THE CUNONIA FAMILY 



CUNONIACE^ Lindley 



UNONIACE^ include some 20 genera, made up of several hundred 

 species of trees and shrubs, mostly natives of tropical and subtropical 

 regions; the curious and interesting evergreen Lyonothamnus being 

 endemic on the islands off the coast of southern California. 

 The trees and shrubs of this family have opposite leaves (rarely whorled), 

 either simple or compound, with several or many leaflets; they have small stipules 

 which fall away early. The flowers are small and regular, clustered, perfect, or 

 in some genera imperfect; they have 4 or 5 sepab borne on an hypanthium and 

 as many petals as sepals; the stamens are usually twice as many as the petals, or 

 more, and are borne imder the edge of a disk; there are usually 2 carpels, either 

 separate, as in Lyonothamnus, or more usually imited into a 2-celled ovary, which 

 contains several or many ovules in two rows on the placenta. The fruits are small 

 follicles or capsules. 



LYON'S IRONWOOD 



GENUS LYONOTHAMNUS ASA GRAY 



Species Lyonothamnus floribnndns Asa Gray 



Lyonothamnus asplenifolius (Brandegee) Greene 



]YONOTHAMNUS is a monotypic genus, restricted in distribution, so 

 far as known, to the islands Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and Santa 

 Cruz, off the coast of southern CaUfomia, inhabiting rocky soil. It is 

 a small tree, often a mere shrub, attaining a maximum height of about 

 13 meters, with a trunk up to 2.5 dm. in diameter. 



Its bark is characteristic, separating in long thin reddish brown strips, which 

 remain attached to the trunk for some time, finally falling away. The opposite 

 leaves are either simple and entire, or pinnately compoimd or pirmatifid, when 

 much lobed closely resembling those of the Sweet-fern {Comptonia) ; they are more 

 or less hairy on the under side, smooth above, 15 cm. long or less, persistent. The 

 numerous perfect white flowers are 6 to 8 mm. broad, in hairy, terminal com- 

 pound cymes; the hemispheric hypanthium is 5-lobed, the lobes persistent; there are 

 5 broad, stalkless petals, 15 incurved stamens, about as long as the petals, borne on 

 the disk that lines the calyx-tube, their filaments very slender, their anthers short, 

 oblong; the two pistils are stalkless, each ovary i-celled, containing 4 pendulous 



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