THE PACIFIC COAST ALDERS. 35 B 



First, then, in reference to the species under considera- 

 tion, the most striking fact is the unusually early period of 

 flowering, equally true of the most southern and northern 

 plants. Thus no sooner do the leaves of the previous sea- 

 son, having fulfilled their office of nourishing the forming 

 buds, begin to fade and loosen their attachment — though 

 often retaining their hold until early winter — than the flow- 

 ering spikes both staminate and pistillate begin to swell, 

 and by early January the male catkins are fully developed, 

 and the stigmas protuberant. In spite of occasional sharp 

 frosts the process of fertilization proceeds, and by February 

 1st, at least as far north as the lower Sacramento valley, is 

 mainly completed; the swollen winter streams over which 

 they lean, as well as the adjoining banks, being copiously 

 strewn with the effete male tassels resembling torpid cater- 

 pillars. 



During all this active vital process, the leaf buds remain 

 dormant, mostly retaining their deciduous scales. Thus, 

 during the month of February, the trees display their smooth 

 naked branches, barely relieved by the matured seed cones 

 of the previous season, which, with the winter rains, relax 

 their scales to discharge their wingless seeds; a remarkable 

 contrast to the more exclusively coast species, A. rubra 

 which at the present time, March 1st, is only just loosening 

 its male catkins in connexion with the rapidly swelling leaf 

 buds. 



Still farther, a close examination of the male catkins thus 

 early developed, shows a floral character hitherto unnoticed, 

 applying equally to the northern and southern forms, 

 which will require an extension of the generic char- 

 acter of Alnus as laid down in systematic botanical 

 works. Thus in the latest authority, Benth. & Hook., Gen. 

 PI. Ill, p. 404, the staminate flowers are described 

 as with "four stamens and very short filaments.'* 

 Now in the species under consideration, while in 

 other respects agreeing closely with the ordinary characters 



25— Bull. Gal. Acad. Sci. II. 7. Issued ilay 5, 1887 



