CEANOTHUS 



3.19 



C. RIGIDUS, Nuttall. 

 (Hot. Mag., t. 4664.) 



An evergreen shrub, 6 to 12 ft. high in this country, with numerous stiff, 

 downy branchlets, and abundant, closely packed foliage. Leaves opposite, 

 5 to ^ in. long ; wedge-shaped, coarsely toothed, and decurved at the apex ; 

 dark "glossy green above, greyish and downy between the veins beneath. 

 Flowers deep purplish blue in short-stalked axillary umbels about \ in. across, 

 but so plentiful as to transform the whole shoot into a stiff panicle of blossom. 



CEANOTHUS RIGIDUS. 



Native of the coast ranges of Central and S. California, and of Monterey 

 where it was found by Hartweg, and introduced for the Horticutural Society 



i47. One of the most beautiful of the Ceanothuses, this, unfortunately, is 



3 one of the tenderest. Against a wall at Kew it grows and flowers well 

 cry season, but in very hard winters is injured or killed even with that 

 -otection It has no chance at all in the open. Like some other species, it is 

 Dt long-lived, and the stock should be renewed occasionally by means of 

 The plants are better in pots until finally planted out. It flowers 

 om April to June. Nuttall's type differs from the plant commonest in 



Uivation m having scarcely toothed leaves and shorter flower-stalks. 



