262 STEBCULIACBAB. 



lobes acuminate; petals '•_. in. long; carpels 6 to 10, triangular, attached by 



;i Straight edge to the slender ;txis. 



Abundant in Bubsaline soils throughout the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and 

 South Coast Range valleys. May-Sept, often a pest in orchards on account 

 of its deep-seated roots; called "White Weed" at Klmira. Common on the 

 * • goose-lands ' ' of Glenn < !o. 



STERCULIACEAE. Sterculia Family. 



Shrubs or trees with alternate Leaves and perfect regular or nearly regular 

 5-merous flowers. Stamens united a1 base into a tube. Ovary superior, 5 

 ( or I ) -celled. Fruit a capsule. 



1. FREMONTIA Torr. 



Leaves small, often lobed. Pubescence stellate. Flowers showy, short- 

 pediceled, solitary and axillary on the branchlets. Stipules caducous. Bract- 

 lets 3 to 5, small. Calyx yellow and corolla -like, deeply 5-cleft into round- 

 mate lobes or sepals; these imbricated in the bud, the three inner a little 

 larger, all with a rounded and sharply defined short-hairy glandular area at 

 base. Corolla none. Stamens 5; filaments united to the middle. Style one, 

 elongated, the acute apex stigmatic. Capsule 4 or 5-celled, loculicidally de- 

 hiscent. (General John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder of the Kocky Mountains 

 and Sierra Nevada, and first United States Senator from California, who 

 discovered it.) 



1. F. calif ornica Torr. Flannel Bush. Evergreen; loosely branching 

 and bush-like. (J to L0 ft. high, rarely a small tree as much as 18 ft. high; 

 branches tough and flexible, with many short leaf- and flower-bearing branch- 

 lets or spurs; leaves green above, covered beneath with a dense gray or whitish 

 felt, Vi to 1 in. long, or on sterile shoots somewhat larger; petioles short ; 

 calyx flannel-like, l 1 .. to - in. broad, persistent, the lobes commonly mucronate; 

 capsule ovate, covered with a dense brown felt and with short bristly hairs, % 

 to 1 Vh in. long, persistent. 



Bare in our region: near Cow Mt.. east of Ukiah, Purdy, to southern Lake 

 Hell's Half-acre. Piatt) ; Loma Prieta; Wrights. Abundant in the 

 southern Siena Nevada. Also called ' ' Leatlierwood ' ' and "Slippery Kim.'' 



HYPERICACEAE. St. John's Wort Family. 

 Ours herbs or slightly suffrutescenl plants. Leaves opposite, entire, without 

 Stipules and with pellucid dots or dark glands. Flowers perfect, regular and 

 hypogynous. Sepals 5 (in ours) or 1. herbaceous, persistent. Petals 5 (in 



ours i or I. yellow (in ours). Slamens usually numerous, distinct or more or 



less united into :; to 5 clusters. Ovary superior. 1 or 3-celled. Frail a sep- 



ticidal Capsule. Seed without endosperm. 



1. HYPERICUM L. St. John's Wort. 

 Leaves sessile. Flowers cymose. Sepals 5. Petals 5, deciduous or marces 



cent. Styles iii "ins i'.. Capsule conical to globose or oblong. (Ancient Creek 



Annuals; sepals longer than the petals: styles short; capsule 1-celled. 



from the base, more or less branching; Btamens 6 to 12 1. //. mutilum. 



unbent, forming mats with ascending or erect branches; Btamens IS to 20 



_'. //. anagalloides. 

 Perennials; petals much longer than the sepal--; style- long; capsule 3-celled; stamens 

 \ii> numerous. 



