Family 8. KOEBERLINIACEAE 



By John Hendley Barnhart 



Trees or shrubs, almost leafless, with stiff, spine-tipped, pale-green branch- 

 lets. Leaves alternate, minute, scale-like, early deciduous ; stipules none. 

 Flowers racemose, the racemes axillary or from the leaf-scars, each pedicel 

 from the axil of a minute bract. Calyx of 4 or 5 minute, imbricate sepals. 

 Corolla of 4 or 5 hypogynous, subunguiculate, deciduous, white or whitish 

 petals. Androecium of as many stamens as the sepals and petals, or twice as 

 many, hypogynous ; anthers introrse, cordate, apiculate, 2-celled, the cells 

 opening longitudinally. Gynoecium of 2-5 united carpels. Ovary borne upon 

 and confluent with a gynophore ; placentae axial ; style subulate, persistent 

 on the fruit ; stigma truncate. Ovules several or numerous in each cell, in- 

 serted subhorizontally in more than one row, anatropous. Fruit a capsule or 

 berry, the cells by abortion 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds with scanty endosperm ; 

 embryo straight, or curved with the curvature of the seed. 



Sepals and petals 4, stamens 8 ; fruit a 2-celled berry ; seeds not winged. 1. Koeberlinia. 



Sepals, petals, and stamens 5 ; fruit a 5-celled capsule ; seeds winged. 2. Canotia. 



1. KOEBERLINIA Zucc. Flora 15 2 : Beibl. 73. 1832. 



Shrubs or small trees, with rigid, usually stout, often interlocking, spine-tipped branch- 

 lets. Leaves early deciduous, the scars persisting but very inconspicuous. Racemes sev- 

 eral- or many-flowered ; pedicels slender, not bracted above the base. Sepals 4, deciduous. 

 Petals 4, obovate, greenish- white. Stamens 8 ; filaments equal, deciduous. Ovary 2- 

 celled, on a short but stipe-like gynophore ; ovules numerous in each cell. Fruit a globose 

 or subglobose 2-celled berry, beaked by the persistent style ; cells, by abortion, 1- or 2- 

 seeded. Seed flattish, cochleate-lenticular ; embryo cochleate, surrounded by a thin layer 

 of endosperm. 



Type species, Koeberlinia spinosa Zucc. 



1. Koeberlinia spinosa Zucc. Flora 15 2 : Beibl. 74. 1832. 

 Usually a low shrub, but sometimes a tree up to 8 meters high ; sepals about 1 mm. 

 long ; petals and stamens about 4 mm. long ; berry about 5 mm. in diameter. 



Type locality : Mexico. 



Distribution : Western Texas to southern Arizona, and southward to Hidalgo. 

 Illustrations: Sargent, Silva N.Am. pi. 40 ; Sargent, Man. f.556 ; Britton, N. Am. Trees 

 f. 651 ; E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 36 : /. 148. 



2. CANOTIA Torr. Pacif. R. R. Rep. 4 : 68. 1857. 



Shrubs or small trees, with rigid but usually slender spine-tipped branches. Leaves 

 very early deciduous, the scars persisting as dark-brown or black, triangular, minutely 

 papillose elevations. Racemes 1-5-flowered ; pedicels bracted and jointed above the base, 

 thickened and elongate-clavate under the fruit. Sepals 5, persistent at the base of the 

 fruit. Petals 5, narrowly oblong, white. Stamens 5, opposite the sepals ; filaments per- 

 sistent. Ovary 5-celled, the cells alternate with the sepals; gynophore thick, short; 

 ovules about 6 in each cell. Fruit an oblong, beaked, 5-celled capsule, the outer coat 

 at first fleshy, then drying on the woody inner coat ; dehiscence septicidal to below 

 the middle and loculicidal at the apex, the beak therefore eventually 10-valved ; cells, 



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