Symphoricarpus. CAPRIFOLIACE^E. 279 



4. SYMPHOEICARPUS, Dill., Juss. SNOWBERRY. 



Calyx 5 -toothed, occasionally 4-toothed, persistent. Corolla nearly or wholly 

 regular, from open campanulate to salverform, 5 4-lobed. Stamens as many 

 as the lobes of the corolla, inserted on its throat. Ovary 4-celled ; two of the cells 

 few-ovuled but sterile ; the two alternate cells each with a solitary suspended ovule, 

 which ripens into a seed : style slender : stigma capitate, entire or 2 4-lobed. 

 Fruit globular and berry-like, ripening two little bony seed-like nutlets, each filled 

 with a seed. Low and branching shrubs, with scaly buds, oval or oblong leaves 

 (entire, or occasionally some of them sinuate-pinnatifid), and 2-bracteolate flowers in 

 axillary and terminal spikes or clusters, rarely solitary ; the corolla white or pink. 



Gray in Jour. Linn. Soc. xiv. 9. 



A North American genus, of several species, at least one of them in the mountains of Mexico. 

 S. racemosus, the common Snowberry of cultivation, and all the California species have snow- 

 white fruit. 



1. Corolla short-campanulate. 



1. S. racemosus, Michx. Shrub erect, 2-4 feet high, smooth, or the lower 

 face of the oblong or ovate-oval leaves pubescent : flowers in commonly terminal 

 short and loose interrupted spike-like racemes, which are often leafy at base, or some 

 solitary in upper axils : corolla very villous within at base of the lobes, which are 

 rather shorter than the tube : style and mostly stamens included. 



Hillsides, from San Diego Co. to Oregon, thence eastward to the Northern Atlantic States. 



The marked variety pauciftorus, Robbins in Gray Man., is not known from California : 

 it approaches the following species. S. occidental-is, R. Br., if on the Pacific side of the continent, 

 is only at the north : it may be known by the deeper-cleft corolla with stronger beard, exserted 

 stamens and style, and greater robustness. 



2. S. mollis, Nutt. Low, diffuse or decumbent, softly and usually densely 

 pubescent : leaves oval, small (half an inch or less than an inch long) : flowers few, 

 in terminal clusters or in upper axils : corolla short and broad, inconspicuously 

 bearded or pubescent inside : stamens equalling the corolla : style shorter. Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. ii. 4. A less downy form is S. ciliatus, Nutt. 1. c. 



Woods, &c., common on the Coast Range, and not rare in the Sierra Nevada up to 5,000 feet. 



2. Corolla from campamdate-oblong to tubular : stamens included : style glabrous. 



3. S. rotundifolius, Gray. Low, soft-pubescent, sometimes minutely so: 

 leaves orbicular or oblong, thickish : corolla between oblong-campanulate and fun- 

 nelform, its tube only twice or thrice the length of the lobes and a little longer than 

 the style : nutlets of the fruit oval, turgid, very obtuse at both ends. PI. Wright, 

 ii. 66, & Jour. Linn. Soc. 1. c. 



Near Carson City, Nevada (Anderson), and in Oregon (Kellogg & Harford) ; therefore, doubt- 

 less, within the eastern boundary of the State ; thence to Utah and New Mexico. Leaves 6 to 

 10 lines long. Corolla not over 4 lines long, broad from the base. 



4. S. oreophilus, Gray, 1. c. Low, glabrous, or in western forms commonly 

 as pubescent as the foregoing, and the leaves similar : corolla tubular-funnelform, its 

 tube 4 or 5 times longer than the lobes and twice the length of the style : nutlets 

 of the fruit oblong, tapering to a point at base. S. montanus, Gray, in Am. Jour. 

 Sci. xxxiv. 249, not of HBK. 



Eastern part of the Sierra Nevada, from Mono Pass (Bolander) to Sierra Valley (Lcmmon) ; 

 thence east to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Corolla 5 or even 6 lines long, and narrow ; 

 but in the ambiguous and more or less pubescent form which prevails on the borders of California, 

 only 4 or 5 lines long and rather broader. The nutlets of the fruit, when seen, mark a strong 

 difference. 



5. LONGIFLORUS, Gray, 1. c., from S. E. Nevada and Utah, has a still longer corolla, with 

 oblong lobes and a bearded style, which well distinguish it. 



