LATJRACEvE 



361 



branaceous puberulous deciduous bracts decreasing in size from the outer to the inner; 

 calyx divided almost to the base into 6 nearly equal broadly obovate rounded pale yellow 

 lobes spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the short slightly thickened 

 tube of the calyx; filaments flat, glabrous, pale yellow, rather shorter than the anthers, 

 those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 conspicuous stipitate orange-colored 

 orbicular flattened glands; anthers oblong, flattened, light yellow, those of the first and 

 second series introrse, those of the third series extrorse; stamens of the fourth series reduced 

 to minute ovate acute yellow staminodes; ovary sessile, ovoid, often more or less gibbous, 

 glabrous, abruptly contracted into a stout columnar style rather shorter than the lobes of 

 the calyx and crowned by a simple capitate discoid stigma. Fruit ovoid, surrounded at 

 base by the enlarged and thickened truncate or lobed tube of the calyx, yellow-green some- 

 times more or less tinged with purple; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed ovoid, light brown; 

 testa separable into 2 coats, the outer thick, hard, and woody, the inner thin and papery, 

 closely investing the embryo, chestnut-brown and lustrous on the inner surface. 



Umbellularia consists of a single species. 



The generic name, a diminutive of umbella, relates to the character of the inflorescence. 



1. Umbellularia calif ornica Nutt. Calif ornia Laurel. Spice-tree. 

 Leaves 2'-5' long, |'-1|' wide, unfolding in winter or early in the spring and continuing 

 to appear as the branches lengthen until late in the autumn ; beginning to fade during the 

 summer, turning to a beautiful yellow or orange color and falling one by one during their 



Fig. 324 



second season, or often remaining on the branches until the sixth year; petioles jV~i' m 

 length. Flowers appearing in January before the unfolding of the young leaves, the 

 umbels on peduncles sometimes 1' in length. Fruit about 1' long, in clusters of 2 or 3, on 

 elongated thickened pedicels, persistent on the branch after the fruit ripens and falls late 

 in the autumn; seeds germinating soon after they reach the ground, the fruit remaining 

 below the surface of the soil and attached to the young plant until midsummer. 



A tree, usually 20-75, occasionally 100-175 high, with a trunk 3-6 in diameter, 

 sometimes tall and straight but usually divided near the ground into several large diverging 

 stems, stout spreading or rarely pendulous (var. pendula Redh.) branches forming a broad 

 round-topped head, and branchlets light green and coated with soft pale pubescence when 

 they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and yellow-green, and in their second and third 

 years light brown tinged with red; at high altitudes, and in southern California much 

 smaller; often reduced to a large or small shrub, or on bluffs facing the ocean to broad mats 



