r i CISTACE^. Helianthemum. 



the root : leaves somewhat succulent, often fascicled, i to 1 inch long : flowers 

 minute, subtended by small bracts : capsules in long loose spikes, depressed-globose, 

 about 1| lines in diameter, angled and sulcate, shortly 4-beaked. — ]\Ilill. in DC. 

 Prodr. 16^ 587. 0. glmicescens, Cambess. in Jacquem. Voy. 4. 24, t. 25. Ellimia 

 ruderalis, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 125. 



San Diego (NutMl); Mohave Desert (Newberry); Colorado Desert (Blake, Coulter); Guadalupe 

 Island (Palmer); and in the interior to New Mexico and Mexico. 



Order X. CISTACE-Sl. 



Distinguished from the other orders with free one-celled ovary, parietal placenta?, 

 and hypogynous petals and stamens, by the orthotropous ovules on slender stalks, 

 and the slender more or less curved or convolute embryo in mealy albumen. — 

 Flowers perfect and regular. Sepals persistent, usually 5 ; and two of them smaller, 

 wholly exterior, and bract-like. Petals usually ephemeral. Stamens indefinite or 

 in some flowers few, with filiform filaments : anthers short. Style one. Ovules 

 with 3 parietal placentae. Capsule 3-valved ; the seeds borne on the middle of the 

 valve, few or numerous. — Herbs or low shrubs, with opposite or alternate simple 

 and entire leaves ; chiefly of the Mediterranean region, but several in the Atlantic 

 United States, none in the interior, only one on the Pacific coast. 



1. HELIANTHEMUM, Tomn. 



Petals 5, broad. Stamens usually numerous. Style short, articulated with the 

 ovary : stigma 3-lobed. Capsule ovoid, 1 -celled, 3-valved, few- many-seeded. Em- 

 bryo curved or hooked. — Low branching herbs, or somewhat woody; flowers yellow, 

 often showy, opening only once, in sunshine. 



A genus of from 30 to 150 species according to the views of authors, principally native to the 

 Mediterranean region and Western Asia. Five species are found in the Atlantic States and the 

 following in California. 



1. H. scoparium, Nutt. Perennial (i), woody at base, much branched, pubes- 

 cent with stellate hairs or glabrate, a foot high ; the upper branches gi'een and 

 slender: leaves narrowly hnear, 4 to 12 lines long, alternate: flowers on slender 

 pedicels, sohtary or subcorymbose at the ends of the branchlets : sepals 3 lines long, 

 acuminate, the outer ones linear and shorter : petals 4 lines long : stamens about 20 : 

 style short : capsule equalling the calyx, often, with the other parts of the flower, 

 much reduced. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 152; Lindl. in Jour. Hort. Soc. v. 79. 

 Linum trisepalum, Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. iii. 42, fig. 10. 



Rather common on dry hills from Lake Co. to San Diego. 



Order XI. VIOLACEiE. 



Herbs (at least those of temperate climates and the northern hemisphere), dis- 

 tinguished by the somewhat irregular one-spurred corolla of 5 petals, 5 stamens, 

 adnate introrse anthers conniving over the pistil, which has a single club-shaped 

 style with a one-sided stigma, a one-celled ovary with 3 parietal several-ovuled 

 placentae ; the ovules anatropous ; the rather large seeds with a smooth hard coat, 

 and a large and straight embryo in fleshy albumen ; its cotyledons broad and 



