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 scaly bracts; perianth none. Staminate flower 

 with 4 to 16 stamens, the bractlets usually 2; pistillate flower surrounded at 

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

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



1. MYRICA L. WAX MYRTLE. 



The only genus. Mostly tropical, about 30 species. (Greek murike. the 

 ancient name of the Tamarisk.) 



Evergreen monoecious shrub; stamens 7 to 16, longer than the bracts; fruit waxy, berry-like. 



1. M . calif ornica. 



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



nutlet 2. M. hartwegi. 



1. M. californica Cham. WAX MYRTLE. Thickly branched evergreen shrub 

 or small tree, 8 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- 

 recious; 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 

 bractlets at the base minute. 



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

 Monica northward along the entire California coast and beyond our borders 

 to Washington. 



Eefs. MYRICA CALIFORNICA Chamisso in Linnaa, vol. 6, p. 535 (1831), type loc. San Fran- 

 cisco, Adelbert 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 3% inches long, 14 to 1 inch wide ; staminate catkins 

 5 to 8 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 bractlets 

 which surpass it. 



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

 Grove; Eosasco's, Tuolumne Co.; northern Sierra Nevada, Theo. Hartweg, 

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



Refs. MYRICA HARTWEGI 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 clusters disposed in catkin-like axillary spikes or loose 

 axillary 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 calyx 2 to 4-toothed or -cleft, or of nearly distinct segments. Ovary 



