BOTANY. 99 
are often eaten by the Indians and grizzly bears, but there is 
too little meat on them to pay white men for the trouble of 
gathering them. The shrub grows in the coast valleys, and 
in the Sierra Nevada, up near to the limit of perpetual snow. 
The name. means “little apple,” manzana being the Spanish 
for apple. 
§ 75. Ceanothus.—The ceanothus, sometimes called the Cali- 
fornian lilac, of which there are many species, is a beautiful 
evergreen shrub, growing about ten feet high, with clusters 
of lilac-like flowers, of various shades of blue, violet, and red, 
according to the species. The tree produces a multitude of 
little twigs, and a dense foliage, and may be trimmed into 
almostgany shape. 
§ 76. Oaks.—The Californian white oak. ( Quercus hindsii), 
or long-acorned oak, is a very large tree, and the characteristic 
oak of California. It resembles the white oak of the Atlantic 
slope in the color of its bark and the shape of its leaves; but 
its growth is very different. It seldom reaches a greater 
height than sixty feet, and is often wider than high. Some- 
times it measures one: hundred and twenty-five feet from side 
to side. The trunk, which occasionally grows to be eight feet 
through, throws out large horizontal boughs within ten feet 
of the ground, and above that point the trunk is soon lost 
among the large branches. The tree furnishes no straight 
timber, and the wood is so soft and brittle as to be of no use 
in the arts; whereas the white oak of the Mississippi valley is 
a most valuable tree, with a trunk so tall and straight, timt 
sills and beams of it sixty feet long are common, and with a 
wood so tough, that it supplies all the axles and plough-beams 
of the country. The Californian white oak is not even fit for 
fence-rails. 'The tree, however, is very beautiful and majestic, 
and the open groves of it in the valleys and foot-hills form, as 
Dr. Newberry says, “the most important element in those - 
scenes of quiet beauty which so often excite the admiration of 
the traveller in California.” The tree bears much resemblance 
in form and size to the oak of England, the groves of it appear- 
