HEATH FAMILY 43 



dular; berry elevated-globose or globose, dull white or later light brown, 4 to 6 or 

 8 lines broad ; nutlets 4 or 5, or sometimes coalescing into one channeled or ribbed 

 stone, the stone forming tardily. 



Dry slopes, 2500 to 4500 (or 5700) feet: Sierra Nevada foothills from Placer 

 Co. to Tulare Co. Feb.-Apr. 



Biol. note. — Arctostaphylo3 mewukka occurs chiefly in a belt between A. patula on the upper 

 side and A. viscida (or A. mariposa) on the lower side, though less abundant than any of those 

 species. It was first named by the zoologist, Clinton Hart Merriam, although he omitted from 

 his description the most important biological fact concerning it, namely that this species does 

 not sprout from the root-crown after fire. Its berry was used as a food by the native tribes and 

 also by white settlers. It is of interest that, as naturalists have observed, the native squirrels of 

 the Pinus ponderosa belt differentiate between Arctostaphylos mewukka and A. patula ; they eat 

 the berries of the former but not those of the latter. 



Loes. — Shingle Sprs., Eldorado Co., F. B. Herbert : Yankee Hill, Columbia, A. L. Grant 598 ; 

 Bald Mt. near Sonora, A. L. Grant 553; Strawberry, Tuolumne Co., A. L. Grant 888; Cold Spr., 

 North Fork Tule Eiver, Jepson 4704. 



Eefs. — Arctcstaphylos mewukka C. H. Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 31:101 (1918), 

 type loc. Colfax (3 mi. above), on ridge between North Fork American River and Bear River, 

 C. H. Merriam. A. pastiUosa Jepson, JIadroiio 1:83, 93 (1922), type loc. Cold Spr., Tuolumne 

 Co., Jepson 6456; Jepson, Man. 748 (1925). 



14. A.pungensH. B. K. Mexican Manzanita. Shrub (2 or) 3 to 8 feet high; 

 branchlets puberulent or sometimes white-tomentulose ; leaf-blades oblong to ellip- 

 tic, abruptly or somewhat obscurely short-acute, mucrouate, finely pubescent or 

 microscopically tomentulose, eventually glabrate or often rather glossy, 8 to 10 

 lines (rarely to l^/i inches) long; pedicels glabrous; panicles small, (^/4 to % inch 

 long) or reduced to a raceme ; berries usually somewhat depressed-globose and 3 to 

 4 lines broad, but variable in size and sometimes eccentric in shape, glabi-ous, dark- 

 brown or terra-cotta, shining; nutlets distinct, dorsally ridged. 



Sandy summits or rocky slopes, 800 to 5500 feet : Marin Co. ; South Coast 

 Ranges ; south to the San Jacinto Mts. ; moiuitains of eastern San Diego Co. East 

 to Arizona, south to Mexico. Mar. 



Geog. note. — Arctostaphylos pungens is a shrub whose center of distribution is probably in 

 the Mexican highlands. It ranges northward and has been collected at many stations in Arizona. 

 The shrubs of eastern San Diego County appear to be quite typical and are thus well included in 

 the species. Shrubs of Mt. Tamalpais (A. montana Eastw.), a feature of the serpentine on the 

 southeasterly end of the Bolinas Ridge, have long been referred to this species by the writer. 

 In these shrubs the branchlets and rachises are usually though not always canescently puberulent, 

 while the branchlets and rachises in shrubs of cismontane Southern California are best described 

 as minutely puberulent, though sometimes they are canescent. Aside from this, there is a wide 

 geographic discontinuitj- between Marin County and the San Jacinto and Cuyamaea mountains, 

 which has not been as yet satisfactorily bridged. The stations here cited for this interval are 

 represented by specimens only in flower or only in fruit or lacking both flowers and fruit. Many 

 stages in the way of specimens and essential facts as to the life-history are needed before clear 

 judgment as to range is possible. The shrubs of Mt. Tamalpais, above referred to, have also an 

 affinity with Arctostaphylos hookcri and might be referred to that species save for their thick 

 leaves. The leaves of Arctostaphylos hookeri are relatively thin. 



These Tamalpais shrubs are interesting. They are common locally on the high ridges of 

 Mt. Tamalpais and distributed over the north slope as far as Lake Lagunitas and San Geronimo 

 Ridge. As to habit, though not othermse, this form is markedly variable. The following habit 

 types have been observed: (a) on road to West Peak one-fourth mile ne. of Mountain Theatre, 

 erect shrub 8 feet high, the distinct trunk 13 inches high and 4% inches in diameter at 6 inches 

 above the ground; (b) on road, vrithin 50 yards easterly of preceding, shrub 14 inches high, many 

 decumbent stems, forming a plant 5i/o feet broad: (c) about % mile easterly from Mountain 

 Theatre on Williams Trail along ridge to West Peak, shrub O'/i feet high, 24 feet broad, all the 

 stems from one central root ; (d) on Williams Trail at west foot of West 3Pe;ik, shrub with tniiling 

 stems forming a circle 9 feet across, the ascending branchlets 8 to 12 inches high, thus making a 

 large rough mat. This prostrate form may also be found on the Eldridge grade, nortli slope of 

 the mountain, in places where outcropping serpentine makes "open.s" in the chaparral (Jepson 

 Field Book, 39:27, 28, 30,-1921; 57:21, 22,-1936. ms.). The tr.ailing stems strike root, but 

 there is no root-crovra sprouting after fire. 



Locs. — Marin Co.: Geronimo Ridge, Ewan 10,177; Lake Lagunitas, Chesnut 4' Drew; Mt. 

 Tamalpais, Jepson 4761. South Coast Ranges: Picacho Peak, s. San Benito Co., Hall 9947; Stone- 



