1914] Fernald,— The alpine Bearberries 31 
solid stone," while in Arctous there are “4 or 5 separate 1-seeded 
nutlets.” This statement in regard to Arctous is unquestioned; but 
what are the demonstrated facts in regard to Arctostaphylos? In 
Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi the nutlets are commonly more or less fused, 
but anyone who will take the trouble to examine the ripe fruits of a 
large series of specimens can see for himself that on occasional plants 
there are fruits which, when pressed between the thumb and first 
finger or under the thumb-nail, quickly crush into 5 distinct nutlets! 
If he is keenly enough interested to examine other species, for example 
A. pungens HBK., one of the commonest of Manzanitas, he will 
have the same experience. In both these common plants and in many 
other species of Arctostaphylos he can find fruits with all the nutlets 
coherent, with some of them coherent and others free, or with all of 
them distinct. This again is not merely the writer's observation: 
it belongs to that common store of knowledge which a very slight study 
of the literature of the group (to say nothing of the specimens) quickly 
brings into prominence. Thus, in the Botany of California the sec- 
tion including most of the Manzanitas is described: "the stones 
commonly separate or separable, at least some of them, not rarely 
some of them united or 2-celled and 2-seeded";! in the Synoptical 
Flora of North America the section Uva-ursi, containing Arctostaphylos 
Uva-ursi, tomentosa, pungens, etc., is said to have “its nutlets separate 
or separable, or irregularly coalescent."? Jepson, dealing only with 
the Manzanitas (true Arctostaphylos) says: "Nutlets distinct, irregu- 
larly united in 2s or 3s, or sometimes consolidated into a single stone," ? 
and Abrams, dealing with the Manzanitas of southern California, says: 
“Ovules solitary in the cells, which become bony nutlets or combine 
into a few-several-celled stone," * and describes Arctostaphylos Man- 
zanita with “nutlets irregularly separable,” A. tomentosa with “nut- 
lets all separate or some united in pairs," and A. Pringlei with “ nut- 
lets consolidated into a rough carinate stone, or separable.” The 
maintenance of Arctous, then, because its nutlets are separate, as 
opposed to Arctostaphylos with nutlets coalescent, is as artificial as its 
maintenance because of “deciduous” leaves. 
There remains the one absolute fact, that in Arctostaphylos the pulp 
1 Gray in Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal. i. 452 (1876). 
2 Gray, Syn. Fl. ii, pt. 1, 27 (1886)., 
3 Jepson, Fl. W. and Mid. Cal. ed. 2, 312 (1911). 
4 Abrams, Fl. Los Angeles and Vic. 291 (1904). 
