Zizyphus. KHAMNACE.E. 99 



1. P. Myrsinites, Eaf. Much branched, a foot or two high, leafy : leaves 

 ovate to oblong or oblanceolate, J- to li inches long, cuneate at base, serrate or ser- 

 rulate, obtuse or acutish : flowers a line in diameter, on pedicels a line or two long : 

 fruit 2 lines long, smooth. — Ilex (>.) Myrsinites, Pursh. Mygiuda myrtifolia, Xutt. ; 

 Hook. EL i. 120, t. 41. Oreophila myrtifolia, Xutt. ; Torr. i Gray, EL i. 259. 



Hillsides on the South Yuba (Bi'jcloic) ; lit. Shasta, at 4,000 to 5,000 feet {Brewer) ; north- 

 ward in the mountains to British Columbia, and in the Rocky Mountains ranging south to New 

 Mexico. 



Order XXVII. RHAMNACE^l. 



Shrubs or small trees, with simple undivided leaves, small and often caducous 



stipules, and small regular flowers ; well distinguished from the related orders by 



the valvate aestivation of the calyx, and the perigynous stamens as many as its lobes 



and alternate with them; the ovules solitary (rarely in pairs) and erect in the 2 to 



4 cells of the ovary. — Flowers sometimes polygamo-dieecious, often apetalous. A 



conspicuous disk adnate to or lining the short tube of the calyx. Petals often 



unguiculate, mostly involute each around a stamen in the bud. Ovary either free 



or adnate by the disk to the tube or base of the calyx : style or stigma 2 - 4-lobed. 



Seeds solitary in the cells, anatropous, with a large straight embryo in sparing 



fleshy albumen : cotyledons flat or plano-convex : radicle short. 



A widely distributed order, of between 30 and 40 genera and four or five hundred species, of 

 which Ceanothus is the only extensive North American genus. The herbage has some bitterness 

 and astringency, and the fruit when fleshy or juicy is commonly mawkish or nauseous, but edible 

 in Zizyphus, one species of which furnishes the basis of Jujube paste. 



* Fruit with a single 1 - 3-celled hard stone. 

 1. Zizyphus. Cells 1-ovuled. Leaves alternate, not punctate. Spiny shrubs. 

 •J. Karwinksia. Cells 2-ovuled. Leaves opposite, pcllucid-punetate. Unarmed. 



* « Fruit berry-like or dry, containing 2 to 4 separating seed-like nutlets. 



3. Rhamnus. Calyx and disk free from the ovary; calyx-lobes erect or spreading. Petals 



small, short-clawed, or nunc. Filaments very short. Fruit berry-like, with - to 1 mostly 



indehiscent nutlets. Leaves alternate. 

 I. Adolphia. l>isk covering the calyx-tube, free from the ovary ; calyx-] iding. 



IVtals short-spatulate, bunded. Fruit dry, with 3 dehiscent nutlets. Spurns : leaves 



opposite 1 very small, or none. 



5. Ceanothus. Calyx and disk adnate to the base of the ovary ; calyx-lobes connivent. Petals 



long-clawed, hooded. Filaments , vserted. Fruit dry, with 3 dehiscent nutlets. 



1. ZIZYPHUS, Juss. 



Calyx 5-cleft, with acute spreading lobes ; the disk filling the broadly turbinate 



tube. Petals 5, hooded, deflexed. Ovary connate with the disk al base, 2-celled 01 



rarely 3-4-celled; cells 1-ovuled: styles 2 to I. l'n r united. Drupe fleshy, 



with a woody 2 — 3-celled nut. — Spiny shrubs or trees; with thick alternate leaves, 



mostly 3 — 5-nerved ; stipules small and deciduous or spimdescent ; flowers small, 



greenish, in axillary cymes ; fruit often edible. 



About jo species, chiefly of Egypt and Southern Asia, Three species are found in the n 



between the Gulf of Mexi ml the Pacific, with the habit rather of the American genus 



thlia, and with characters which tend to the union of the two genera. Another scarcely distinct 

 genus is Mierorlmmnus, Gray (referred t" Condal ■< \-\ Baillon), of a single species, inhabiting 

 Arizona and New .Mexico. 



1. Z. Parryi, Tmi-ey. Much branched, I tn 15 Feel high, glabrous; the smooth 



flexuous branches armed with straight leafy spines: Leaves obovate, obtuse or retuse, 



