ROSE FAMILY 217 



Timosea Peak an individual 13 feet 9 inches high with a crowTi width of 33 feet had (in 1912) 

 a trunk diameter of 30 inches at the ground ; the trunk forked at 3 feet, one limb being 1 foot 

 1 inch in diameter, another 1 foot 2i/^ inches in diameter. On a rocky ridge near Heart Lake, 

 western Inyo Co., it has been noted at 10,500 feet (Peirson 9470). 



The wood is very hard, very heavy, remarkably close-grained and lends itself to the finest 

 turning under a lathe, being susceptible of treatment that is akin to that given iron or copper. 

 Mechanics have for it a great admiration. It is much used to stoke furnaces at desert mines, 

 though artisans voice resentment that so remarkable a wood, occurring in comparatively limited 

 quantities, should be used for such a purpose. The wood is so hard that it is sometimes used for 

 engine bearings. 



Locs. — San Jacinto Mts. (Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. 1:85) ; Cienega Seca Creek, San Bernardino 

 Mts., Mum 6310; Snow Canon, San Bernardino Mts., Jepson; Mt. Wilson, San Gabriel Mts., 

 Peirson 79; Telescope Peak, Panamint Eange, Jepson 7020; upper Kern Canon, opp. Whitney 

 Creek, Jepson ; Timosea Peak, Inyo Co., Jepson 5080 ; Kearsarge Mill to Eex Montis Mine, Inyo 

 Co., Jepson 891 ; Silver Canon, White Mts., Jepson 7224 ; Convict Lake, Mono Co., Almeda Nor- 

 dyTce; Bloody Canon, Mono Co., Jepson; Leevining Canon, Mono Co., Ottley 1080; betw. Deadman 

 Creek and Sonora Pass, A. L. Grant 152 ; Independence Lake, R. E. Piatt; Susanville (mts. ne.), 

 Jepson; upper Fall River Valley, ne. Shasta Co., Jepson; Davis Creek, Modoc Co., Jepson; Fan- 

 dango Pass, Warner Mts., Jepson; Mt. Bidwell, Warner Mts., Manning; betw. Mountain Home 

 and Gazelle, Siskiyou Co., Jepson; Yreka, Butler 1166. 



Eefs. — Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. 1:427 (1840), type loc. "Rocky Moim- 

 tains, in alpine situations on the summits of the hills of Bear River of Timpanagos" (Bear River, 

 Idaho), Nuttall; Jepson, Man. 502 (1925). C. ledifolius var. intercedens f. subglabra C. K. 

 Schn. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 14:128 (1905), type loc. Slate Canon, Provo, Utah, Jones 5615. 



2. C. intricatus Wats. Small-leaf Mahogany. Intricately branched spines- 

 cent shrub 2 to 5 feet high; leaf -blades oblong, dark green and nearly glabrous 

 above, white-pubescent beneath, strongly revolute, the sides nearly meeting under 

 the midrib, 21/2 to 5 lines long; calyx-tube tomentulose, 2 to 3 lines long; tail of 

 achene % to ll^ inches long. 



Desert ranges, 5000 to 7000, rarely to 9800 feet : White Mts.; Panamint Range; 

 Providence Mts. East to Utah. May, fr. July- Aug. 



Locs. — Silver Canon, White Mts., Jepson 7415; Death Valley Canon, Panamint Range 

 (Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4:94) ; Providence Mts., T. Brandegee. Nevada: Miller Mt., Mineral 

 Co., ShocTcley 215 ; Lee Canon, Charleston Mts., Heller 11,047. 



Refs. — Cercocarpus intricatus Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 10:346 (1875); Cary, N. Am. 

 Fauna 42: 68, pi. 15 (1917); Jepson, Man. 502 (1925). C. brm^orws Wats. Bot, King 83 (1871), 

 type loc. American Fork Canon of the Wasatch Mts., Utah, Watson 314; not C. breviflorus Gray 

 (1853). C. ledifolius var. intricatus Jones, Zoe 2:14 (1891), 3:298 (1893). C. intricatus var. 

 typicus C. K. Schn. Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 14:129 (1905). 



3. C. betuloides Nutt. California Hard-tack. Spreading or erect shrub 

 5 to 8 feet high, or a small tree up to 22 feet high; leaf -blades obovate, serrate above 

 the middle, cuneate and entire towards the base, conspicuously feather-veined, 

 dark green above, pale or whitish-pubescent beneath, not resinous, 1/2 to 1 (or 

 rarely 2) inches long; clusters 2 or 3-flowered; flowers 3 lines broad; calyx strigu- 

 lose-pubescent; calyx-tube in fruit reddish, 6 lines long, borne on a pedicel 1 to 4 

 lines long; tail of achene 2 to 3 (or 4) inches long. 



Dry slopes, flats or ridges, in the foothills and mountains, 250 to 5000 feet, 

 throug-hout cismontane California. North to Oregon, east to the Rocky Mts., south 

 to Lower California. Apr. -June. 



Field note. — Cercocarpus betuloides is an important constituent of the hard chaparral 

 formation throughout the Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada and mountains of the cismontane area 

 in Southern California. It rarely forms pure colonies in even a limited way but is sometimes 

 dominant in restricted areas. It crown-sprouts with marked vigor after chaparral fires, and, 

 most interestingly, without the intervention of fire it crown-sprouts, often freely, on the advance 

 of extreme senility. It is almost never truly arboreous, though it often becomes 16 to 20 or even 

 28 feet high (as on Grouse Creek in Tulare Co.), yet commonly retaining the aspect, form and 

 habit of individuals one-third the height or less. On Santa Catalina Island Blanche Trask records 

 extreme heights of "forty feet" (Erythea 7:138). In the very tall chaparral on the South Fork 

 Kaweah River it is forced up to heights of 15 to 22 feet, forming slender somewhat tree-like poles, 

 with the trunks 5 to 7 inches in diameter near the ground. However, even such tall specimens do 



