198 SAXIFRAGE .E. 



cleft below the middle : petals white, spatulate-oblong', shorter than the 

 calyx-lobes : berry small, oval, blue with a heavy bloom ; pulp firm, 

 black, insipid. — From Del Norte Co. and perhaps Humboldt, northward 

 to British Columbia ; perhaps not within our limits ; replaced in middle 

 California by the three following closely related species, or subspecies. 



6. R. g-latiuosum, Benth. Trans. Hort. Soc. i. 476 (1835) ; Walp. Rep. 

 ii. 360 : R. sanguineum, var. gbuinosum, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 207 (1876). 

 Near the last but larger, 6—1 5 ft. high; the bark of young branches 

 pale and shining, sparsely scabro-puberulent : leaves thin, 3 — 5 in, 

 broad, glutinous when young, glabrous or more or less pubescent in age; 

 petioles divaricate, very abruptly dilated at base and obscurely ciliolate : 

 racemes long-peduncled, pendulous, very many-flowered : calyx with two 

 conspicuous but caducous bracteoles at base, cleft scarcely to the middle, 

 from pale pink to rose-color : berry large, globose, blue with a dense 

 bloom, and glandular-hispid ; pulp black, dry, insipid. — Common on 

 moist banks of streams, and around springy places, at low altitudes in 

 the Coast and Mt. Diablo Ranges, chiefly or exclusively in the middle 

 section of the State, not in the Sierra. Too unlike R. sanguineum to be 

 a mere variety of it ; yet hardly more than a geographical subspecies, 

 and remarkable, as a currant, for the long interval between the flowering 

 of the shrub and the ripening of its fruit. In flower from January (or 

 even Dec.) to March. Fruit not ripe until August or September. They 

 who have described the berries of these shrubs as " bitter " must have 

 made their test before it had become mature. No fruits can be more 

 absolutely tasteless when ripe. 



7. R. malvaceum, Smith, Rees Cycl. xxx, (1815) : R. hibulosum, Esch. 

 Mem. Acad. Petersb. x. 283 (1826). R. sanguineum, var. malvaceum, Gray, 

 1. c. Shrub low and compact, 3 — 6 ft. high ; growing branches canes- . 

 cently tomentulose, glabrous and red when mature : leaves thick, 1 — 2 

 in. broad, strongly rugulose and somewhat scabrous above, more or less 

 densely white-tomentose beneath ; the slight stipular dilatation of the 

 petiole only obscurely ciliolate : racemes short-peduncled, ascending, 

 dense ; pedicels and ovaries whitish-tomentose : calyx-tube subcylindri- 

 cal, abruptly dilated and broadest just above the ovary ; segments short, 

 spreading, the whole rose-color : petals white, roundish or subreniform : 

 berry oval, I3 in. long, purple, glaucous ; pulp soft and sweet. — On dry 

 open hills of the Coast Range, from Bolinas Ridge, Drew, southward ; 

 very common in San Mateo Co., and Monterey ; occasional in Contra 

 Costa and Alameda, Species exceedingly well marked in habit, foliage, 

 flower and fruit. Fl. Mar. Apr. Fr. Apr. May. 



8. R. Nevadense, Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. i. 63 (1855) : R. malva- 

 ceum, Kell. 1. c. 46, not of Smith : R. sanguineum, var. vanegalum, Wats, 

 partly. Rather slender, loosely branching, 3—6 ft. high : bark of young 



