46 PACIFIC STATES FLORAL CONGRESS. 



the species known commonly as Cascara Sagrada, there are others with 

 much the same character medicinally. The most beautiful species of 

 Ehamnus* is one not included under Cascara Sagrada. Instead of pur- 

 ple-black berries, this species has berries of a bright scarlet, and the 

 bushes look more like true holly when in fruit than any other Californian 

 shrub. I remember seeing a bush once in the foot-hills of the Sierra 

 Nevada, with glossy, spiny, evergreen leaves, and the stems so thickly 

 laden with fruit that nothing of the stem could be seen. 



One shrub is especially dreaded by all who have to explore the un- 

 broken thickets. This is known as spiny chaparral, or needle bush. 

 Botanists call it Pickeringia or Xylothermia. It is beset all over with 

 sharp thorns, which tear the clothes and lacerate the skin of those who 

 penetrate its fastnesses. The foliage is pale green, the leaves small 

 and not noticeable, and the flowers crimson pea blossoms, which clothe 

 this inhospitable shrub with a glorious mantle. It is an ideal hedge 

 plant, which would well protect the fields around which it might be 

 planted, for neither man nor beast would dare to penetrate such a 

 rampart. There are several other shrubs belonging to the leguminous 

 family, of which the red bud (Cercis occidentalis Torr) is the most 

 beautiful. It is abundant in Lake and Mendocino Counties, and in the 

 foot-hills and lower mountains of the Sierra Nevada. When it blooms 

 in the early spring, scarcely anything can be seen but the crimson flowers 

 thickly clothing the stems, with the tiny green leaves peeping out be- 

 tween, scarcely out of their swaddling buds. These leaves are almost 

 as beautiful as the flowers when they reach their fullest development. 

 In the summer come the purple-tinged pods, like autumn leaves amid the 

 green foliage. The red bud does not form a part of the chaparral, gen- 

 erally growing along the banks of streams or in places that do not 

 become very dry in the summer. 



The rose family probably has more representatives among Califor- 



nian shrubs in both individuals and species than any other. To this 



family belongs the Adenostoma, known commonly as chamisal, chemise 



brush, and greasewood. Often it is the only shrub over great tracts of 



ountry. It has heather-like leaves, and at the tops of the branches are 



panicles of tiny white flowers somewhat resembling meadow-sweet. 



the blooming period has passed, the panicle becomes brown, and 



color of the landscape turns a rusty hue, that is onlv enlivened by 



f an occasional 



The Christmas berry, or Toyon, belongs also to the rose family. Its 

 -pamcles of white flowers change in the fall to bunches of bright red 

 s,_so much used for Christmas decoration. This might easily be 

 *R. crocea Nutt and its varieties. 



