492 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Varying greatly in size from a low bush in the higher 

 mountain districts, to a small tree, with low branching 

 trunk, often over a foot in diameter. It differs from the 

 Mexican A. pungens, HBK, to which it is has been usually 

 referred, in its more robust habit, its broadly obtuse foliage, 

 its prolonged inflorescence, size of fruit, period of flower- 

 ing, etc. 



It is one of the earliest flowering species, often in full 

 bloom for Christmas decorations; in the higher mountains 

 the flowering period is delayed till May; fruit matures in 

 July and August. As a cultivated shrub it is rather shy, 

 but succeeds tolerably well in natural parks, where it is 

 least disturbed by the processes of cultivation. The leaves 

 of young seedlings are always sharply serrate. 



The geographical range of this species, as above defined, 

 cannot at present be satisfactorily determined, though its 

 fullest development is in the lower foot-hills of the coast 

 range north of San Francisco, and on each side of the Sac- 

 ramento Yalley, thence extending in reduced forms to the 

 high Sierras north and south, probably crossing the range 

 into Nevada. 



8. A. viscida. ^- gluuca in part, of various authors, notLindl. 



Branching from the base 5 — 15 feet high; branches 

 smooth, reddish, leaves smooth glaucous, finely net-veined, 

 petiolate, varying from broad ovate to sub-cordate or del- 

 toid, entire, abruptly short -mucronate; inflorescence pro- 

 longed in a slender spreading panicle, rachis slender, 

 smooth, bracts small, oval, acuminate, pedicels densely 

 glandnlar-viscid, four to five times exceeding the inconspic- 

 uous bracts, which become coated with the copious adhe- 

 sive viscidity; flowers light pink, calyx with thin margins, 

 corolla short - urceolate, style slender, ovary smooth; fruit 

 orbicular, horizontally flattened, and umbilicate at the base 

 and summit, 3 lines broad, 2 lines high, light yellow to dull 

 brown at maturity; pericarp smooth, copious white granular 



