470 . STYRACACE.E. Samolus. 



8. SAMOLUS, Linn. Bkookwebd. 



Calyx 5-cleft, its base coherent with the lower part of the ovary. Corolla 

 campannlate, 5-cleft : a slender tooth answering to a sterile filament borne at each 

 sinus. True stamens 5, short and included, inserted on the tube of the corolla. 

 Capsule globular, 5-valved at the summit, many-seeded. — Glabrous low herbs ; 

 with alternate entire leaves, and small white flowers in loose racemes. Most of the 

 several species are of the southern hemisphere ; one is cosmopolitan, viz., 



1. S. Valerandi, Linn., var. Americanus, Gray. Stems branching and 

 spreading, 6 to 15 inches long, slender, leafy : leaves obovate : racemes often pan- 

 icled : bracts none at the base of the slender pedicels, but minute bractlets on them 

 near the middle : lobes of the calyx ovate, shorter than the corolla. 



Along brooks, &c, scarce in California, but found north of it, and as far south as the moun- 

 tains behind San Diego. 



Order LVIII. STYRACACE^. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves, no stipules, regular perfect flowers, 

 a calyx adherent at least to the base of the ovary, stamens mostly at least twice 

 the number of the petals or lobes of the corolla, and more or less united with each 

 other and to the base of the corolla ; the seeds few, with a slender embryo in fleshy 

 or horny albumen. — A single species of the typical genus, and that rare, represents 

 this family (of seven genera and over 200 species) on the Pacific side of JST. America. 



1. STYEAX, Tourn. Stokax. 



Calyx persistent, truncate, campanulate, the border merely denticulate or irregu- 

 larly toothed, in the N. American species coherent at its base with that of the 3-celled 

 many-ovuled ovary. Corolla of 5 or sometimes 4 to 8 soft-downy petals, which are 

 united at base into a very short tube, deciduous. Stamens 10 : filaments flat, 

 monadelphous at base into a short tube which is coherent with the base of the 

 corolla : anthers linear, 2-celled, fixed by the base, introrse ; the cells opening 

 lengthwise. Style filiform. Fruit globular, its base girt by the persistent calyx, 

 at first rather fleshy, at maturity i dry, commonly splitting into 3 valves, 1 -celled, 

 filled with a single large globular seed, which resembles a small nut ; the seed-coat 

 being thick and crustaceous. Embryo nearly the length of the fleshy albumen : 

 cotyledons broad and flat : radicle slender. — An Asiatic and American genus, warm- 

 temperate or tropical, with scurfy or stellate-downy herbage, and mostly handsome 

 flowers. 



1. S. Californica, Torr. Shrub 5 to 8 feet high: leaves ovate or oval (1 to 

 2|- inches long), obtuse at both ends, entire, minutely stellately pubescent, at least 

 when young, and even hoary beneath : flowers few in a cluster or corymbose raceme, 

 on a short terminal peduncle : pedicels clubshaped : divisions of the white soft- 

 downy corolla 5 to 8, spatulate-lanceolate (half an inch or more in length), imbri- 

 cated in the bud : filaments monadelphous nearly to the middle : bony seed half an 

 inch in diameter. — Smithsonian Contrib. vi. 4, & Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 118. 



Foot-hills, from Calaveras Co. to the Upper Sacramento, first collected by Fremont. A hand- 

 some species, with flowers much larger than in any of those of the Atlantic States, except the 

 Texan S. platanifolia, Engelni. 



