146 MVRICACIOJ'.. 



C-lobed; stamens 3 to 40. Pistillate ameiitti on terminal peduncle of 

 the same season; calyx 4-lobed; ovary inferior, 1-celled. Nut divided 

 internally by one true and several false partitions into sevei-al inc(pm- 

 plete compartments, the seed so lobed as to tit the irregularities of 

 the cavity. (From Jovis and glans, the nut of Jove.) 



1. J. Californica Wats. Califokkia Walxut. Tree IjU to 50 

 ft. high; leaves 6 to 9 in. long; leaflets 11 to I-'), oblong-lanceolate, 

 serrate; staminate aments often in pairs, 3 to 5 in. long; stamens 80 

 to 40, anthers yellow, the connective bifid at the apex; fruit globose, 

 f to 1 in. in diameter. 



Eegion of the. Lower Sacramento and of the vallej'S about the 

 northwestern base of Mt. Diablo, southward to the Sierra Santa 

 Monica. 



19. MYRICACE/E. Sweet-gale Family. 



"Shrubs with fragrant alternate simple leaves, without stipules, 

 and monoecious or dioecious flowers in oblong or cylindrical aments. 

 Flowers solitary and sessile in the axils of scaly bracts; perianth noiie. 

 Staminate flower with 4 to 16 stamens. Pistillate flower with a 

 1-celled, 1-ovuled ovary with 2 sessile filiform stigmas, surrounded at 

 base by 2 to 4 small scales or bractlets. Cotyledons fleshy. 



1. MYRICA L. Bay Bkrky. 



The only genus. (Name from the Greeli murike, the ancient name 

 of the Tamarisk.) 



1. M. Californica Cham. Wax Myrtle. Thickly-branched 

 evergreen shrub, or small tree, 8 to 14 ft. high; leaves thick, glabrous, 

 oblong, or oblanceolate-oblong, tapering above to an acute apex, nar- 

 rowed below to a petiole, 2J to 5 in. long, remotelj' serrate, or almost 

 entire; flowers moncecious; pistillate aments in the axils of the upper 

 leaves, 3 to 5 lines long; staminate aments below, sometimes as much 

 as 1 in. long; androgynous aments often occur between, with the 

 staminate flowers at the base; staminate flower consisting of 7 or 

 10 to 16 stamens, united by their filaments into a cluster longer than 

 the scale of the ament; bractlets 2, one on each side of the cluster at 

 base, narrowl}' oblong, hairy at apex; ovary ovate with 2 bright-red 

 exserted styles; fruit globose, brownish-purple, covered with a coat 

 of whitish wax, 2 lines in diameter, the bractlets at the base minute. 



Sand-dunes, moist hillsides, or rookj' declivities near the ocean, 

 from Santa Monica northward, al(mg the entire California coast: 

 San Francisco, where first collected by Chamisso; Oakland Hills; 

 Tiburon; Bolinas Bay. 



Myrica Hartwbqi Wats., Sweet Bay, is a deciduous shrub of 

 the Sierra Nevada, with dioecious flowers; stamens 3 or 4, shorter 

 than the bract; bractlets exceeding the sub-compressed naked fruit. 



20. URTICACE/E. Nettle Family. 

 Ours herbs with stinging hairs and stipulate simple loaves. Flowers 



