ERICACER, SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 123 
ARBUTUS MENZIESII. 
Madrofia. 
Ovary glabrous. Leaves oval or oblong, entire or rarely serrate. 
Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh, 77. Am. Sept. i. 282 (1814). — Gazette, ii. 88. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. ii. 276 
Sprengel, Syst. ii. 286.— Don, Gen. Syst. ili. 834. — De (in part).— Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census 
Candolle, Prodr. vii. 582.— Dietrich, Syn. ii. 13887. — U.S. ix. 97. 
Hooker, #7. Bor.-Am. ii. 36.— Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Arbutus procera, Lindley, Bot. Reg. xxi. t. 1753 (1836). — 
Voy. Beechey, 143. — Klotzsch, Linnea, xxiv. 72. — Loudon, 1rd. Brit. ii. 1121. — De Candolle, Prodr. vii. 
Nuttall, Sylva, iii. 42, t. 95.—Torrey, Pacific R. R. 582. — Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1387. — Paxton, Mag. Bot. ii. 
Rep. iv. 116; Bot. Wilkes Explor. Exped. 378. — New- 147, t.— Walpers, Rep. vi. 416. — Klotzsch, Linnea, 
berry, Pacific Rk. R. Rep. vi. 23, 79, £ 22. — Cooper, xxiv. 71. 
Pacific R. R. Rep. xii. pt. ii. 29, 66. — Lyall, Jour. Linn. Arbutus laurifolia, Hooker, #7. Bor.-Am. ii. 36 (not Lind- 
Soc. vii. 131.— Gray, Brewer & Watson Bot. Cal. i. 452 ley) (1840). 
(in part) ; Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. 27 (in part).— Hall, Bot. 
A tree, eighty to a hundred and ten feet in height, with a tall straight trunk four to seven feet 
in diameter and upright or spreading stout branches which form a narrow oblong or broad round- 
topped head. The bark of old trunks varies from one third to one half of an inch in thickness, and 
has a dark reddish brown surface broken into small thick plate-like scales; that of young stems and of 
the branches is smooth and bright red, and separates into large thin scales. The branchlets, when they 
first appear, are light red, pea-green, or orange-colored, and are glabrous, or on vigorous young plants 
are sometimes covered with pale scattered hairs which usually soon disappear ; in their first winter they 
turn bright red-brown. The winter-buds are obtuse, a third of an inch long, and covered by many 
imbricated broadly ovate bright brown scales which are keeled on the back, apiculate at the apex, and 
slightly ciliate on the margins. The leaves are oval or oblong, rounded or contracted into short points 
at the apex, and rounded, subcordate, or wedge-shaped at the base, with slightly thickened revolute 
entire, crenate, or occasionally on young plants sharply serrate margins; when they unfold they are 
light green or often pink, especially on the lower surface, and are glabrous or slightly puberulous, and 
at maturity they are thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale or often nearly white 
below, three to five inches long and an inch and a half to three inches wide, with thick pale midribs 
rounded on the upper side, and conspicuously reticulated veinlets; they are borne on stout grooved 
petioles half an inch to an inch in length and often slightly wing-margined towards their apex ; and, 
appearing in early spring, remain on the branches until midsummer of their second year, when they 
begin, gradually and irregularly, to turn to an orange or scarlet color, and to fall. The flowers appear 
from March at the south to May at the north, and are borne on short slender puberulous pedicels 
produced from the axils of acute scarious bracts with ciliate margins, and gathered in spicate pubescent 
racemes which form a terminal cluster five or six inches in length and breadth ; they are a third of an 
inch long, with scarious white calyx-lobes, white globular corollas, and glabrous ovaries. The fruit, 
which is drupaceous, ripens in the autumn and is subglobose or occasionally obovate or oval, half an 
inch long, bright orange-red, and covered with thin glandular flesh surrounding a five-celled more or 
less perfectly developed thin-walled cartilaginous stone, containing in each cell several seeds tightly 
pressed together and angled, and covered with dark brown pilose coats. 
Arbutus Menziesii is distributed from the islands of the British Columbia coast at Seymour 
