS. 
FLowers perfect ; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in estivation, persistent ; 
petals 5, imbricated in estivation; stamens 15; ovaries 2, 1-celled; ovules 4 in each 
cell, suspended. Fruit follicular. Leaves opposite, simple or pinnately divided, per- 
sistent. 
Lyonothamnus, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. ser. 2, xii. 291. 
A tree or shrub, with scaly bark exfoliating in long strips, stout terete pubescent ultimately 
glabrous branchlets, and scaly buds. Leaves opposite, long-petiolate, lanceolate, acuminate, rounded 
or wedge-shaped at the base, entire or finely crenulate-serrate or serrulate-lobulate below the middle, or 
on the same branch irregularly pinnately parted into three to eight linear lanceolate remote lobulate 
segments, coriaceous, transversely many-veined, dark green on the upper surface, paler and more or 
less coated with pubescence on the lower, persistent; stipules lanceolate, acute, minute, caducous. 
Flowers on slender pedicels in broad ample compound terminal pubescent cymes. Bracts and bractlets 
acute, minute, persistent. Calyx-tube hemispherical, one to three-bracteolate, tomentose on the outer 
surface, the lobes nearly triangular, slightly keeled, apiculate, persistent. Disk lining the calyx-tube, 
lanate, the slightly thickened margin ten-lobed. Petals five, orbicular, sessile, white. Stamens fifteen, 
inserted with the petals on the margin of the disk in pairs opposite the petals and singly opposite the 
sepals ; filaments subulate, incurved, as long as the petals; anthers oblong, attached on the back below 
the middle, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Pistils two, inserted in the bottom of 
the calyx-tube; ovaries ovate, flattened on the inner surface by mutual pressure, glandular-setulose, 
contracted into thick spreading styles; stigmas capitate, truncate; ovules four in each cell, oblong, 
suspended, anatropous; micropyle superior, the raphe ventral. Fruit composed of two woody ovate 
glandular four-seeded follicles, dehiscent on the ventral and partially dehiscent on the dorsal suture. 
Seeds ovate-oblong, pointed at both ends; albumen thin ; testa light brown, thin, and membranaceous ; 
hilum orbicular, apical, the raphe broad and wing-like. Cotyledons oblong-acuminate, twice the length 
of the straight radicle directed towards the hilum. 
The wood of Lyonothamnus is very heavy, hard, and close-grained, with a satiny surface suscep- 
tible of receiving a good polish. It contains numerous thin medullary rays, the layers of annual 
growth being hardly distinguishable, and is bright clear red faintly tinged with orange. The specific 
gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.8029, a cubic foot weighing 50.05 pounds.’ 
Lyonothamnus was named in honor of William 8. Lyon, who discovered it in July, 1884,’ on the 
island of Santa Catalina, California. It is represented by a single species. 
1 Garden and Forest, iii. 344.. in 1871, he was able at length fully to gratify. In 1884 and 1885 
2 William Scrugham Lyon, forester of the California State Board he explored the little known island of Santa Catalina, one of the San 
of Forestry, was born at White Plains, New York, in November, Bernardino group, di ing several undescribed species of plants, 
1852, and educated at the College of the State of New York and at and making useful observations on the character and distribution 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College. The acquaintance of Dr. _ of its peculiar flora. Under the title of A Flora of our Southwestern 
John Torrey, made in boyhood, laid the foundation of Mr. Lyon’s Archipelago, Mr. Lyon published, in 1886, the scientific results of 
taste for the study of plants, which, after his removal to California these journeys in the eleventh volume of the Botanical Gazette. 
