133. ARCTOSTAPHYLOS PUNGENS COMMON MANZANITA. 33 



GENUS ARCTOSTAPHYLOS, ADANSON. 



Leaves alternate, thick, coriaceous, persistent (in all but one Arctic-alpine species), 

 entire or irregularly toothed. Flowers white or rose-colored, from the axils of per- 

 sistent bracts, in terminal and often clustered racemes ; calyx small, free from the 

 ovary, 4-5-parted nearly to the base, with membranous persistent lobes ; corolla gauao- 

 petalous, hypogyuous, subglobose to urn-shaped, and with 4-5 short, obtuse, re- 

 curved lobes ; stamens 10 (occasionally 8), included, inserted on the base of the 

 corolla ; the anthers 2-celled, furnished near the apex with 2 reflexed awns and the 

 cells opening each by a terminal pore ; pistil same as in the genus Arbutus, but with 

 single suspended ovule in each cell. Fruit drupaceous or berry-like with thin, dry 

 and somewhat austere flesh, and 5-10 seed-like, compressed bony nutlets, or seine- 

 times more or less united into a 5-10-celled, or by obliteration even singled-celled, 

 nutlet, each cell containing a single suspended seed. 



Genus represented by shrubs or small trees of several interesting but no sharply 

 defined species, mostly Californian. (The name is from the Greek a puro 1 -,, a bear, 

 and tiracpvXrh berry.} 



133. ARCTOSTAPHYLOS PUNGENS, HBK.* 

 COMMON MANZANTTA. 



Ger., Calif or nianische Barentraube ; Fr., Busserole de Calif ornie ; Sp., 



Manzanita comun. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to oval, mostly obtuse or acute 

 and mucronate at apex, and mostly rounded or obtuse at base, 1-2 in. in length, 

 more or less vertical upon the branchlet by a twist in the stout petiole, very rigid, 

 pale and usually glaucous-green, entire or sometimes on young vigorous shoots den- 

 tate ; branchlets, petioles and peduncles minutely cinereous-tomentose when young, 

 or glabrous (not hispid-hairy). Flowers in short crowded racemes, white or pinkish, 

 with short glabrous pedicels ; stamens with filaments strongly ciliate-bearded ; ovary 

 glabrous. Fruits smooth, flattened-globose, about in. or less in diameter, yellowish 

 at first but turning to a dull red, with thin mealy flesh and separate outlets, or only 

 one or two pairs cohering, % in. or less in length. 



(The specific name, pungens, is the Latin for pointed, and of rather obscure applica- 

 tion, perhaps referring to the pointed nature of the leaves.) 



The Manzanita is usually a shrub of but a few feet in height with 

 many crooked stems and tortuous branches, but occasionally it attains 

 the dimension of a low wide-spreading tree. The largest we have seen 

 was 18 ft. (4.50 m.) in height, with a very short trunk 7 ft. (2.10 m.) in 

 girth at the smallest place, and sending out immediately low wide- 

 reaching branches, making a spread of 48 ft. (14.50m.), the branches 

 taking root where they touched the ground. The bark of the Manzanita 

 is very smooth, close and of a rich brownish-red or mahogany color, and 

 as the outer layer annually exfoliates in thin, papery curved scales, what 

 is left is almost as thin as paper. 



HABITAT. The Pacific Coast region from Oregon southward into 

 Mexico, and eastward to Utah and New Mexico, growing on dry ridges 

 and mountain slopes of great range of altitude. 



* Arctostaphylos Manzanita, Parry. 



