VOL. T,J Rhamnus Californica. 241 



Nuttall, in Torrey & Gray's Flora of N. A., describing specimens 

 from about Santa Barbara, says, **^. oleifolms * * pentandrous, 

 fruit 2-seeded, globose, veins oblique and rather remote;'* and in 

 the next paragraph describes, from the same region, R, laurtfolitis 

 Nutt. with a possible R, leucodennis, as **tetrandrous, veins approx- 

 imated." Yet, differently as these are made to appear, no one 

 now supposes they are anything but R. Californica. 



Of the recent species proposed between the already too near R. 

 Californica and R. PurshianUy the northern one, R. occidentalism 

 is sought to be established on a character (the yellowness of the 

 lower surface of the leaves) which is very common in most forms 

 oi R. Californica^ but not constant even in R. crocea, of which 

 it is supposed to be characteristic. R. riih'a^ was described 



as being 2-seeded and very unlike R. Califoryiica in the red- 

 brown tinge of the branches; but it having been shown;}; that 

 the character given was almost exactly that of the last species as 

 found in the western part of San Francisco, the author rejoins with 

 a somewhat dramatic account § of how Mr. Belding had assured 

 him, while at the Calaveras Big Trees last June, ** that he was confi- 

 dent it could not be {_R. Califor7iicd\, for the berries are red and 

 not unpalatable." Mr. Belding is a zoologist making no preten- 

 sions whatever to botanical knowledge. He has a reputation for 

 scrupulous honesty in all his statements which it is greatly to be re- 

 gretted is not shared by all naturalists. Of course hewas unaware 

 how very improbable it was that any species closely related to 

 Californica should have such fruit, and that he was contradicting the 

 statements of two botanists— Mr. C. F, Sonne of Truckee, and the 

 writer, both perfectly familiar with the shrub on both slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada. However, to disabuse Mr. Belding s mind of the 

 impression it had received several years before, when he had com- 

 pared this mountain form with tomentella, the only other one known 

 to him and which he had supposed to be typical Californica, hewas 

 requested to secure fruit when it should be ripe (in September) from 

 the bushes the red fruit of which he had tasted. This fruit, sent in 



^Pitt.ii, 15. 



tPht. i, 68, 160. 



JProc. Cal. Acad., ser. 2, i, 252 



$Pitt ii, 14-15. 



