Menodora. OLEACE^E. 471 



ORDER LIX. OLEACE-SJ. 



Trees or shrubs, rarely herbaceous or nearly so; with mostly opposite leaves, with- 

 out stipules ; the flowers hypogynous and diandrous, rarely triandrous, Avhile the 

 parts of the regular calyx and corolla are four or more, but one or both of these 

 are sometimes wanting, or the petals distinct, or rarely reduced to two. Anthers 

 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 2-celled ; the cells alternate with the stamens, 

 mostly only a pair of ovules in each : style one or none : stigma usually 2-lobed. 

 Fruit various. Embryo straight and large, mostly in albumen. 



A family of about 20 genera and nearly 300 species, of wide distribution, sparingly represented 

 in North America, especially so in California, being represented only by a couple of Ashes, and 

 by Menodora (of the Jessamine-tribe) on the southeastern border. 



OLEA EUROP.EA, Linn., the Olive-tree, the type of the order, with complete flowers and the 

 lobes of the corolla valvate in the bud, was early introduced from Europe, by the Missionaries, 

 and its fruit is still an important product of the southern part of the State, for olives and oil. 



HESPEREL.EA PALMERI, Gray in Proc. Am. Acad. ined., is a tree, of a new genus, with distinct 

 spatulate petals and evidently drupaceous fruit, recently discovered by Dr. E. Palmer on Guada- 

 lupe Island, Lower California. 



Menodora. Flowers perfect. Corolla campanulate or funnelform. Capsule 2-parted, mem- 

 branaceous. Almost herbaceous : leaves often alternate. 



Fraxinus. Flowers polygamous or dioecious. Petals 2 to 4 or none. Fruit a one-seeded 

 samara. Trees : leaves opposite, pinnate. 



1. MENODORA, Humb. & Bonpl. 



Calyx with a short and turbinate tube, and 5 to 14 narrow lobes from its trun- 

 cate border. Corolla campanulate, funnelform or almost rotate, mostly 5-lobed ; 

 the lobes imbricated in the bud. Stamens 2, sometimes 3, on the tube of the 

 corolla : anthers oblong or linear. Style slender : stigma obtuse or somewhat 

 2-lobed. Capsule didymous, mostly 2-parted, membranaceous at maturity, circum- 

 scissile, the upper part of each lobe falling as a lid, leaving the scarious membrana- 

 ceous base. Seeds 2 (or rarely fewer) in each cell, ascending, large, and with a 

 fleshy or when dry a spongy outer coat, destitute of albumen. Low and under- 

 shrubby or nearly herbaceous plants ; with sessile leaves, not rarely alternate, and 

 terminal mostly somewhat cymose flowers, which are rather showy. Gray in Am. 

 Jour. Sci. ser. 2, xiv. 41. Bolivaria, Cham. & Schlecht. 



A genus allied to Jasminum, of a dozen or more species, most of them on the U. S. and Mexi- 

 can frontiers, one in extra-tropical South America, one in South Africa. Two species reach our 

 borders. 



1. M. spinescens, Gray. Shrubby, two to four feet high, with rigid and 

 divaricate spinescent branches, obscurely puberulent : leaves reduced to minute and 

 mostly alternate scales, or small, spatulate-linear, and fascicled on the short flowering 

 branchlets : flowers short-peduncled or nearly sessile in the fascicles of leaves : lobes 

 of the deeply parted calyx 5 or rarely 6, a little shorter than the fnnnelform light 

 yellow corolla : filaments shorter than the anthers : divisions of the capsule almost 

 distinct, divaricate, obovoid. Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 388. 



Providence Mountains, in the southeastern part of the State, Dr. Cooper. Also S. E. Nevada, 

 Dr. Anderson. Apparently for the most part leafless ; the leaves in the flowering branchlets a 

 line or two long. Corolla 3 lines long, its lobes a line long. Carpels 3 lines long, very tardily 

 cireumscissile. 



2. M. scoparia, Engelm. Mss. Shrubby at base, 2 or 3 feet high, paniculately 

 branched, glabrous and smooth or nearly so : leaves of the herbaceous flowering 

 shoots very commonly alternate, linear or lanceolate, entire ; the uppermost reduced 



