750 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



1. Fremontia californica Torr. Slippery Elm. 

 Fremontodendron calif ornicum Cov.. 



Leaves usually 3-lobed, rarely entire or sometimes 5-7-lobed, 1^' in diameter; petioles 

 stout, \'-\' in length. Flowers appearing in July in great profusion on short spur-like 

 lateral branchlets. Fruit 1' long; seeds very dark red-brown, about T V long. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a short trunk 12'-14' in diameter, stout rigid branches spread- 

 ing almost at right angles, and stout terete branchlets thickly coated when they first appear 

 with rufous pubescence, becoming glabrous and light red-brown; more often a low intri- 



Fig. 676 



cately branched shrub. Bark of the trunk rarely more than ' thick, deeply furrowed, the 

 dark red-brown surface broken into numerous short thick scales. Wood hard, heavy, 

 close-grained, dark brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood. The mu- 

 cilaginous inner bark is sometimes used domestically in poultices. 



Distribution. Lower slopes of the California mountains; western base of Mt. Shasta 

 to the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California; nowhere common west of the Sierra 

 Nevada, but of its largest size on their western foothills; most abundant east of the Sierra 

 Nevada in the region of the Mohave Desert, growing as a low shrub and sometimes forming 

 thickets several acres in extent. 



Occasionally cultivated in western and southern Europe as an ornamental plant. 



XLI. THEACEJE. 



Trees or shrubs, with simple alternate leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect, regular, 

 hypogynous; sepals and petals 5, imbricated in the bud; stamens numerous; anthers 2- 

 celled, the cells opening longitudinally; pistil of 3-5 united carpels; ovary 3-5-celled; styles 

 as many as the cells of the ovary, partly united. Fruit capsular; embryo with large coty- 

 ledons. 



The Camellia family with eighteen genera is principally confined to the tropics of the 

 New World and to southern and eastern Asia. Two genera are represented in the flora of 

 the southern United States, and of these Gordonia is arborescent. Its most important 

 genus, Camellia of eastern Asia, contains the Tea plant, Camellia Thea Link, and several 

 species cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. 



1. GORDONIA Ell. 



Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, w r ith an acuminate terminal bud, slender acumi- 

 nate naked axillary buds, and watery juice. Leaves pinnately veined, entire or crenate, 



