208 LEATHERWOOD FAMILY 



regular and mostly perfect, calyx tubular, colored and corolla-like, petals 

 none (in our genera), stamens usually twice as many as the calyx-lobes 

 or fewer, inserted on the calyx-tube and longer than its lobes, ovary 1- 

 celled, ovule 1, style short or elongated; fruit a berry-like drupe. 

 The family is represented by only one genus within the state. 



Dirca Linne 1753 Leatherwood Moosewood 

 (Dirca, perhaps from the name of a region in Thebes) 



Branching shrubs with tough, fibrous bark, branchlets jointed; leaves 

 alternate, thin, short-petioled ; flowers 2-4 in a cluster, appearing before 

 the leaves, subtended by an involucre of hairy bud scales, calyx corolla- 

 like, tubular-funnel-shaped, obscurely 4-lobed, petals lacking, stamens in- 

 serted on the calyx-tube about the middle, twice as many as the lobes, the 

 alternate ones longer, filaments very slender, disk lacking, ovary nearly 

 sessile, 1 -celled, style filiform, long-exserted ; fruit a red, oval-oblong 

 drupe. 



A genus of 2 species, one in the southeastern United States, the other 

 in California. 



Dirca palustris Linne 1753 Leatherwood 



A branching shrub, 0.5-2 m. high, bark on stem brownish, the twigs 

 yellowish-green, jointed, wood white and brittle, inner bark unusually 

 tough, bud scales hairy, becoming very large when flowers and leaves un- 

 fold ; leaves alternate, oval or oblong, rounded at the base, blunt at the 

 apex, entire, glabrous in age, pubescent when young, 3-8 cm. long, 1.5-5 



