THE HAND-TREE FAMILY 



CHEIRANTHODENDRACE^ A. Gray 



HIS small family was proposed by Dr. Asa Gray, to include two closely 

 related monotypic genera of otherwise uncertain affinities, our Fre- 

 montia, and Cheiranthodendron platanoides Baillon, the Mexican hand 

 tree, so named on account of the hand-Hke arrangement of its conspic- 

 uous long red anthers. They are both American, the former native of California, 

 the latter of Mexico. 



The Hand-tree family have alternate leaves, which are more or less palmately 

 lobed, rather thick, generally covered with stellate hairs, and provided with small, 

 early-faUing stipules. The showy axillary flowers are subtended by 3 bracts. 

 The calyx is deeply 5-parted and petal-Hke. There is no corolla. The stamens 

 are more or less united at the base, their upper portions being alternate with 

 the lobes of the calyx and terminated by long adnate 2-celled extrorse anthers. The 

 ovary is 5-celled, each cell containing many horizontal anatropous ovules; the 

 filiform style is terminated by a small stigma. The fruit is a 5-celled dehiscent 

 capsule. The seeds are oval, smooth and crustaceous, with fleshy endosperm, the 

 embr}'o small and erect, the cotyledons flat and leaf-Hke. 



FREMONTIA 



GENUS FREMONTODENDRON COVILLE 

 Species Fremontodendron californicum (Torrey) Coville 

 Fremontia calijornica Torrey 



REMONTIA is found only in California, reaching its greatest develop- 

 ment on the foothills of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, where 

 its maximum height is about 9 meters, with a trunk diameter of 3 to 

 3.5 cm. Its trunk is short; the branches are stout, stiff, and widely 

 spreading. It is nowhere common and is usually a much branched shrub rather 

 than a tree. 



The bark is furrowed, 6 mm. thick, of a dark reddish brown color, and scaly. 

 The round, stout twigs are covered by rough brown hairs. The leaves are 3- to 

 5-lobed, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. wide, the stout petiole 0.5 to 1.5 cm. 

 long; they are thick, light green above, prominently ner\'cd and rough beneath. 

 The flowers are short- stalked, with an involucre of 3 or rarely 5 early-falling bracts; 

 the hairy calyx is deeply 5-cleft, the obovate spreading lobes, 2.5 cm. long, are 



69s 



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