Fouquiera. TAMAKISCINE^E. 79 



after one and two years' drying in the herbarium and even a preliminary immersion in boiling 

 water. The specific name was given with reference to this fact. 



2. L. brachycalyx, Engelm. Leaves spatulate or nearly linear : scapes not 

 jointed, 2-bracted at the very base, shorter than the leaves : sepals 4, mostly herba- 

 ceous, 3 lines long : petals 7 to 9, oblong, 2 or 3 times longer than the calyx : 

 stamens 10 to 15 : capsule shorter than the calyx. Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 400. 



In granite sand, eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, Fresno Co., at 8,000 feet altitude (Muir); 

 Arizona (Newberry, Palmer) ; S. Utah, H. Engelmann, Parry. Much resembling the acaulescent 

 Calandrinias in habit. 



ORDER XVII. TAMARISCINE^J. 



A small Old World order of trees and shrubs, mainly represented by the 

 Tamarisks (Tamarix), and distinguished from all related orders with free ovary and 

 separate styles by its comose or long-hairy anatropous seeds. To it has lately been 

 referred, by Bentham & Hooker, Gen. PL i. 161, the following anomalous (chiefly 

 Mexican) genus. 



1. POUQUIEEA, HBK. CANDLEWOOD. 



Sepals 5, free. Petals united into a tube ; the 5 lobes of the limb imbricated, 

 spreading. Stamens 10 to 15, hypogynous, exserted; filaments thickened at base. 

 Ovary imperfectly 3-celled ; placentae about 6-ovuled : styles 3, long, somewhat 

 united. Seeds 3 to 6, oblong, flattened, surrounded by a dense fringe of long white 

 hairs or by a membranous wing. Shrubs or small trees, with soft fragile wood, 

 smooth ; the branches alternately spinose-tubercled, and with single or fascicled 

 thick entire leaves in the axils ; flowers brilliant crimson, in terminal spikes or 

 panicles. 



A Mexican genus of three species, only one of which passes northward into the United States. 

 Its characters are anomalous, and it has been placed by different authorities in the ordei-s 

 Po/emoniacece, Frankeniacece, Portulacacece, and Crassulacece, and taken for a distinct order 

 Fouquieracece. 



1. F. splendens, Engelm. Branching near the base and sending up simple 

 slender stems 10 to 20 (or more) feet high, with ashen-gray bark and large pith, 

 leafy only near the summit, strongly grooved and ridged by the decurrent bases of 

 the spines : leaves spatulate to obovate, ^ to an inch long, the primary attenuate into 

 a rigid petiole (the blade and inner portion of the petiole at length deciduous, leav- 

 ing the dorsal part as a stout divaricate spine an inch long or less, the spine often 

 developing without the blade) ; axillary leaves sessile : flowers on short pedicels in 

 narrow nearly simple racemes (2 to 6 inches long) : sepals orbicular, 2 to 2 lines 

 long : corolla 9 lines long, with a broad tube, and rounded obtuse lobes : capsule ovate- 

 oblong, half an inch long : seeds white-tomentose, 3 lines long, surrounded by a dense 

 white villous fringe. Wisliz. Eep. 14 ; Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 63. F. spinosa, Torr. 

 in Emory Eep. 147, t. 8. 



In the desert region of S. E. California, along the Colorado River (Newberry, Antisell, Blake), 

 and eastward to W. Texas and Northern Mexico : a very ornamental shrub when in flower. 



F. SPINOSA, HBK., of Lower California and Northern Mexico, rises with a trunk 3 to 4 feet 

 high before sending out its straggling crooked branches : flowers in large open panicles, on pedicels 

 an inch long, the tube of the corolla narrower and its lobes acute : capsule 9 lines long, the seeds 

 naked and surrounded by a broad membranous veined wing. The Idria columnariaot Kellogg, 

 Proc. Calif. Acad. ii. 34, also from Lower California, is a very similar species, but is described as 

 without spines, with a shorter corolla, and a short included style : fruit unknown. 



F. FORMOSA, HBK., a Mexican species, and reported from Lower California, has the larger 

 flowers (an inch long) sessile in very short spikes, and the spines very short. 



