FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 551 



1. Pachystima myrsinites (Pursh) Raf., Sylv. Tellur. 42. 1838. 

 Ilex? myrsinites Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 119. 1814. 



Apache County to Coconino County, south to Graham and Gila 

 Counties, 7,200 to 9,000 feet, coniferous forests, May to July. Canada 

 to New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 



Myrtle boxleaf, mountain-lover, Oregon-boxwood. A low and 

 inconspicuous ground cover in the mountains. Relished by deer 

 but not much eaten by domestic livestock. 



2. MORTONIA 



Plant a yellowish, scurfy-scabrous shrub up to 1.8 m. (6 feet) high, 

 with many stiff, nearly erect, very leafy branches; leaves alternate, 

 small, leathery, commonly elliptic; flowers small, whitish, in narrow 

 panicles. 



1. Mortonia scabrella A. Gray, PL Wright. 2: 28. 1853. 



Southern Gila, Cochise, and Pima Counties, 3,000 to 5,500 feet, 

 dry plains, mesas, and slopes, often on limestone, March to September. 

 Western Texas to southern Arizona and northern Mexico. 



The var. vtahensis Coville (M. utahensis A. Xels.), has been col- 

 lected in Havasu Canyon, Coconino County (Whiting in 1940) and 

 near Horse Spring, northern Mohave County (Jones 5069J). It 

 differs from the typical form in little but the larger leaves (up to 

 14 mm. long) but has a different distribution, southwestern Utah to 

 southeastern California. 



3. FORSELLESIA 



A straggling, weakly spiny, glabrous or puberulent shrub with green 

 bark, seldom more than 0.5 m. (1.5 feet) high; leaves alternate, short- 

 petioled, the blades entire; flowers axillary, solitary or in small 

 clusters, the petals whitish. 



1. Forsellesia nevadensis (A. Gray) Greene, Erythea 1: 206. 1893. 



Glossopetalon nevadenze A. Gray, Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. 

 Proc. 11: 73. 1876. 



Coconino County and eastern Mohave County, especially in and 

 near the Grand Canyon, 3,500 to 6,500 feet, dry rocky slopes, often 

 on limestone, May and June. Idaho, south to northern Arizona and 

 eastern California. 



Grazed by sheep and deer. 



4. CAXOTIA 



A large shrub or small tree, with numerous rigid, mostly spine- 

 tipped, suberect, rushlike branches and yellowish green bark; leaves 

 reduced to small deciduous scales; flowers in small axillary clusters, 

 inconspicuous, without a disk or this rudimentary; ovary superior; 

 fruit a somewhat woody 5-valved capsule, each valve splitting above 

 into 2 long slender points. 



An anomalous plant in this family. 



1. Canotia holacantha Torr., U. S. Rpt. Expl. Miss. Pacif. 4: 68. 

 1856. 

 Havasu Canyon (Coconino County) and Mohave County to Cochise, 

 Pinal, Maricopa, and Yuma Counties (probably also Santa Cruz 



