252 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



undoubtedly R. crocea, they do not agree with each other 

 nor with the description, in which the fruit is said to be 

 "greenish-black," and the leaves " thin, repand-mucronate 

 dentate." 



Ehamnus Californica Esch. R. oleifolius Hook. R. 

 tomenteUiis Benth. R. rubra Greene. 



The depauperate form described under the latter name 

 grows at an altitude of from 4000-6000 feet on the east- 

 ern slope of the Sierra Nevada, in poor soil composed of 

 disintegrated granite sand. On the western slope, in richer 

 soil, it is a much more robust plant at the same altitude, 

 and descending along the line of the Central Pacific Rail- 

 road it merges by almost imperceptible gradations into 

 R. tomentellus. The description contains some errors. The 

 author says: "Species allied to the evergreen R. Californica 

 of the western part of California, which is of a quite differ- 

 ent floral character, its calyx segments being rotate-spread- 

 ing, its filaments subulate and sufiiciently elongated to bear 

 the anthers clear above the petals, which latter are entirely 

 destitute of the hairiness which a good magnifying power 

 reveals in R. rubra, so designated partly because it will be 

 an easy and euphonious name, and partly because the outer 

 bark has a red-brown tinge very unlike that of the species 

 with which it will stand in closest juxtaposition." Else- 

 where he says that the berry is two-seeded, pyriform, and 

 the seeds narrowed at the base. 



Examination of hundreds of growing plants of all the 

 forms shows that so far as the flowers are concerned there 

 is scarcely a perceptible difference. The young stems are 

 red-brown, the old ones gray, quite as much so in our sand- 

 hills as at Truckee. The petals are bifid and cucallatein all 

 the foims never " concealing the anther," no more naked in 

 the coast than in the mountain form. The berries of all the 

 varieties are often 2-seeded, and when so are not depressed- 

 globose; those of R. rubra when, as often, 3-seeded, are as 

 much so as in any other form, and the differences of the 



