I U IN JL V JjJTlOJ 



LIFORH 1 

 CHAPTER VIII 



There are many other shrubs common in the foothills. The most 

 common "scrub" oak is Quercus dumosa, Nutt.; in habit it is 

 similar to other live-oaks. The California "holly" is Heteromeles 

 arbutifolia, Roem.; it is only its red berries, maturing in early winter, 

 that suggest the name holly ; its leaves do not at all resemble the 

 English holly, and its flowers are white and come in midsummer. 

 There is a wild cherry, Prunus ilicifolia, Walp., with pretty, ever- 

 green, spiny-tipped leaves that is really like the true holly. This 

 is a very common shrub on dry hillsides ; under more favorable con- 

 ditions it becomes a handsome tree. Another wild cherry, P. demissa, 

 Walp., has deciduous leaves and fruit with more pulp ; in Southern 

 California this cherry is limited to the mountains. Both cherries 

 have fragrant, white flowers in spring time, and are much visited by 

 bees. Perhaps our most useful shrub is Rhamnus Calif arnica, Esch., 

 since from its bark the highly prized medicine, cascara sagrada, is 

 obtained. The common name of this shrub is coffee plant, since its 

 dark red fruits, with their two great seeds, resemble coffee berries. 

 The true wild honeysuckle, Lonicera (or Caprifolium), with pale 

 flowers and perfoliate leaves, blooms in late spring or in summer ; its 

 near relative, the Symphoricarpus, or snow-berry, matures its white 

 fruits in autumn. The botanical name for the manzanita is Arcto- 

 staphylos; for the mad rone, Arbutus, and for the mountain mahogany, 

 Cercocarpus betulccfolius, Greene ; all of these bloom in early spring 

 time. 



There are some showy shrubs that are not so widely distributed. 

 The tree poppy will be noticed in the next chapter ; Fremontia Cali- 

 fornica, Torr., is a very striking shrub of the drier foothills of the 

 Sierras. There are shrubs or small trees belonging to two genera of 

 the family Malvaceae ; theLavatera assurgentiflora, Kell., or tree mal- 

 low, has large, rose-colored flowers, and nutritive, mucilaginous leaves, 

 of which grazing animals are very fond ; this malva is a native of the 

 coast islands, and has become rather common about seaboard towns. 

 Several species of Malvastrum in the southern foothills are shrubs, 

 one of them, M. Davidsoni, Robinson, is sometimes fifteen feet high. 

 Like other plants of arid regions, they are of slender habit, and their 

 gray-green foliage forms a fitting background for the exquisite, 

 delicate-pink flowers. The introduced shrubs, the castor oil plant, 

 and the tree tobacco, are referred, perhaps unjustly, to the chapter on 

 weeds, and a number of the lower shrubby plants that bloom in sum- 

 mer are described in Chapter XV. The woody climbers, the wild 

 blackberry and the grape, should be noted in field work with the 

 shrubs and trees. 



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