58 KEY AND FLORA 



PENTAC.ffi'NA, Sand Mat 



Sepals 5, hooded, terminating in a spine. Petals scale-like. 

 Stamens 3-5 at the base of the sepals. Calyx becoming 

 closed over the fruit. 



P. polycnemoi'des Bartl. Perennial herbs, forming mats of densely 

 flowered lax stems. Leaves very small, tipped with sharp awns that 

 become recurved. Stipules papery, shorter than the leaves, but very 

 noticeable. Flowers small, greenish, sessile, clustered in the axils. 

 This grows in sandy soil and is common along the seacoast. 



RANUNCULA'CE-ffi, BUTTERCUP FAMILY 



Herbs (Clematis shrubby) with a colorless, acrid juice, 

 distasteful to animals. Parts of the flower all separate and 

 distinct, inserted on the receptacle. Petals often wanting 

 or peculiar in form. Stamens numerous ; fruit consisting of 

 numerous akenes (buttercup), of several follicles (larkspur), or 

 sometimes of berries. Leaves without stipules, often clasping 

 at base, generally much cut or divided. 



I. CLEM' AXIS, Virgin's Bower 



Climbing over bushes or rocks by the leafstalks of the com- 

 pound, opposite leaves, or sometimes erect and not climbing. 

 Sepals 4, petal-like. Petals none or very small. Pistils numer- 

 ous, forming a round bunch of akenes with styles developing 

 into long feathery tails. 



a. C. ligusticifo'lia Nutt. Flowers dioecious, in panicles. Sepals 

 thick, dull white, less than in. long. Akenes with tails from 1-2 

 in. long. Widely distributed. 



b. C. lasian'tha Nutt. Flowers dioecious, solitary, on stout peduncles 

 with one or two bracts. Sepals thick, dull white, sometimes nearly an 

 inch long. Fruit similar to above. In the Coast and Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. 



c. C. Douglas'ii Hook. BUSHY CLEMATIS. Stems erect, a foot or 

 two high, not climbing. Leaves once, twice, or thrice pinnately com- 

 pound, with linear or lanceolate leaflets, axils woolly. Flowers per- 

 fect, usually solitary and terminal, nodding. Sepals leathery, dark 



