Ephedra.] cxxviii. ONETACEiE (Pearson). 829 



opposite, sometimes whorled, free or connate bracts. Envelope of 

 2 median scales connate below. Anthers 8 or less, sessile or sub- 

 sessile on the summit of a central column, 2- (rarely 3-) celled. 

 Female florets in much reduced spikes with 2-4 or more pairs (or 

 3-nate whorls) of crowded bracts, solitary in the axils of the uppermost 



2 (or 3) bracts, more rarely only one and terminal. Utricle ovoid 

 to oblong, rarely subulate, usually plano-convex in cross-sect i<»n. 

 Ovule with 1 integument ; micropylar tube (tubilhcs) produced 

 through the mouth of the utricle, straight or spirally coiled, truncate, 

 lobed or toothed at the apex. Seed closely invested by the leathery 

 utricle, in the section Pseudohaccatoe enclosed in the fleshy inner 

 bracts of the spike ; endosperm fleshy ; perisperm scanty ; radicle 

 erect ; cotyledons 2, very narrow. — ^Erect or climbing, usually 

 much branched, virgate shrubs with scale-like or rarely filiform 

 or subulate connate leaves in alternating whorls of 2, rarely 



3 or 4, sometimes reduced to sheaths. Stems slender, longi- 

 tudinally grooved, green when young. Fertile shoots usually much 

 branched in the male, less so in the female. Spikes unisexual, 

 rarely bisexual, axillary, solitary, subsohtary or, in the male, 

 usually aggregated in dense glomerules, near the tips of the 

 branches. 



Species 30 or more, widely distributed in Central and Western Asia, the 

 Mediterranean Region, Atlantic Islands, Southern States of North America, 

 the Andes from Ecuador southwards to Patagonia and the Eastern .Argentine. 

 One sjxjcies only in Tropical Africa. 



1. B. Alte, C. A. Mey. Monogr. Gatt. Ephedra (1846), 75, i. iii. 

 Jig. iv. A shrub, climbing high among trees, or erect, much branched. 

 Branchlets flexuous or rigid, terete or the younger more or le.'^s 4- 

 angled or bilateral, in the male plant usually lJ-2 lin. thick, in the 

 female rarely exceeding Ij lin. with internodes up to 2f in. long or 

 much shorter, more or less crowded in false whorls in the u])per 

 nodes. Bark glaucous or yellowish-green, scabridulous, very faintly 

 striate. Buds terminal or lateral, minute, shortly ovate. Leaves 

 in whorls of 2 or 3, linear-setaceous, acute, J-J lin. broad, lA lin. K>ng, 

 connate at the base. Male spikes subsolitary or 2-4, crowded in 

 glomerules, obovate or oblong, 2J-3 lin. long, with 4-8 pairs (rarely 

 3-nate whorls) of florets ; peduncles very unequal in length ; bracts 

 broadly ovate or rotund, obtuse, connate from one-third to half 

 their length, 1 lin. long. Envelope obovate, exceeding the bract ; 

 column far exserted, often black at the apex ; anthers usually 4, 

 rarely 3 or 5, sessile, closely crowded. Female s})ikes solitary or 

 fascicled, clustered or racemosely arranged, with 3 or 4 pairs of bracts. 

 Florets 2 or, by abortion, 1 ; utricle oblong, 3-angled ; micropylar 

 tube straight. ^lature spike globose, up to 3 lin. long, red, with 

 fleshy bracts. Seeds black, ovate, obtusely 3-angled, 4 lin. long. — 



