28 ERICACEAE 



2 to 4 feet, or at the ground 5 to 6 feet. A remarkable tree is the Council Madrono, which stands 

 on the southerly slopes of the Wilder Kidge near Ettersburg in Humboldt County and was so 

 named when first discovered by the author in 1902. A faultless individual 75 feet in height and 

 90 feet in crown diameter, its trunk at 16 inches above the ground was 24 feet, 1% inches in girth 

 as measured in 1902 (Jepson Field Book, 9:19). Ten years later Albert F. Etter reported it as 

 24 feet 4 inches around the trunk and with a crown circumference of 270 feet. In 1936 it meas- 

 ured 28% feet in circumference at the smallest part of the trunk (Jepson Field Book, 56 :191-192). 



In June the vegetative shoots of the season burst forth from the terminal buds and the old 

 leaves turn downward on their petioles and hang, usually by July 1, in a dry red tuft beneath the 

 new foliage. These old leaves fall in July and August. In midsummer too, the handsome red- 

 brown bark begins to exfoliate, revealing beneath a new base of apple green, which color soon 

 changes into vivid terra-cotta and finally ages a burnished tawny red. 



Arbutus mcnziesii seeds freely and readily establishes abundant seedlings. At the age of 3 

 to 6 years the seedlings develop a tuber-like swelling at the ground level. From this woody en- 

 largement regeneration shoots arise after forest fires. In competition with Quercus kelloggii, aa 

 in the Hoods Peak range, the seedlings of Arbutus menziesii are sufficiently shade-tolerant to 

 grow rapidly and at last overtop that species and kill it. The wood has been used in the manu- 

 facture of furniture and large quantities are used as charcoal by the powder companies of Cali- 

 fornia. When, however, it is exposed to the elements it disintegrates rapidly under the combined 

 attacks of fungi and wood-boring insects. 



Locs.— S. Cal.: Roderick Mt., San Diego Co., C. F. Meyer 798; Palomar Mt., 0. E. Bailey; 

 Santiago Peak, Santa Ana Mts., G. S. Hall; Santa Anita Canon, San Gabriel Mts., Peirson 140; 

 Las Tunas Canon, Santa Monica Mts. (Dav. & Mos., Fl. S. Cal. 271) ; Santa Cruz Isl., a single 

 tree, ace. E. Boffmann. South Coast Eanges: San Antonio trail, Santa Lucia Mts., Jepson; Valley 

 View School, below Glenwood, Jepson 16,922; Waddell Creek, Santa Cruz Co., Jepson; Oakland 

 Hills, Jepson. North Coast Eanges: Mt. Tamalpais, Jepson; Howell Mt., Napa Range, Jepson 

 5308; Weldon Caiion, Vaea Mts., Jepson; Cazadero, Jepson; Hawley School near Willits, Jepson 

 2409; Martin ranch, mouth of South Fork Trinity River, Jepson 2004; Forks of Salmon, Jepson; 

 Quartz Creek, Del Norte Co., Jepson. Sierra Nevada: Packards Gulch, 10 mi. w. of Croekers sta., 

 Mariposa Co., ace. L. C. Elwell ; Colfax Sprs., ace. Kimball Easton; betw. Nevada City and Grass 

 Valley; Camptonville, Sierra Co., Jepson; Berry Creek, Butte Co., Jepson; Sims sta., Shasta Co., 

 Jepson. British Columbia: Departure Bay, Jepson. 



Refs. — Akbutus menziesh Pursh, Fl. 282 (1814), type loc. "Northwest Coast," Menzies; 

 Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 372 (1901), ed. 2, 312 (1911), Silva of Cal. 272, pis. 82-83 (1910), Trees 

 of Cal. 135, fig. 84 (1923), Man. 744, fig. 728 (1925). 



10. COMAROSTAPHYLIS Zucc. 



Evergreen shrub or small tree with alternate coriaceous leaves. Flowers white, 

 in structure like Arctostapliylos, borne in racemes. Racemes solitary or clustered, 

 from terminal buds. Ovary 5-celled, one ovule in each cell. Fruit red, berry-like, 

 consisting of a solid stone densely covered with pulpy clavate or somewhat obovoid 

 granules attached at base; stone 3 to 5-celled. — Species about 12, California and 

 Mexico. ( Greek komaros, the Arbutus, and staphule, a grape, referring to the clus- 

 ters of edible fruit.) 



1. C. diversifolia Greene. Mock iVBBUTE. Shrub 6 to 10 feet high ; bark gray- 

 ish-brown, not readily exfoliating; leaf-blades oblong, serrulate, glabrous, green 

 and shining above, white-tomentulose beneath, markedly revolute, 1 to 1% inches 

 long; petioles 1 to 3 lines long; racemes 1 to 1% inches long; rachis, pedicels and 

 calyx tomentose; flowers 2 to 3 lines long; calyx-lobes ovate to lanceolate, acute; 

 corolla minutely and thinly puberulent; ovary set in a green disk, densely hairy; 

 berry red, often tipped with the persistent style. 



Dry slopes and mesas, 50 to 1500 feet: Santa Inez Mts.; Santa Monica Mts.; 

 western San Diego Co. South to Lower California. Apr. -June. 



Taxonomic note. — The appearance of this Californian species of Comarostaphylis is quite 

 imlike that of typical Californian Arctostaphyli. The bark is grayish-brown (exfoliating tar- 

 dily), while the leaves have conspicuously revolute margins and are not vertical. While the flow- 

 ers are in all respects those of Aretostaphylos, even to the hairy filaments strongly dilated at base, 

 the fruits are in no wise simOar, but more resemble those of Arbutus. Comarostaphylis diversi- 

 folia, moreover, flowers in early summer, while our species of Aretostaphylos flower mostly in 

 winter or early spring. 



