RHAMNACE.E 



723 



Flowers perfect, in pedunculate umbels; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5; anthers sagittate; lobes 

 of the stigma short and obtuse; fruit black; seed rounded on the back; seed-coat mem- 

 branaceous; leaves deciduous; winter-buds naked. 



Peduncles shorter than the petioles. 2. R. caroliniana (C). 



Peduncles longer than the petioles. :}. R. Purshiana (B, G). 



1 . Rhamnus crocea Nutt. 



Leaves persistent, often in fascicles, elliptic, broad-ovate to suborbicular, rounded and 

 often apiculate at apex, glandular-denticulate with minute teeth, coriaceous, yellow-green 

 and lustrous 011 the upper surface, pale and frequently bronzed or copper color on the lower 

 surface, glabrous or often puberulous while young, with a prominent midrib and slender 

 primary veins, i'-f long; petioles short and stout; stipules minute, acuminate. Flowers 

 polygamo-dioecious, on slender often puberulous pedicels, in small clusters from the axils 

 of the leaves or of small lanceolate persistent bracts on shoots of the year; calyx 4-lobecl, 

 with acuminate lobes, about |' long; petals 0; stamens rather shorter than the calyx, with 

 short stout incurved filaments and large ovoid anthers, minute and rudimentary in the pis- 

 tillate flower; ovary ovoid, contracted into a long slender style divided above the middle 

 into two wide-spreading acuminate stigmatic lobes, rudimentary in the staminate flower. 

 Fruit red, obovoid, slightly grooved or lobed at maturity, j' long, with thin dry flesh and 

 1-3 nutlets; seed broad-ovoid, pointed at apex, deeply grooved on the back and |' long, 

 with a thin membranaceous pale chestnut-colored coat. 



A shrub, 6'-3 high, with slender rigid often spinescent branchlets forming thickets. 



Distribution. Coast mountains of central and southern California. Passing into 



Rhamnus crocea var. ilicifolia Greene. 



Leaves oval or orbicular, spinulose-dentate, often golden beneath and I'-l^' long and 

 '-!' wide. Flowers with 4 or occasionally 5 calyx-lobes and stamens. 



A tree, occasionally 25 high, with a trunk 6 '-8' in diameter, stout spreading branches, 

 and slender branchlets yellow-green and puberulous or glabrate when they first appear, be 



Fig. 649 



coming dark red or reddish brown and glabrous in their second season. Winter-buds ob- 

 tuse, barely more than iV long, with small puberulous apiculate imbricated scales ciliate 

 on the margins. Bark of the trunk usually from TV-f ' thick, the dark gray surface slightly 

 roughened by minute tubercles. 



Distribution. California, valley of the Sacramento River southward along the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and on the coast ranges and southern mountains to San Diego 



