256 THYMELAEACEAB. 



thickly matting the ground; branchlets often reddish, at first pubescent; leaves 

 green <>n both Burfaces, glabrous or finely flocculent-pubescent beneath, thick 

 and ftrm, euneate-obovate, coarsely and pimgently 3-toothed at the apex, and 

 commonly with 1 or 2 similar teeth at or above the middle; flowers blue; fruit 

 globose, not lobed, with 3 large wrinkled horns on each valve and 3 inter- 

 mediate crests, 3 to 4 lines long. 



Sierra Nevada, wdiere it is common, covering the ground with broad green 

 patches in the Yellow Pine (Pinus ponderosa) woods; Mt. Shasta; southward 

 in the North Coast Ranges through the Folio Bolly Mts. and Snow Mt. to 

 Cobb Mt. where it passes into the following: Var. divergens Brandegee. 

 Low scrambling shrub with horizontally spreading, trailing or almost procum- 

 bent branches; leaves more dentate-spinose than in the type, almost sessile, 

 4 to 6 lines long; flowers blue; capsules about 3 lines in diameter, with the 

 horns more lateral. — Mt. St. Helena; Sonoma; Marin Co.; Santa Cruz Co. 

 May. 



THYMELAEACEAE. Mezereum Family. 



Our deciduous shrubs with simple entire alternate leaves and no stipules. 

 Flowers perfect, with corolla-like shallowly 4-cleft calyx. Stamens inserted 

 upon the calyx, twice as many as its lobes. Corolla none. Ovary superior, 

 1-celled; ovule 1, pendulous. 



1. DIRCA L. Leather wood. 



Flowers in fascicles from buds containing flowers and leaves. Scales of the 

 bud yellowish or whitish, silky, forming an involucre to the flowers, caducous. 

 Calyx slightly oblique, tubular below, expanded into a short throat - above. 

 Stamens 8, 4 exserted, the alternate shorter, inserted at the base of the 

 throat. Style slender, exceeding the stamens. Fruit drupe-like, reddish. 

 (Classical Greek name of a celebrated fountain in Boeotia, the plants 

 growing in moist places.) 



1. D. occidentalis Gray. Western Leatherwood. Erect shrub 2 to 4 

 feet high, with very tough stems and leathery bark; leaves oval or obovatish, 

 1 J ■_. to 2 inches long; flowers yellow, in clusters of 2 or 3 from lateral and 

 terminal buds, nodding; calyx 4 lines long. 



Coast Ranges near the sea: Santa Cruz, ace. Dr. Anderson, Pilarcitos, 

 C. T. Blake, 1893, and .north to Marin Co., ace. Greene. Oakland Hills (type 

 Inc. Dr. J. M. Bigelow), north slopes in canons. Feb.-Mar. 



VITACEAE. Vine Family. 



Woody plants, mostly climbing by tendrils. Leaves in ours simple, alternate. 

 Flowers small, regular, greenish or whitish, in a compound thyrse. Calyx 

 minute, the limb mostly obsolete and truncate. Petals 5 (4 or 6), valvate, 

 caducous or early deciduous, the stamens as many and opposite them. Fruit 

 a 2-celled berry. Seeds with a thick and bony testa. Embryo minute, in 

 a tough endosperm. 



1. VITIS L. Grape. 



Leaves opposite the tendrils or flower clusters. Tendrils at least once 

 branched. Calyx-tube filled with the disk, which bears the stamens and 

 petals. Ovnhs 2 in each cell. (Classical Latin name.) 



1. V. californica Benth. California Wild Grape. Leaves roundish, 

 tomentose, especially beneath, the tomentum in age floeculent, 2 to 5% in. 

 broad, coarsely or minutely dentate, cordate at base with open or closed 

 sinus, slightly or not at all Lobed, or frequently with a sinuatcly 3 to 5- 





