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March 28, 1907 49 
cultivated ground, the plants fleshy, the larger ones growing in 
mat like masses a foot or more in diameter. ‘The flowers, which 
are open only on bright sunshiny days, show at once that it is a 
member of the Portulaca family. It is more commonly called 
C. Menztestt or C. caulescens var. Menziesii, but that has a 
small flower little exceeding the calyx. 
* RIBES OCCIDENTALE H. & A. Gooseberry. 
This is the common gooseberry in our vicinity, but found 
only at medium elevations, hardly ascending above 1000 feet. 
It is plentiful about thickets among the low hills bordering the 
valley, and even abundant in Los Gatos south of East Main 
street, where it occurs as a dense rounded shrub five or six feet 
high. ‘The flowers are greenish white, and usually very abund- 
ant, hanging from the under side of the branches. The berries, 
which ripen in June or earlier, are a quarter of an inch in diam- 
eter, wine red, sparingly armed with red spines. This species 
is common in the Bay region, extending from Santa Clara north 
to at least Sonoma county. ‘The two cleft style is one character 
which distinguishes it, although no other species resembles it 
unless perhaps R. Californicum. Strangely enough, it was at 
one time considered identical with R. Menztesz, a species with 
large red flowers, found only in the coast region in Mendocino 
and Humboldt counties, and perhaps extending northward into 
Oregon. 
- OSMARONIA DEMISSA Greene. Oso berry. 
That this neat little shrub belongs to the cherry family is 
easily seen. It is two to four feet high, sparingly branched, the 
slender stems upright and rather rigid. The oblong leaves are 
two inches long or less, deep green above, glaucous beneath. 
The few flowered racemes droop from the ends of the branches, 
the flowers white, about a quarter of an inch(in diameter. The 
above name, published by Greene in Pittonia, 5: 310. 1905, is 
apparently the proper one for our plant, not O. cerastformis, a 
species of northern California and Oregon. It is rather common 
