BERBERIDACEAE. 173 



Racemes from small lateral or terminal buds, their scales triangular or roundish, decidu- 

 ous, about 2 lines long. 



Leaflets 5 to 7, very undulate and strongly spinose, few-toothed 1. B. dictyota. 



Leaflets 5 to 17, nearly plane, with many prickly teeth 2. B. pinnata. 



Racemes from a large terminal bud, its scales persistent, glumaceous, about 1 in. 

 long 3. B. nervosa. 



1. B. dictyota Jepson. Erect, stout, scarcely branched, 3 to 4% ft. high, 

 sparsely leafy; leaflets 5 to 7, glaucescent on the upper surface, little paler 

 but very prominently reticulated on the under surface, very strongly undulate, 

 lowest pair close to base of petiole; filaments with a recurved tooth on each 

 side near the apex. 



Rocky slopes: western Solano Co.; Marysville Buttes. Bare. 



2. B. pinnata Lag. California Barberry. A few in. to 4 or 5 ft. 

 high; leaflets usually 5 to 9 but often 11 to 13 (or even as many as 17 and 

 rather crowded on the rachis), ovate-elliptical to oblong, 1 to 2 1 / 4 in. long, 

 shining above, somewhat paler beneath, plane or moderately undulate, shal- 

 lowly repand and dentate, the mostly numerous teeth prickly; lowest pair 

 close to base of petiole ; racemes clustered, dense ; filaments as in the last. 



Rather common on hills, mostly along the edge of thickets. Berkeley Hills, 

 San Francisco and southward to Monterey. Mar.-Apr. 



3. B. nervosa Pursh. Mahonia. Leaves in a tuft from a low scaly cau- 

 dex, 9 to 16 in. long, the rachis conspicuously nodose; leaflets 11 to 17, bright 

 green, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, spinulose-serrate, and somewhat palmately 

 nerved; scales of the strong terminal bud about 1 in. long, coriaceous-gluma- 

 ceous; racemes erect, elongated, 4 to 6 in. long; bracts oblong to lanceolate, 

 membranaceous; filaments not toothed. 



Woods near the coast from Marin Co. northward to Oregon and Washington. 



2. ACHLYS DC. 



Perennial herbs with long-petioled 3-foliolate leaves and leafless scapes ris- 

 ing from a very slender rootstock. Flowers perfect, in a short dense spike. 

 Calyx and corolla none. Stamens 9 to 13, 2 to 3 times as long as ovary, the 

 outer dilated upward. Fruit dry, indehiscent, broadly moon-shaped. (Greek 

 Achlus, the god of night or gloom.) 



1. A. triphylla DC. Deer-foot. Plants about 1 ft. high; leaflets 2 to 6 

 in. broad. 



Woods near the coast, Mendocino Co. and northward; ranging altitudinally 

 from near sea-level to 7,000 ft. Settlers on the Humboldt coast, prizing the 

 delicate fragrance, hang bunches of the leaves in their houses. To be expected 

 on the northern Sonoma coast. 



3. VANCOUVERIA Morr. & Dccsne. 



Low perennial herbs with slender creeping rootstocks. Leaves triternately 

 compound, all basal or nearly so. Flowers small, nodding, arranged in an 

 open panicle on a slender scape-like peduncle. Sepals 6, in 2 series, obovate, 

 petal-like, reflexed, subtended by 6 to 9 small calyx-like membranous bractlets. 

 Petals 6, ligulate, tipped with a hood-like nectar-bearing appendage, reflexed. 

 Stamens 6, closely erect about the pistil, the anther connective produced into a 

 pointed tip. Style 1 ; stigma thin, cup-shaped. Fruit a follicle, dehiscent by 

 the dorsal suture. Seeds with an aril. (Capt. George Vancouver of the 

 English exploring ship Discovery, who visited San Francisco Bay in 1792.) 



1. V. parviflora Greene. Inside-out Flower. Stems 8 to 20 in. high, 

 sparsely hairy, at base rusty-pilose, the panicle pubescent with short spread- 



