Menodora. OLEACEifl. 471 



Order LIX. OLEACE^. 



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

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

 parts of tlie regular calyx and corolla aie four or more, but one or both of these 

 are sometimes wanting, or the petals distinct, or rarely reduced to two. — Anthei-s 

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

 mostly only a {)air of ovules in each : stylo ono or none : stigma usually 2-lobcd. 

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

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



Olea EiJRor^A, Linn., the OHvc-lrcr,—ih(i type of the order, — with complete flowers and the 

 lobes of the corolla valvato in the l)ud, 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. 



HEsrEnKL.T;A PALMKni, Gray in Proc. Am. Acad, incd., is a tree, of a new genus, with distinct 

 spatulate petals and evidently drupaceous fruit, recoutly discovered by Dr. E. Palmer oil Guada- 

 lupe Island, bower California. 



Menodora. Flowers perfect. Corolla eampnnnlate or funnel form. Capsule 2-partcd, mom- 

 bianaccouH. Almost horbacoous ; leaves often alternato. 



Fraxinua. Flowers polygamoug or direoious. Petals 2 to 4 or none. Fruit a ono-socdcd 

 samara. Irees : leaves opposite, pinnate. 



1. MENODORA, Ilumb. & Bonpb 

 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 5dobed ; 

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

 corolla: anthers oblong or luiear. 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 horbacoous plants ; Avjth sessile loaves, 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 Jlexi- 

 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 spinescont branches, obscurely puberulent : leaves reduced to minute and 

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

 branchlets : flowers short-peduncled or nearly sessile in tlie fascicles of loaves : lobes 

 of the deeply parted calyx 5 or rarely 6, a little shorter than the funnelform li"ht 

 yellow corolla : fllaments 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, T>r. Cooprr. Also S. E. Nevada, 

 I>r. Anderson. Apparently for the most part leafless ; the leaves in the flowering branchlets a 

 Jiiio or two long, (.'orolla 3 linos long, its lobos a lino long. Carpels 3 lines long, very tartlily 

 cirfuniHcissuo. o i c^ j j 



2. M. scoparia, Engclm. ]\Iss. Shrubby at base, 2 or 3 foet high, paniculatcly 

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

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



