I^irca. TIIViMELEACE.E. p-, 



1. UMBELLULARIA, Nutt. MorxrAix I.xvv.v.l. Simcf.-Trkk. 

 Flowers perfect, in pedunculate umbels which are inchuled before expansion in 

 involucres consisting of 4 broad caducous bracts : calyx deciduous, G-pnrted : stamens 

 9, inserted ou the throat in 3 rows, the 3 inner with a fleshy 2-lobed stipitate gland 

 on each side of the base, alternating with 3 ligulate staminodia; anthers 4-celled, 

 4-valved, the outer introrse, the inner extrorse : stigma dilated, somewhat lobed: 

 drupe subglobose, subtended by the thickened base of the calyx. — Arborescent, 

 with nlternato pctioled thick and evergreen loaves, very odorifeVous : inllorescence 

 terminal or axillary. A single species. — Jicnth. & Hook. Con. I'l. iii. 1G2. 

 , 1. U. Californica, Xutt. A handsome shrub or tree, 10 to 70 feet hi^h or 

 more, the young branches, petioles, and inllorescence somewhat iiuberulent : feaves 

 green and shining, lanceolate-oblong, acute at each end or sometimes rounded at 

 base, 2 to 4 inches long, short-pctioled : peduncles in an apparently terminal panicle 

 or solitary m the upper axils, G to 12 lines long, G - 10-flowered ; involucral bracts 

 ovate, imbricated ; i)edicels 1 to 5 lines long, usually bracteate at base : sepals yel- 

 lowish green, 11 to 2h lines long, oblong to ovate; stamens included: drupes on 

 short stout axillary or terminal ])eduncles, solitary or 2 or 3 together, ovate-elliptical 

 or globose, nearly an inch long, becoming dark puri)le with thin pulp and stone — 

 bylva, 1. 8<. /yiurus regin, Dougl. Comp. JJot. Mag. ii. 127. Tetranthera Call- 

 fornica. Hook, k Arn. 15ot. Beechoy, 1,59. Meissner, DC. Prodr. xv'. 193 • :New- 

 berry, Pacif. R. Pep. vi. 24, fig. 3. Oreodaphne CaUfornica, Neos, Svst. Lau'r. 463; 

 Hook. Bot. iMag. t. 0320. DnmophyUuvi paucijluriim, Xutt. Sylva, l 85, t. 22. 



From Donglas County, Oregon {Douqlas), to San Diego, flowering in jMarcli and April the 

 fnnt npenmg in July and i-crsistent until tl.e next year. In the mote southern localities an'd in 

 the biena Nevada it rarely exceeds 10 or 20 feet in height, but noithwanl it becomes a large tree 

 4 to 6 feet m diameter and 100 feet high or more, the timber very handsome and valuable much 

 used lor ornamental wainscoting and furnishing. The foliage is exceedingly acrid, exhaling when 

 bruised a very pungent aromatic eflluvium which excites sneezing. The tree is known hv various 

 names, as California Olive, California I,aurel, Cajejmt, etc. The inflorescence is at firs't appar- 

 ently ternnnal but usually becomes axillary by the prolongation of the branch. Few of the flow- 

 ers set fruit, rarely more tiian one or two in a cluster. 



Order LXXXII. THYMELEACE^. 



Shrubs or small trees, distinguished by a very tough fibrous inner bark, perfect 

 flowers, a gamosepalous petaloid perianth bearing on its tube usually twice as many 

 stamens as there are lobes, introrse anthers dehiscing longitudinally, and a pistil of a 

 single cari)ol, the ovary usually containing a single anatropous ovule suspended from 

 the summit of the cell. Fruit usually a berry : embryo filling the seed, with plano- 

 convex cotyledons. — Flowers axillary or terminal, often fascicled. 



An order of nearly 40 genera and over .300 species, largely of the warm extra-tropical regions of 

 Africa and Australia, remarkable for the toughness of the bark and burning acridity of the juice 

 Various species have furnished material for cordage and paper, and others have been employed for 

 medicinal purposes or for .lyeing ; some, as Daphne Mczcrcum, arc cultivated for ornament. The 

 lollowing IS the only Aorth American genus. 



1. DIRCA, Linn. Leatheuwood. 

 Flowers perfect: perianth light-yellow, glabrous, tubular-funnelform, the limb 

 obliquely truncate, 4-lobed or repanrlly toothe.l. Stamens 8, attached near the 



