DATISCAOEJE. 321 



3. E. Watsonii Cogn. Nearly glabrous, glaucous; stems slender, 

 not succulent, 4 to 8 ft. long; leaves orbicular-cordate with nearly 

 closed sinus or broadly reniform, 2 to 4 in. broad, rather broader than 

 long, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes broader above and slnuately toothed 

 or lobed; staminate panicle slender, often few-flowered; the flowers 

 small (about IJ to 2| lines in diameter), white; pistillate flowers 3 to 

 5 lines broad, without abortive stamens, on slender pedicels 1 to 2 in. 

 long; ovary smooth or somewhat muricate; fruit nearly globose, 1 to 

 IJ in. in diameter, somewhat naked toward the summit or covered all 

 over with weak and very slender spines about IJ lines long, 2-celled, 

 2-seeded; seed not flattened, 7 to 9 lines long, 6 lines thick. 



Vaca Mountains; otherwise unknown in the Bay Region. Sierra 

 Nevada. 



66. DATISCACE/E. Datisca Family. 



Perennial herbs with alternate and in ours divided leaves. Flowers 

 dioecious or in ours the pistillate commonly with a few stamens. 

 Calyx synsepalous. Corolla none. Stamens indefinite. Ovary infe- 

 rior, 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae; styles 3, bifid. Fruit a cap- 

 sule, opening at the top between the styles. 



1. DATISCA L. 



Stout glabrous herb. Leaves divided and more or less incised and 

 sharply serrate. Flowers fascicled in the axils on short pedicels. 

 Calyx of staminate fiower very short (less than 1 line long), with 4 

 to 9 unequal lobes; stamens in ours 8- to 12, mostly 10; filaments 

 short. Calyx of pistillate flowers with ovoid tube, somewhat 

 3-angled, 3-toothed, 3 to 4 lines long; stamens (when present) 2 to 4, 

 alternate with the teeth. Seeds numerous, small, in 2 to several rows 

 upon the placentae. 



1. D.glomerata (Presl.) Brew. & Wats. Dtjraj^go Koot. Stems 

 commonly clustered, stoutish and somewhat fistulous, erect, branch- 

 ing above, 2J to 4 ft. high; lower leaves 5 or 6 in. long, neat-ly as 

 broad, ternately divided and more or less incised and serrate, the 

 middle division largest and 3-lobed, the lateral unequally 2-lobed or 

 incised; upper leaves 2 to 3 in. long or more, with 3 lanceolate lobes, 

 the lateral very much smaller and shorter; flowere in clusters in the 

 axils of the leafy branches; staminate flowers in clusters of 3, on 

 pedicels about 2 lines long; pistillate flowers sessile or subsessile, 4 to 

 7 in a cluster, or somewhat scattered along short axillary branchlets; 

 anthers nearly 3 lines long, nearly sessile; styles longer than the 

 ovary. 



Dry stream beds: Coast Ranges (Vaca Mountains, Napa and 

 Sonoma Cos. to Southern California); Sierra Nevada. June-July. 



67. LOASACE/E. Loasa Family. 



Herbs with either rough or stinging hairs, and often with white 

 deciduous bark. Leaves in ours alternate. Flowers regular, perfect. 



23 



