HEATHER (Bryanthus Br6weri, Gray). Flowers crimson, 

 saucer-shaped, about \ inch across, stamens and style much 

 exserted; borne in showy clusters at the branch ends. Leaves 

 stiff and crowded, bristling out on all sides of the stems, linear 

 with rolled-back margins. 



Bryanthus is a genus of heath-like, arctic-alpine plants, 

 of which the Pacific Coast has two or three. Of these B. 

 Breweri is the best known and will be observed by every visitor 

 to the High Sierra of California, where it spreads its charming 

 mats of ruddy bloom over gravelly slopes and about mountain 

 tarns throughout July and August. It begins to appear at 

 about 10,000 feet elevation. It occurs as far south as the sum- 

 mit of Mount San Gorgonio in Southern California. 



The botanical name means Moss-flower, given, Doctor Gray 

 tells us, because the originally described species grew among 

 mosses; and the specific name commemorates the geologist 

 Wm. H. Brewer of the California Geological Survey of hah* a 

 century ago. The popular name Heather seems well estab- 

 lished, but is somewhat unfortunate, as the Heather of litera- 

 ture is quite dissimilar to this, and is not a Pacific Coast plant. 



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