UMBELLULARIA 



Umbellularia, Nuttall, Sylva, i. 87 (1842); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PI. iii. 162 (1880). 

 Oreodaphne, sub-genus Umbellularia, Nees ab Esenbeck, Syst. Laurin. 462 (1836). 

 Drimophyllum, Nuttall, Sylva, i. 85 (1842). 



A genus belonging to the order Lauraceae, the characters of which are given in the 

 following description of the only ' species known. 



UMBELLULARIA CALIFORNICA, Californian Laurel 



Umbellularia californica, Nuttall, Sylva, i. 87 (1842); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 21, t. 306 

 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 334 (1905) : Jepson, Flora W. Mid. Calif. 191 (1901), and Silva 

 Calif. 242, plates 10 and 76 (1910); Chesnut, in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. vii. 349 (1902); 

 Eastwood, Trees of California, 53 (1905); Power and Lees, in Trans. Chem. Soc. London, 

 1904, p. 629. 



Tetranthera (?) californica, Hooker and Arnott, Bot. Voy. Beechey, 159 (1833). 



Oreodaphne californica, Nees ab Esenbeck, Syst. Laurin. 463 (1836); Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 5320 

 (1862). 



Drimophyllum pauciflorum, Nuttall, Sylva, i. 85, t. 22 (1842). 



Laurus regalis, Standish and Noble, Bract. Hints on Planting, 160 (1852). 



An evergreen tree, variable in habit, occasionally attaining 1 20 ft. in height and 

 10 to 15 ft. in girth ; but oftener a smaller tree or large bush, rarely reduced to a 

 prostrate shrub. Young branchlets green, glabrous. Leaves persistent two to six 

 years, coriaceous, very aromatic, alternate, simple, lanceolate or narrowly elliptical, 

 averaging 3 to 4 in. long and 1 to i{ in. broad, cuneate or rounded at the base, 

 tapering to an acute or rounded apex, entire in margin ; main veins pinnate, eight to 

 twelve pairs, curved, looping before they reach the margin, connected by reticulate 

 veinlets ; dark green and shining above, duller and paler beneath, with a minute 

 scattered pubescence when young, ultimately glabrous ; petiole \ to \ in. 



Flowers minute in stalked simple umbels, which are solitary and axillary or 

 crowded near the apex of the branchlet ; each umbel with four to nine flowers on 

 slender pedicels arising in the axils of deciduous bracts ; calyx with six pale yellow 

 obovate lobes ; petals absent ; perfect stamens nine, in three series, the inner three 

 with a stalked orange gland on each side of the base of the filament, and alternating 

 with three scale-like staminodia ; anthers four-celled, four-valved, the three inner 



1 Umbellularia parvifolia, Hemsley, Biol. Centr. Amer. iii. 77 (1882), a native of Mexico, belongs to another genus, 

 and is correctly named Litsea parvifolia, Mez, \njahrb. Kbnigl. Bot. Gart. Berlin, v. 481 (1889). 



1531 





