Symphoricarpus. CAPRIFOLIACE.E. 279 



4. SYMPHORICARPUS, Dill., Juss. Snowberry. 

 Calyx 5-tootlied, occasionally 4-toothed, persistent. Corolla nearly or wholly 

 regular, from open campanulate to salverform, 5 - 4-lobed. Stamens as many 

 as the lobes of the corolla, inserted on its throat. Ovary 4-celled ; two of the cells 

 few-ovuled but sterile ; the two alternate cells each with a solitary suspended ovule, 

 which ripens into a seed : style slender : stigma capitate, entire or 2 - 4-lobed. 

 Fruit globular and berry-like, ripening two little bony seed-like nutlets, each filled 

 with a seed. — Low and branching shrubs, with scaly buds, oval or oblong leaves 

 (entire, or occasionally some of them sinuate-pinnatifid), and 2-bracteolate flowers in 

 axillary and terminal spikes or clusters, rarely solitary ; the corolla white or pink. 



— Gray in Jour. Linn. Soc. xiv. 9. 



A North American genus, of several species, at least one of them in the mountains of ilexico. 

 S. racemosus, the common Snowberry of cultivation, and all the California species have snow- 

 white frait. 



§ 1. Corolla short-camjyanulate. 



1. S. racemosus, Michx. Shrub erect, 2-4 feet high, smooth, or the lower 

 face of the oblong or ovate-oval leaves pubescent : flowers in commonly terminal 

 short and loose interrupted spike-like racemes, which are often leafy at base, or some 

 solitary in upper axils : corolla very villous within at base of the lobes, which are 

 rather shorter than the tube : style and mostly stamens included. 



Hillsides, from San Diego Co. to Oregon, thence eastward to the Northern Atlantic States. 



— The marked variety pauciflorus, Robbins in Gray Man., is not known from California : 

 it approaches the following species. S. occidental is, K,. Br., if on the Pacific side of the continent, 

 is only at the north : it may be known by the deeper-cleft corolla with stronger beard, e.xsertei 

 stamens and style, and greater robustness. 



2. S. mollis, Nutt. Low, diff"use or decumbent, softly and usually densely 

 pubescent : leaves oval, small (half an inch or less than an inch long) : flowers few, 

 in terminal clusters or in upper axils : corolla short and broad, inconspicuously 

 bearded or pubescent inside : stamens equalling the corolla : style shorter. — Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. ii. 4. A less downy form is S. ciliatus, Nutt. 1. c. 



Woods, &c., common on the Coast Range, and not rare in the Sierra Nevada up to 5,000 feet. 



§ 2. Corolla from camptanidate-oblong to tubular : stamens included : style glabrous. 



3. S. rotundifolius, Gray. Low, soft-pubescent, sometimes minutely so : 

 leaves orbicular or oblong, thickish : corolla between oblong-campanulate and fun- 

 nelform, its tube only twice or thrice the length of the lobes and a little longer than 

 the style : nutlets of the fruit oval, turgid, very obtuse at both ends. — PI. Wright, 

 ii. 66, & Jour. Linn. Soc. 1. c. 



Near Carson City, Nevada (Anderson), and in Oregon {Kellogg <£• ffar/ord) ; therefore, doubt- 

 less, within the eastern boundary of the State ; thence to Utah and New Mexico. — Leaves 6 to 

 10 lines long. Corolla not over 4 lines long, broad from the base. 



4. S. oreophilus, Gray, 1. c. Low, glabrous, or in western forms commonly 

 as pubescent as the foregoing, and the leaves similar : corolla tubular-funnolform, its 

 tube 4 or 5 times longer than the lobes and twice the length of the style : nutlets 

 of the fruit oblong, tapering to a point at base. — aS'. montanus, Gray, in Am. Jour. 

 Sci. xxxiv. 249, not of HBK. 



Eastern part of the Sierra Nevada, from Mono Pass {Bohmdcr) to Sierra Valley {Lemmon) ; 

 thence east to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Corolla .') or even 6 lines long, and narrow ; 

 but in the ambiguous and more or less pubescent form which prevails on the borders of California, 

 only 4 or 5 lines long and rather broader. The nutlets of the fruit, when seen, mark a strong 

 difference. 



5. LONGIFLORUS, Gray, 1. c, from S. E. Nevada and Utah, has a still longer corolla, with 

 oblong lobes and a bearded style, which well distinguish it. 



