RHAMNE.E. 75 



opposite the petals. Ovary more or less free, surrounded by a fleshy 

 disk, 23- or 4-celled; ovules solitary, erect. Fruit baccate or capsular. 

 Seeds erect; albumen fleshy or 0. 



1. RHAMXUS, Nicander (BUOKTHOEN). Shrubs (all ours evergreen), 

 with alternate leaves and axillary clusters of small greenish 4 5- 

 merous flowers. Disk thin, lining the tube of the calyx. Fruit sub- 

 globose, the juicy pulp enclosing 2 or 3 large nut-like seeds. 



1. R. crocea, Nutt. Low, spreading, slender and spinescent, 2 ft. 

 high; leaves coriaceous, % in. long, bright-green above, yellow beneath, 

 roundish ovate in out-line, glandular-denticulate: fl. 4-merous, apetalous, 

 often unisexual, short-pedicelled, solitary or few in a fascicle : f r. small, 

 obovoid, scarlet, 1- or 2-seeded. Mission Hills and islands in the Bay. 



2. R. ilicifolia, Kell. Erect, bushy or arborescent, 6 15 ft. high, not 

 spinescent: leaves firm-coriaceous, 1 in. long more or less, oval, spinu- 

 lose-dentate; very short- petioled: fl. 5-merous: fr. as in the last, though 

 larger. Mt. Diablo Range. 



3. E. Californica, Esch. Bushy or arborescent, 420 ft. high, 

 nascent parts pubescent, otherwise glabrous: leaves thin-coriaceous, 

 elliptic-oblong, acute or obtuse, denticulate or entire, 1 4 in. long: fl. 

 subumbellate, 5-merous : petals small, ovate, emarginate: filament long; 

 anther exserted from the cucullate petal: fr. globose, % % in. in 

 diameter, copiously pulpy, black: seeds usually 2, hemispherical, as 

 broad at base as at summit. Along the seaboard, on sandy plains near 

 the shore, where it is a low shrub; also among the hills in the form of a 

 small tree with ample spreading branches. 



4. R, tomentella, Benth. Near preceding, of similar habit, but 

 never either low-bushy or aborescent: leaves 2 in. long, narrowly oblong 

 or elliptical, abruptly acute or acuminate, entire, the margin narrowly 

 revolute, glabrate above, minutely and very densely silvery- or yellowish- 

 tomentose beneath: fl. and fr. as in the last. Eastern slope of the Mt. 

 Diablo Range. 



2. CEANOTHUS, Linn. (CALIFORNIA LILAC). Arborescent, shrubby 

 or suffrutescent, unarmed or spinescent, with petioled leaves and mostly 

 thyrsoidly arranged, caducous-bracted fascicles or cymes of small perfect 

 blue or white flowers. Calyx campanulate, 5-clef t, the lobes acute, con- 

 nivent; disk thick, adnate to the calyx and base of the ovary. Petals 5, 

 cucullate and arched, on long claws. Stamens 5; filaments filiform, long- 

 exserted. Ovary 3-lobed; style short, 3-cleft. Fruit 3-lobed and 

 capsular, though coated with a thin pulp; ultimately separating into 3 

 unilocular 1-seeded carpels which are elastically dehiscent by the 

 ventral suture. Seeds obovate, without a furrow. 



