OF THE WASATCH REGION 27 



BERBERIDACE-ffi. Barberry Family. 



Shrubs (some species 1 herbs) with exstipulate and 

 usually alternate leaves and solitary or racemose in- 

 florescence. Flower-parts opposite to each other, all 

 free and distinct. Sepals and petals usually 6 each, 

 deciduous. Stamens 6 (in our species), sensitive, 

 closing around the pistil when irritated. Carpel 1, 

 becoming- a 1-3-seeded berry. 



1. BERBERIS. Barberry; Mahonia. 



Shrubs with yellow wood, and flowers in clustered brac- 

 teate racemes. Sepals 6, colored like the 6 yellow petals. 

 Bractlets 3 or 6. sepal-like; green or yellowish. Anthers dis- 

 charging pollen through uplifted valves hinged at top. Stigma 

 peltate. 



1. B. repens Lindl. "Oregon Grape"; Trailing Barberry. A 

 creeping shrub less than a foot high; leaves evergreen, dull, 

 strongly netted, pinnately 3-7-foliate; leaflets 3-7, ovate to 

 elliptical, acute, weakly spiny-toothed. Racemes terminating 

 the stems. Sepals spreading, the alternate ones the larger. 

 Petals erect. Berries blue or purple, with a bloom, April- 

 June, in canyons on moist, protected slopes. locally called 

 "Wild Grapes." Children often confuse this plant with Poison 

 Ivy. (According to some botanists, B. repens is a synonym 

 of B. aquifolium, a more robust plant of the northwest.) 



ORDER PAPAVERALES. 



PAPAVERACE^. Poppy Family. 



Herbs with milky or colored juice and alternate, ex- 

 stipulate leaves. Flowers solitary or racemose ; regular, 

 with 2 or rarely 3 fugaceous sepals and 4-6 deciduous 

 petals. Stamens many. Sepals, petals and stamens all 

 free and distinct. Pistil 1, with a "superior," 1-celled 

 ovary, bearing 2 or more parietal placentae. Fruit a 

 capsule, dehiscing by pores or valves at the apex. 



1. ARGEMONE. Prickly Poppy; Mexican Poppy. 



Coarse, branching herbs with reddish-yellow sap and pale- 

 green stems and foliage. Leaves sessile; lobed and spiny- 

 toothed. Flowers large and showy; white or yellow; erect 

 but nodding in the bud. Sepals 3, each spiny-beaked, together 

 making the bud 3-horned. Petals 4-6, thin and delicate, 

 obovate. Capsule spiny, 1-celled, opening by 3 valves at apex. 



1. A. i nt or media Sweet. (A. platyceras Coulter in part.) 

 Thistle Poppy. Stem 3 ft. high or less, glaucous except for 

 the scattered spines. Leaves white-veined. Flowers on long 

 peduncles. Petals white, broadly obovate, crape-like in tex- 

 ture. Dry fields. June-July. 



