Adolphia. ' RHAMNACE^. j^qj 



three lines long, obovoiJ, 2-4-lobed and 2-4-seeded, bright red. — Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 261. B. ilicifolms, Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. ii. 30. 



Hillsides and mountains, from 8an Diego northward to Clear Lake, Yosemite Valley, and the 

 Upper Sacramento and eastward into Arizona. Wood yellow or dark-colored, very tine-graineir 

 and heavy ; the foliage very variable. The ripe berries are much used by tlie Indians for 

 food, and their veins are said to become tinged by a deposition of the red coloring matter. 



§ 2. Seeds and nutlets convex on the hack, the rhaphe lateral : cotyledons fleshy, flat : 

 floivers mostly perfect, in pedunculate cymes. — Frangula, {Franyula, Brougii.) 



3. R. Californica, Eschscholtz. A spreading shrub, 4 to 18 feet high ; young 

 branches somewhat tomentose : leaves ovate-oblong to elliptical, 1 to 4 inches long, 

 \ to 1| wide, acute or obtuse, mostly rounded at base, denticulate or nearly entire, 

 evergreen : peduncles with numerous mostly abortive flowers in subumbellate fas- 

 cicles : calyx usually 5-cleft : petals very small, broadly ovate, emarginate : fruit black- 

 ish purple, with thin pulp, 3 or 4 lines in diameter, 2 - 3-lobed and 2 - 3-seeded. — 

 R. oleifoliiiii, Hook. Fl. i. 123, t. 44. Frangida Californica, Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 178. 



Var. tomentella. Densely white-tomentose, especially on the lower side of the 

 leaves. — R. tomentellus, Benth. PL Hartw. 303. Frangula Californica, var. tomoi- 

 tella. Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 28. 



Throughout California from the Upper Sacramento and Klamath Lake to Santa Barbara and 

 Fort Tejon. The variety extends to the southern boundary and eastward through Arizona to New 

 Mexico. 



4. R. Purshiana, DC. A shrub or small tree, sometimes 20 feet high ; young 

 branches tomentose : leaves elliptic, 2 to 7 inches long, 1 to 3 wide, mostly acute, 

 obtuse at base, denticulate, deciduous, somewhat pubescent beneath : flowers rather 

 large, in a somewhat umbellate cyme : sepals 5 : petals minute, cucullate, bitid at the 

 apex : fruit black, broadly obovoid, 4 lines long, 3-lobed and 3-seeded. — Hook. 

 Fl. i. 123, t. 43 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl, i. 262. 



Mendocino County, and northward to the British Boundary. 



4. ADOLPHIA, Meisner. 



Calyx hemispherical, with spreading lobes ; the tube lined with the thin disk. 

 Petals 5, spatulate; hooded, covering the anthers, inserted with the stamens on the 

 throat of the calyx, equalling the sepals. Ovary subglobose, free, smooth, 3-celled : 

 style slender, jointed near the base and at length deciduous : stigma 3-lobed. Fruit 

 coriaceous, surrounded nearly to the middle by the free calyx ; the 3 cells dehiscent 

 on the inner angle. Seed convex on the back : cotyledons rounded. — Shrubs with 

 numerous opposite spinose branches ; leaves small (or none), opposite, entire ; stip- 

 ules small, brown, rigfid and subpersistent ; flowers small, in axillary fascicles. 

 Only the following species are known. 



1. A. Californica, Watson. In large dense clumps two feet high : branches 

 terete, with spreading spiny branchlets, puberulent : leaves orbicular to oblong- 

 ovate, often retuse, a line or two long, abruptly attenuate to a slender petiole : 

 flowers greenish, two lines broad, on pedicels as long ns the leaves : petals rather 

 broadly hooded : fruit two lines in diameter ; the short styles jointed at the very 

 base. — Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 126. A. infesta, Torr. in Bot. Mex. Bound. 45, in part. 



At Soledad and in ChoUas Valley, near San Diego {Parry, Cleveland, Palmer) ; also at Mon- 

 terey, Parry. 



A. INFESTA, Meisner. Kesembling the last : three to four feet high : leaves linear to oblong- 

 lanceolate, mucronate, attenuate to a short petiole, 2 to 6 lines long : jietals narrowly hooded : 

 style a line long, jointed above the base and leaving the capsule apiculate. — Jlexico, ranging 

 into New Mexico and Arizona. 



