22 



ERICACEAE 



Field note. — Eliododendron californicum is very eominon in the great coastal Eedwood belt 

 between KJamath River and Crescent City. It is especially abundant just north of Wilson Creek, 

 whore for six miles it is the dominant on the forest floor. Hit;hly developed in this region, the in- 

 dividuals range from 10 to 15 feet in height, or even up to 26 feet. The understory often forms 

 an almost perfect canopy and when in flower in June there is presented to the traveler an impres- 

 sive spectacle of the Redwood area. This species also occurs in the chaparral formation on Mt. 

 Tamalpais, on French Camp Ridge in Humboldt Co. and in Del Norte Co. In the north it is in 

 such situations (says J. P. Tracy) a bush about 6 feet tall and quite different in habit from the 

 straggling tree-like shrubs of the dense forest belt. 



Locs. — Malpaso Creek, Monterey coast, if. A. Greene; WaddeU Creek, Santa Cruz Mts. ; Mt. 

 Tamalpais (ridge w. of Mill Valley), comm. Adeline Frederick ; Ft. Bragg, Jepson ; betw. Kenny 

 and Usal, Mendocino Co., Jepson 2222; Trinidad, Humboldt Co., Geo. B. Parrish; Mud Sprs., 

 Trinity Summit, Davy 5762; Prairie Creek, Jepson; Crescent City (e. of), Goddard 383; Gasquet, 

 Tracy 12,373. 



Kefs. — Rhododendron californicum Hook., Bot. Mag. t. 4863 (July 1, 1855), type from 

 Cal., Lohh; Jepson, PI. W. Mid. Cal. 369 (1901), ed. 2, 311 (1911), Man. 741, fig. 724 (1925). 



3. MENZIESIA Sm. 



Shrubs with alternate deciduous leaves. Wiiilcr bu<ls terminal, the scales stri- 

 gose-chaffy. Flowere greenish-purple, appearing with the leaves but from separate 



buds and borne in clustei's on nodding pedi- 

 cels. Calyx small, flattish, bristlj'-ciliate, 

 usually 4-lobed, rarely 5-lobed. Corolla eylin- 

 dric-urnshaped, 4-toothed or -lobed. Stamens 

 S. Anthers opening by a terminal pore or 

 chink. Style filiform; stigma 4-lobed. Cap- 

 sule ovoid, woody, 4-eelled, 4-valved, many- 

 seeded. Seeds slender. — Species 7, North 

 America and Asia. (Archibald Menzies, sur- 

 geon and botanist of the Vancouver Expedi- 

 tion.) 



1. M. ferruginea Sm. Mock Azalea. 

 (Fig. 283. ) Slender shrub 6 to 15 feet high ; 

 leaf -blades thin, obovate, acutish, serrulate, 1 

 to 3 inches long, glandular-mucronate at apex, 

 thinly strigose above, the midrib below pro- 

 vided with a few scarious subulate flattened 

 hairs; petioles 1 line long; pedicels glandular- 

 pubescent. 10 to 13 lines long; calyx ver.y shal- 

 lowly and obtusely 4-lobed; corolla yellow- 

 ish-green with pink lobes, 3 to 4 lines long; 

 capsules "iYz lines long, on erect pedicels. 



Shady woods, 100 to 1000 feet : near the 

 coast in Humboldt and Del Norte Cos. North 

 to Alaska. June. 



Locs. — Humboldt Co.: Freshwater Creek, Tracy 



2676; Prairie Creek (head of), Tracy 3110; Russ 



C,rovp,E. Frits. Bel Norte Co. : Graycs Grove, E. Fritz. 



Itefs. — Menzif.sia perruoinea Sm., Ic. PI. Ined. t. 56 (1791), type loc. "in Amerieae borealis 



tractu occidentali," Men:ics; Jepson, Man. 742 (1925). 



Fig. 283. Menziesia ferrttoinea Sm. 

 a. flowering branchlet, X % : b, long, 

 sect, of fl., X 2; c, stamen, X 3 ; rf, cap- 

 sule, X 2. 



4. KALMIA L. American Laurel 



Ours low subalpine or diminutive alpine shrubs with glabrous herbage. Leaves 

 opposite, coriaceous, evergreen. Flowers in umbels terminating the branches. Ca- 

 lyx deeply S-jiarted. Corolla saucer-shaped. 5-lobed, with 10 pouches below the 

 lobes and sinuses. Stamens 10, each pouch of the corolla holding ;in anther. ( )vai-y 

 5-celled, the placentae borne at the summit of the cells. Capsule septicidally 5- 



