THE ROSE FAMILY 



ROSACEA B. Jussieu 



IBOUT 70 genera compose the family Rosaceae, containing some 1200 

 species of herbs, shrubs, or trees, and a few vines; they are of greatly 

 diversified habit and are widely distributed throughout the world. 

 The leaves are mostly alternate, rarely opposite, simple or com- 

 pound, usually stipulate, sometimes conspicuously so. The flowers are regular, 

 usually perfect, rarely dicEcious, variously disposed ; the calyx free from or joined 

 to the ovary, 4- to 9-lobed, usually 5-lobed, often bracteolate; petals of the same 

 number as the lobes of the calyx or sometimes none; stamens few to many, their 

 filaments distinct, the anthers 2-celled; pistils sohtary or many, distinct, or ad- 

 herent to the calyx; ovary i-celled; styles terminal, lateral, or basal; ovules i to 

 many in each cell and inverted. The fruit varies greatly, mostly folhcular, some- 

 times drupaceous or nut-hke, often raised upon or imbedded in an enlarged 

 receptacle; endosperm of the seed usually wanting. 



This family furnishes many of the most popular ornamental cultivated plants; 

 also some of our most dehcious fruits, such as the Strawberry, Raspberry, and 

 Blackbern'. 



Two arborescent genera, with 6 species, occur in the western portion of our area : 



Fruit a 5-celled, ovoid capsule; flowers many, in terminal panicles. i. Vauquelinia. 



Fruit a plumed nutlet; flowers in few-flowered clusters, usually axillary. 2. Cercocarpus. 



I. VAUQUELINIA 



GENUS VAUQUELINIA CORREA 



Species Vauquelinia calif ornica (Torrey) Sargent 



SpircBa calijornica Torrey 



BEAUTIFUL httle tree, confined to a Hmited area in southern Arizona 

 and adjacent Sonora and Lower Cahfomia, where it is usually a shrub, 

 but in the Santa Catahna Mountains of Arizona, at an elevation of 

 about 1500 meters, it becomes a tree, attaining a maximum height of 

 6 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 dm. 



The branches are upright, stiff and crooked ; the bark is about 2 mm. thick, 

 reddish brown, and broken into small angular scales; the twigs are at first thickly 

 clothed with pale hairs, brown, becoming brown-gray and marked by raised leaf 



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