59 



No mention is made of pubescence in this species, but it is pu- 

 bescent throughout, the leaves not noticably so to the naked 

 eye. 



Aiiielaiichier gracilis 



Shrub 5-8 feet hio-h, with erector ascending slender usually 

 wand-like branches, glabrous except for some deciduous woolly 

 hairs in the inflorescence: bark gray-brown, or purplish on the 

 young branches: leaves obovate-oblong or inclined to the ellip- 

 tic, 2-4 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 cm. wide, the largest on young shoots, 

 coriaceous, entire or slightly serrate near the apex, which is 

 either acutish, rounded or rarely truncate: racemes short, 2-5 cm. 

 long, 6-flowered . or less; pedicels stout, 3 or 4 mm. long, the 

 lower rarely longer, ascending: calyx lobes triangular-lanceolate, 

 sharp pointed, barely 2 mm. long, recurved in fruit, woolly pu- 

 bescent, especially inside: petals not seen: ovary densely woolly: 

 fruit immature but apparently nearly full size, globose, 4 mm. 

 in diameter. 



The type is no. 7970, collected June 5, 1905, along the Sac- 

 ramento a short distance below Shasta Springs, Siskiyou county, 

 California. It grew on a narrow bench not far from the water, 

 among other shrubs, unshaded by trees, the ground dry on the 

 surface. 



It is a common custom to refer almost every Amelanchier 

 in and west of the Rocky mountains to A. alnifolia Nutt., the 

 type of which came from "ravines and on the elevated margins 

 OS small streams from Fort Mandan [North Dakota] to the 

 Northern Andes." It is described as "smooth," which state- 

 ment Professor Ne'son corroborates in Bot. Gaz. 40: 66. 1905, 

 where he says: "At maturity it is perfectly glabrous and is quite 

 glabrous from the beginning upon the calyx lobes." Nuttall 

 also says "leaves roundish, the upper part toothed." A careful 

 study of this genus, especially in the field, with good flowering 

 and fruiting specimens from the same shrub, would no doubt 

 bring out several other species, and probably show that A. alni- 

 folia does not occur in California, if indeed upon the Pacific 

 cjast. • 



