Large Fruited Manzanita 



763 



soon becomes red. The twigs are minutely hairy, ashy-gray, becoming reddish 

 brown. The leaves are ovate to ovate-oblong, blunt or pointed, rounded, or some- 

 times tapering at the base, entire on the margin; they are stiff and leathery usually 

 turned upward by a twist of the stout petiole, which is 6 to 18 mm, long, duUish 

 green and smooth on both sides. The flowers appear from November to March, 

 and are usually in perfection at Christmas, in crowded, somewhat paniculate 

 clusters, on smooth pedicels, their bracts broad, taper-pointed; calyx closely ap- 

 pressed to the broadly urn-shaped, whitish or pinkish corolla; stamens included; 

 filaments shghtly hair^-; ovary smooth or nearly so. The fruit ripens in July or 

 August, is globose, about 8 mm. in diameter, bright brownish red and shining; 

 stone consisting of 5 to 7 more or less firmly united roughish nutlets. 



The berries have an agreeable sour, mealy flesh, and are used for jelly. They 

 were an important article of food of the Califomian Indians. The leaves, con- 

 taining about 8 per cent, of tannin, have been used as an astringent medicine. 

 The brightly shining red branches are employed in the manufacture of rustic 

 work; the wood is used for fuel. 



3. LARGE FRUITED MANZANITA Arctostaphylos glauca Lindley 



An erect shrub or small tree, with a much branched trunk up to 7.5 meters tall, 

 and 3 dm. in diameter, occurring along the Coast Mountains from Mount Diablo, 

 California, southward. 



The twigs are glabrous throughout, the leaves elliptic to broadly ovate, 2 to 

 5 cm. long, sharp or blunt-pointed, rounded or 

 slightly heart-shaped at the base, entire on the 

 margin, or on vigorous young shoots often 

 toothed; they are thick and stiff, pale green, 

 smooth and glaucous on either side, with stout 

 leaf-stalks 6 to 12 mm. long. The flowers ap- 

 pear in March, in flattish, compact panicles, 

 on glandular hairy pedicels pendent in bud, 

 the bracts broad, abruptly taper-pointed, the 

 lowest often leaf-like. The corolla is about 7 

 mm. long and white. The fruit, which is the 

 largest of our species, is slightly longer than 

 thick, about 18 mm. in diameter, shghtly resi- 

 nous-viscid, dull red; the pulp is thin, white and 

 granular; nutlets completely consolidated into a 

 round stone, sometimes 12 mm. in diameter. 



Its leaves are said to be used in the form of 

 an extract, as a remedy in catarrhal affections. 



The Viscid manzanita, Arctostaphylos viscida Parr}% a common shrub of the 

 Coast Mountains and Sierra Nevada foothills, where it occurs with the Cypresses, 



Fig. 698. Large Fruited Manzanita. 



