44 PACIFIC STATES FLOHAL CONGRESS. 



over great patches. While these have inconspicuous flowers, they all 

 have "glossy, evergreen leaves almost as beautiful as holly, and 

 are most picturesque when laden with fruit. Closely related to the 

 oaks is the Cinquapin, or California chestnut. The color of the leaf is 

 green and gold, dark, rich green on the upper side and gold on the lower. 

 In late summer the stems are adorned with bunches of very prickly, 

 dark brown burs. In northern California it becomes a fine tree, but 

 as such is quite rare. The hazel, another member of the oak family, 

 inhabits the stream banks more than the hillsides, though on some of 

 the hills near San Francisco it forms part of the brush. In the spring 

 its gracefully-branched stems, laden with pendent catkins, add greatly 

 to the beauty of the landscape. 



Perhaps no shrubs of the chaparral are so interesting and so char- 

 acteristically Californian as the manzanitas. The species differ so in 

 different localities that they arc at present but little understood, and ii 

 is impossible to say how many species are to be found in the state. All, 

 however, have the same general character, evergreen leaves of tough 

 texture, stiff and erect or spreading, mahogany-colored stems almost 

 glossy in their smoothness, and oftentimes great panicles of rosy or 

 pearly-white bells, like lilies-of-the-valley. honey scented, full of attrac- 

 tion for the bees and other insects. Some species begin to bloom soon 

 after the first rains have fallen, in October or November, and from then 

 until May in the Coast Mountains and until June or July in the Sierrn 

 Nevada, the succession is kept up. There are no more attractive flowers, 

 typical of the purity and innocence of the infancy of the new year. In 

 the late summer the fruit becomes ripe. When the berries are fully 

 grown, but not fully ripe, they resemble tiny, rosy-cheeked apples. From 

 this appearance comes the name "manzanita," or little apple. A great 

 part of the winter nourishment of the birds and beasts comes from these 

 fruits, which persist until the bushes are almost ready for the next 

 season of flowering. 



One of the most beautiful species is Arctostapliylos Stanfordiana 

 Parry, which grows on the hills of Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Napa 

 Counties. The flowers are smaller than in the other species, of a deeper 

 rose color, with delicately-branched panicles and slender stems. The 

 foliage is dark green, forming. a fine setting for the lovely floAver clus- 

 ters. Some species form queer-looking trees, with short trunks spread- 

 ing into stout branches, which divide and subdivide so that the result 

 is a low tree with spreading top, scarcely a true tree, though the trunk 

 is quite distinct. 



. Besides the manzanitas belonging to the heather family are many 

 other shrubs more generally cultivated and more showy. Tho aznloti 

 and the rhododendron are the best known. In the northern Pacific 



