20 



ERICACEAE 



beneath with a gland-dotted felt; petals elliptic-ovate, 2V2 to 3 lines long; stamens 

 10; filaments ciliate toward the base; capsules oval, 2 lines long; pedicels recurved 

 in fruit. 



Colonizing borders of wet meadows, lake shores or marshy places : Sierra Ne- 

 vada, 4000 to 9000 (or 11,000) feet, from Tulare Co. to Lassen Co. ; along the coast, 

 20 to 500 feet, from the Santa Cruz Mts. to Del Norte Co. North to Oregon and 

 thence east to the Rocky Mts. June-July. Poisonous to sheep. 



Locs.' — Sierra Nevada: Mt. Silliman, Tulare Co., Bopping 317; Williams Mdw., Kings Eiver, 

 Jepson 760; Huntingtou Lake, Ferguson 395; Kaiser Eidge, Jepson; Bloody Canon, Mono Co., 

 Jepson; Mt. Lyell, Jepson 3352; Soda Springs Caiion, Kennedy Lake, Tuolumne Co., A. L. Grant 

 505; Pacific Valley, Alpine Co., Jepson 10,158; Heather Lake, Eldorado Co., Jepson 8166; Lake 

 Angeline, Placer Co., Sonne 207; Castle Peak, Nevada Co., Sonne; Scales Diggings, Sierra Co., 



C. B. Bradley: Mineral, Tehama Co., J. Grinnell; Lassen 

 Creek, Lassen Co., R. M. Austin 145. Coast Ranges: Boul- 

 der Creek, Santa Cruz Co., C. A. Meed: Inverness, Marin 

 Co., Jepson 8306 ; Pitkin swamp, Sonoma Co., M. S. Bal-er; 

 Ft. Bragg, W. C. Matheivs 117 ; Big Lagoon, Humboldt Co., 

 Tracy 6728; Gasquet, Del Norte Co., Davy. 



Refs. — Leduii glandulosum Nutt., Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. ser. 2, 8:270 (1843), type loc. "Thornberg's ravine," 

 central chain of the Rocky Mts., Nuttall; Jepson, PI. W. 

 Mid. Cal. 369 (1901), ed. 2, 311 (1911), Man. 740, fig. 722 

 (1925). 



2. RHODODENDRON L. 



Ours shrubs with alternate entire leaves 

 crowded on the flowering branches. Flowers in 

 umbels or corymbs, from terminal buds with thin 

 deciduous scales. Calyx small. Corolla funnel- 

 form to campanulate, cleft, often somewhat iiTeg- 

 ular. Stamens 5 or 10. Style filiform; stigma 

 capitate or somewhat lobed. Fruit a septicidal 

 5-celled capsule, the valves separating from the 

 columella. — Species about 100, North America, 

 Europe and Asia. (Greek rhodos, rose, and den- 

 dron, tree.) 



Deciduous; flowers commonly white; stamens 5, exserted 1. S. occidentale. 



Evergreen; flowers rose-pink; stamens 10, included 2. S. californicum. 



1. R. occidentale Gray. Western Azalea. (Fig. 281.) Loosely or widely 

 branching shrub 3 to 8 (rarely to 14 or 21) feet high; leaves thin, the blades nar- 

 rowly or broadly obovate, 1 to 4 inches long, ciliate, otherwise nearly glabrous; 

 calyx 5-parted, its lobes ovate or oval, ciliate, 1 to 2 (or 3) lines long; corolla white 

 or sometimes pink, IY2 to ITs inches long, 5-cleft, slightl.y irregular, the upper lobe 

 with a large yellow splotch, the tube funnelfonn, glandular-viscid outside; ovary 

 denseh' pubescent with whitish gland-tipped hairs. 



Stream banks or moist fiats, rarel.y on open slopes, rather common : Cuyamaca, 

 Palomar and San Jacinto mountains, 5000 to 6000 feet; Sierra Nevada, 3500 to 

 7500 feet, in Kem Co. and from Fresno Co. to eastern Siskiyou Co.; Coast Ranges 

 (excepting the inner ranges), 50 to 4800 feet, from San Benito Co. to Del Norte 

 Co. North to southwestern Oregon. May-Jul.y. 



Geog. note. — Though so widely spread in montane country throughout the state, there are 

 curious gaps in the distribution of Rhododendron occidentale. It is not known in the Kaweah 

 River basin, although found northward and southward in the Sierra Nevada. While it occurs 

 in the chain of mountains facing the Colorado Desert, from the Cuyamaca Mts. to the San Jacinto 

 Mts., it is apparently absent from the San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Santa Inez and Santa Lucia 

 ranges, in all of which there would seem to be favorable habitats. The shrub sprouts from the 

 root-crown or stump when the top is destroyed. The flowers have a somewhat distinctive odor. 

 Sheepmen justly fear the herbage as poisonous to their flocks. 



d 



Fig. 280. Ledum gl.^ndulosum 

 Nutt. a, flowering branchlet, X % ; 

 6, long. sect, of fl., X 2 ; c, stamen, 

 X i; d, capsule, X 2. 



