_Staff-Tree Family_
Shrubs with simple evergreen leaves, and regular perfect flowers,
sepals, petals, and stamens each 4 in our species.
[Sidenote: =Pachystima myrsinites= (Pursh) Raf. _Mountain Lover._]
Low evergreen shrub, densely branched or nearly simple, 1—3 feet high.
Leaves opposite, smooth, ovate to oblong or lanceolate, cuneate at
the base, the upper half serrate or serrulate ½—1 inch long on very
short petioles. Flowers small in axillary cymes; petals 4, stamens 4,
inserted at the edge of the broad disc.
In gravelly and stony situations extending from the Valley of the
Columbia River at Beavermouth, westward throughout the Selkirks, the
minute blossoms appearing in the latter part of May; a pretty but very
variable shrub in habit and leaf form.
[Illustration: Pachystima myrsinites (Pursh) Raf. (½ Nat.) Mountain
Lover.]
[Illustration: Viola adunca longipes (Nutt.) Rydb. (⅔ Nat.) Dog
Violet.]