— 217 — 
to BunGE (Rel. Lehm. p. 62) other forms occur in which the 
branching is only slight. The year-shoots arising from the 
persistent parts may be branched, but generally this does 
not seem to be the case. They are numerous and slender, 
and bear small, lanceolate leaves which attain a length of 
1—2 centimetres, bright green in colour and containing many 
lysigenous oil-reservoirs. 
The yellow flowers appear in July or August. The fruit 
has few loculi and a few seeds in each loculus. 
The leaf is isolateral in structure. The epidermis con- 
sists of one layer with a thick outer wall and the stomata 
slightly sunk. There are about three layers of palisade cells 
on each side and a narrow middle zone of rounded cells. 
This zone includes many tracheids (‘‘Speichertracheiden’’) 
besides the veins which both above and below have a sheath 
of rather thin-walled, non-lignified bast. There are many 
lysigenous oil-reservoirs measuring in diameter more than 
half the thickness of the leaf. 
The green cortex has a thick-walled epidermis of two 
layers overlying 3 or 4 layers of short palisade cells limited 
towards the interior by a layer of thin-walled, tangentially 
extended cells which may be regarded as collecting sheath. 
Many bundles of bast occur in the inner cortex. 
Stellera Lessertii (Wickstr.) C. A. M. 
An undershrub 20—50 centimetres in height and occur- 
ring in the clay-desert. It is much branched and numerous 
dead branches are found; whole branch-systems may die off 
leaving short dry sticks projecting in all directions. New 
branches are formed from branches of the previous shoot- 
generation and also from old branches. The year-shoots bear 
branches the same year, often 2—3; these are unbranched, with 
long internodes, and they all terminate — if sufficiently long 
lived — in an inflorescence. This is a short, simple spike, 
and the small yellow flowers appear in July. The fruit is a 
pear-shaped nut about 4 mm. long, it is surrounded by the 
lower strongly woolly-haired part of the perianth. 
The leaf is hairy, narrow and small, almost elliptical- 
