IN CALIFORNIA 111 



are numerous species, mostly shrubs but some tall 

 enough to be regarded as small trees. Most of 

 them are very showy in the spring with the abun- 

 dant blooms, which while individually small are 

 borne in great profusion in clusters and trusses of 

 white and various shades of blue, giving tone to 

 whole mountainsides. Many species revel in the 

 hot sunshine of dry sterile slopes amid gravel and 

 loose rocks, while others are found in cool canons 

 by living streams or in the protecting shadows of 

 oaks or conifers. To the mountain traveler in 

 California they are among the most familiar of 

 shrubs, and they furnish to cattle and sheep men a 

 valuable browse for their flocks and herds. There 

 is one species of ceanothus indigenous to eastern 

 woodlands, whose leaves in Eevolutionary days 

 were turned to a very different use the making 

 of tea for such of our ancestors as could not or 

 would not buy the real article from England. 



Better known to Californians than these wild 

 lilacs, is another shrub or little tree of the chapar- 

 ral, Heteromeles arbutifolia, whose red berries are 

 universally sought in December for Christmas 

 decorations. It is variously known as toyon, 

 Christmas berry, or California holly, though it is in 

 no sense a holly, but a cousin to the rose. In Great 

 Britain, where it was introduced over a century 



