328 BOTAIfT. 



variety. From Colorado and New Mexico to Washington Territory and 

 California. Not seen west of Reese River, but it is the prevalent species 

 eastward in Nevada and Utah ; 5-7,000 feet altitude. (1,106.) 



PoPULUS TEiCHOCARPA, Torrey. DC. Prodr. 16. 2. 330. Buds and 

 younger branches viscid ; leaves on rounded petioles, (1-2' long,) broadly 

 cordate-triangular, short-acuminate, glabrous, finely glandularly crenate- 

 serrate, pale beneath, reticularly-veined ; fertile aments about 1' long in 

 flower, 3-6' in fruit, with laciniate densely villous scales ; stigmas dilated at 

 base ; fruit sessile or shortly pedicelled, globose, tomentose ; sterile aments 

 2' long, sessile, densely flowered, with subvillous laciniately-fringed scales ; 

 stamens 20-30. — On the Santa Clara River, California, (Parry,) and from the 

 Lower Fraser River, (Lyall.) A rather small tree in Truckee Valley and 

 lower canons of the Washoe and West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada ; 

 4-5,000 feet altitude. (1,107.) 



aNETACEiE.i 



Ephedra^ antisyphilitica, C. A. Meyer. DC. Prodr. 16. 2. 354. A 

 low dioecious shrub, 2° high ; branches opposite and fascicled, straight, sub- 



1 GNETACE^, Blumb. Flowers diceoious, mOucecious, or rarely polygamous. Staminate aments : — 

 Bracts decussately opposite or verticillate, more or less connate, or very rarely distinct. Calyx and corolla 

 none ; each flower witli 2-4 bract! ets, ■wLich are united to form a 2-4-lo'bed perianth. Stamens arising 

 from the base of the perianth, solitary, or few with the filaments united ; anthers 2-celled, the cells de- 

 hiscent by a pore at the apex ; pollen oval, smooth. Fertile aments : — Bracts decussately opposite, or in 

 threes, more or less imbricated and connate, the lower usually smaller, often thickened and fleshy in 

 fruit. Flowers 1-3, each consisting of an urceolate perianth, (formed of 2-5 connate bractlets, Parlatore,) 

 perforated at the apex and including the ovule. Ovule erect, solitary, terminating above in a rather 

 long, usually terete, straight or twisted, exserted style-like process. Fruit dry, enveloped by the bracts 

 and by the membranous or thickened perianth. Embryo in the axis or at the summit of the fleshy albu- 

 men ; cotyledons 2 ; radicle superior. — Trees, shrubs, or undershrubs, with opposite ternate or fascicled 

 branches, jointed at the nodes ; leaves opposite or in threes, often reduced to a short-toothed or lacerated 

 sheath. 



'EPHEDRA, L. Flowers dioecious or rarely monoecious. Male aments subglobose, solitary or 

 clustered, axillary, sessile or short-peduncled ; bracts (rarely in threes) approximate or subimbricate 

 connate into 2-3-lobed involucres. Flowers solitary at each bract, the perianth often exceeding the invo- 

 lucre. Stamens 3-8 ; filaments united into a column usually exceeding the perianth, sometimes divided 

 at the summit ; anthers subrounded or narrowed and subcuneate at base, dehiscing by transverse oblonu- 

 pores. Fertile aments solitary or few, usually short-peduncled, erect or nodding. Bracts (rarely in 

 threes) forming 2-6 emarginate or 2-3-lobed involucres, the lower sterile, the upper one larger and 1-3- 

 flowered. Ovule usually oval-oblong, the style-like process obliquely ligulate or discoid at the apex. 

 Seed with a thin membranous testa ; embryo axial and nearly as long as the albumen ; cotyledons oblong; 

 radicle long and cylindrical.— Shrubs and undershrubs, with numerous equisetoid terete sheathed branches ; 

 sheaths short, with usually 2-4 leafless or shortly foUaceous teeth. 



In the above descriptions the terms are made to conform to the theory of thegymnospermous char- 

 acter of the Order. Farlatore, in the Prodronms, still considers what is here called the perianth of the 

 fertile flower as the ovary with a true style and stigma. The following remarkable species compels a 

 slight modification in the descriptions of the genus and of the Order, by its peculiar characteristic, the 

 ternate arrangement of its leaves, branches and floral bracts. It has long been known and noticed aa a 



