WOOTON AND STANDLEY FLOEA OF NEW MEXICO. 609 



Bracta and bractlets very small, in- 

 conspicuous, green, not ac- 

 crescent 5. Xylosteon (p. 611). 



Bracts foliaceous and bractlets ac- 

 crescent, reddish brown 6. DiSTEGIA (p. 612). 



1. SAMBUCTJS L, Elderberry. 



Shrubs or trees •with soft wood, large pith, and opposite, pinnately compound leaves 

 with large leaflets, the small white or ochroleucous flowers in terminal compound 

 cymes; hypanthium turbinate or ovoid; sepals 3 to 5, equal; corolla rotate, with '8 to 

 5 equal, imbricated, rarely valvate, lobes; stamens 5, adnata to the base of the corolla; 

 anthers opening extrorsely by clefts; ovary 3 to 5-celled, becoming a l-seeded drupe- 

 like fruit. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Cymes not flat-topped, thyrsoid -paniculate, the axis continuous. 



Fruit red; cymes, in flower, seldom more than 4 cm. broad.. . 1. S. microbotrys. 



Fruit black; cymes larger, 6 cm. wide or more 2. S. melanocarpa. 



Cymes flat-topped, with several compound rays, the axis not con- 

 tinuous. 

 Leaflets less than 6 cm. long, ovate to oblong, abruptly short- 

 acuminate; a good-sized tree 3. S. mexicana. 



Leaflets larger, 8 to 15 cm. long, lanceolate, long-attenuate; 

 small trees or shrubs. 

 Branches and leaflets pubescent; flowers less than 4 mm. 

 broad; shrub with several nearly simple shoots 



from the root 4. S. vestita. 



Branches and leaves glabrous; flowers 5 or 6 mm, broad; 



small tree with well-defined trunk 5. S. neomexicana. 



1. Sambucus microbotrys Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 28: 503. 1901. 



Type locality: Bottomless Pit and below Halfway House, Pikes Peak, Colorado. 

 Range: Wyoming to Arizona and New Mexico. 



New Mexico: Tunitcha Mountains; Chama; Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains; 

 Eagle Peak; WTiite Mountains. Mountains, Transition to Hudsonian Zone. 



2. Sambucus melanocarpa A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 19: 7G. 1883. 



Type locality: "New Mexico." Type collected by Fendler, probably east of 

 Santa Fe. 



Range: Oregon and Alberta to Colorado and New Mexico. 



New Mexico: Pecos Baldy; Santa Fe Creek. Mountains, in the Transition and 

 Canadian zones. 



3. Sambucus mexicana Presl in DC. Prodr. 4: 322. 1830. 

 Sambucus canadensis mexicana Sarg. Silv. N. Amer. 6: 88. 1893. 

 Type i-ocality: Mexico. 



Range: New Mexico to California and southward. 



New Mexico: Burro Mountains; Silver City; Mesilla Valley. River valleys, in 

 the Lower Sonoran Zone. 



This is often cultivated as a shade tree in southern New Mexico and where it 

 receives plenty of water sometimes reaches a large size. The leaves remain green 

 all winter and young ones are continually unfolding, while the flowers open almost 

 any month of the year. 

 52576°— 15 39 



