CELASTRACEAE. 249 



Southern California has three evergreen species with simple leathery leaves 

 and flowers in panicles. — 1. E. laurina Xutt. Laurel-Sumac. Panicle much 

 branched with slender divisions, glabrous or nearly so; leaves mostly ovate or 

 lanceolate; drupe 1 line long. 2. E. ixtegrifolia B. & H. Sour Berry. 

 Panicle composed of stout spikes, finely pubescent; leaves elliptic, rounded at 

 apex; drupes 2 to 5 lines long. 3. E. ovata "Wats. Sugar Bush. Like no. 2 

 but with ovate leaves acute or acuminate. 



Flowers greenish, in panicles; drupe whitish, the stone rough 1. R. diver siloba. 



Flowers yellowish, in spikes; drupe red, the stone smooth 2. R. trilobata. 



1. R. diversiloba T. & G. Poison Oak. Erect shrub 4 to 8 ft. high, or 

 behaving as a vine and ascending the trunks of trees up to 15 ft. or more by 

 means of adventitious rootlets; leaflets orbicular to ovate or oblong-ovate, 

 undulate or plane, entire or variously lobed, segmented or toothed, 1 to 4 in. 

 long; panicles axillary, appearing with the leaves, short-peduncled, more or 

 less pendulous; flowers 1% lines long; sepals often unequal and sometimes 

 4; petals ovate, revolute so as to appear lanceolate, often slightly pencilled with 

 a few black dots ; anthers yellow ; drupe whitish, 3 lines broad, the flesh marked 

 with many longitudinal impressed black fibres, the stone rough or striate. 



Coast Eanges and foothills of the Sierra Xevada, widely distributed and often 

 abundant. Secreting a juice (non-volatile oil) which is highly poisonous, 

 although some persons are not susceptible to its effects. Mules and horses 

 browse on the foliage. In some districts bees make honey from the flowers; 

 the honey is of good grade, sold on a commercial scale and carries no poison. 



2. R. trilobata Xutt. Squaw Bush. Somewhat diffusely branching, 2 

 to 5 ft. high; leaflets broadly ovate or elliptic in outline, cuneate at base 

 (especially the terminal one), crenate, or crenately lobed, cleft, or divided, % 

 to iy 2 in - long; spikes about % in. long, often clustered; flowers pale yellow, 

 appearing before the leaves, 1 line long; sepals scarious; petals elliptic; disk 

 yellow, 5-lobed; drupe scarlet, viscidly pilose, the stone smooth. 



Coast Eanges, Sierra Xevada and Southern California, favoring canon bot- 

 toms or flats along streams in the mountains. Xot poisonous. An important 

 species to the Indians in their crafts, the split stems furnishing splints for 

 basket-making which are light straw-color or are sometimes made black with a 

 dye from Elder-berry stems. 



CELASTRACEAE. Staff-tree Family. 



Shrubs with simple leaves. Flowers small, perfect, regular, with jointed 

 pedicels. Calyx 5 (4 to 6) -lobed or -parted. Petals 5 (4 to 6). Stamens 

 as many as the petals, alternate with them and inserted on a very thick and 

 conspicuous disk. Ovary 2 to 5-celled, immersed in or surrounded by the disk; 

 styles united into one, or none ; stigma 3 to 5-lobed. Fruit a loculicidal cap- 

 sule, free from the calyx. Seed ariled, with large embryo and broad and thin 

 cotyledons; endosperm fleshy. 



1. EUONYMUS L. Burning Bush. 



Leaves opposite, petioled, deciduous. Flowers purplish, in cymes on axillary 

 peduncles. Petals inserted beneath the 5-lobed disk. Stamens inserted on the 

 disk. Ovary 3 to 5-celled, the cells 2 to 6-ovuled; style short or none. Cap- 

 sule 3 to 5-lobed, the cells 1 to 2-seeded. Seeds covered with a fleshy red 

 aril. (Greek eu, good, and onoma, a name, used ironically by Theophrastus, the 

 herbage reputed poisonous.) 



1. E. occidentalis Xutt. Western Burning Bush. Erect, slender, 6 to 



