244 ELAEAGNACEAE. 



Family 66. CACTACEAE. Cactus Family. 



Fleshy and thickened plants; stems flattened, terete, ridged 

 or tubercled, continuous or jointed, leafless or with small leaves, 

 generally spiny; spines from cushions of minute bristles; flowers 

 solitary, sessile, perfect, regular, showy; sepals and petals 

 numerous, in several rows, the bases adherent to the ovary; 

 stamens numerous, on the calyx-tube; style 1; ovary 1-celled, 

 with several parietal placentae; ovules numerous; fruit a 1-celled 

 berry; endosperm scanty or copious. 



322. OPUNTIA. Prickly Pear. 



Jointed, much-branched plants; leaves small, terete, subulate, 

 early deciduous from the young branches; flowers usually lateral, 

 large; calyx- tube not prolonged beyond the ovary; sepals numer- 

 ous, spreading; petals numerous, slightly united; stamens very 

 numerous, in several rows; fruit a berry, often prickly. 



Opuntia polyacantha borealis Coult. Prostrate, frequently in large tufts; 

 joints of the stem flattened, orbicular or oblong, 5-12 cm. long, pale-green; 

 leaves minute, 3-4 mm. long; cushions pale, bristly; spines 4-8, whitish, usually 

 red-tipped, 5-20 mm. long, mostly deflexed; flowers yellow, 4-5 cm. broad; 

 fruit ovoid, dry, 2.5 cm. long, with a shallow saucer-like apex; seeds 4 mm. 

 long, acutely margined. 



In rocky places on the islands in the northern part of Puget Sound, known 

 definitely from Whidby and Sucia Islands. This is the only cactus known from 

 west of the Cascade Mountains. While Coulter has referred it to the above 

 subspecies, it is probably distinct. 



Family 67. ELAEAGNACEAE. Oleaster Family. 



Shrubs or small trees with silvery-scaly leaves; flowers perfect 

 or dioecious, clustered in the leaf-axils or at the nodes of the 

 one year old twigs ; calyx of staminate flowers 4-parted (in ours) ; 

 calyx of pistillate or perfect flowers 4-lobed or 4-cleft (in ours) ; 

 corolla none; stamens 4 or 8, in perfect flowers on the throat of 

 the perianth; ovary 1-celled, sessile; ovule 1; fruit drupe-like, 

 formed from the pulpy calyx, inclosing the akene. 



323. LEPARGYREA. 



Silvery shrubs; leaves opposite, entire, deciduous; flowers 

 small, nearly sessile in the leaf axils, clustered or the fertile 

 solitary, dioecious; the staminate with a 4-parted calyx and 

 8 stamens, alternating with 8 processes of the thick disk; the 

 pistillate with an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx inclosing the ovary 

 and becoming berry-like in fruit. 



