Geanothus, or " Mountain Sweet " 



represented in the European flora ; in fact, all the species 

 cultivated here come from North and Central America, 

 where they form a large part of the " chapparal " or 

 dense brushwood of the middle elevations of the coast 

 range. 



In its native place the bark of this species is used 

 by the natives to reduce fever. 



Another magnificent Ceanothus is C. veitchiamis, 

 which flowers earlier in the year, often at the begin- 

 ning of May. Its foliage is very different from the 

 preceding species, for the leaves are small, often less 

 than an inch in length, and dark with varnished sur- 

 face. The flowers are in rounded clusters instead of in 

 spikes, and they are a richer, deeper blue, and so 

 thickly set upon the shrub that it seems clothed in a 

 royal mantle. It is a native of California, and was 

 first sent thence to Messrs. Veitch in England by their 

 collector, Thomas Lobb, in 1859, to whom reference is 

 also made under the heading of the escallonias and 

 the deutzias. 



Ceanothus thyrsiflorus the Thryse-flowered Ceano- 

 thus is also sometimes planted, but it is not so 

 beautiful as the other two. The blossoms have a 

 distinctly greyish tinge in their blue (in fact, in one 

 variety, griseits, they are quite grey), and they are 

 arranged in thick spires. It is interesting as one of 

 the hitherto unknown plants that Dr. Archibald Menzies 



87 



