■286 EOSACEiE. 



Frequent in the Sierra Nevada; rare in the region of San 

 • Francisco Bay (Oakland Hills; Mt. Tamalpais). 



2. C. demissa Nutt. Wbstekn Choke-chekrt. . Erect slender 

 -deciduous shrub, 2 to 10 ft. high; leaves oblong-ovate or more 

 commonly oblong-obovate, acute at apex or abruptly short-pointed, 

 finely serrate, 1 to 3 in. long; petioles |- in. long, with 1 or 2 glands 

 just below its summit; racemes 2 to 4 in. long, terminating more or 

 less leafy peduncles; drupe red or dark purple, 3J lines long, 

 .astringent. 



Common: Sierra Nevada Mountains; middle North Coast Ranges 

 (Napa Mountains); Oakland Hills; Mt. Hamilton, Greene. Eare on 

 the seaboard or altogether absent. Last of Apr.-June. 



3. C. ilicifolia Nutt. Islay. Evergreen, 8 to 18 ft. high; leaves 

 coriaceous, elliptic or ovate, acute or obtuse, spinose-toothed, 1 to 2 

 in. long, short-petioled; racemes 1 to 2J in. long, on axillary leafless 

 peduncles; flowers 2 lines long; drupe red or dark purple, 6 to 8 

 lines thick, slightly obcompressed, apiculate; flesh thin, sweetish 

 when ripe. 



Oakland Hills; San Francisco Peninsula; Loma Prieta and south- 

 ward to. Santa Barbara. May-June. 



14. PRUNUS L. Plum. 



Shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple, serrate, convolute in the 

 bud; stipules free, small or minute. Flowers in umbels borne on the 

 wood of the previous season, appearing before or with the leaves. 

 Cal_yx, corolla, stamens and pistil as in Cerasus. Fruit an ovoid 

 drupe with fleshy sarcocarp of an acid taste and bony stone. Stone 

 smooth, compressed, acutely edged on one margin and grooved on the 

 other. (Classical name of the Plum.) 



1. P. subcordata Benth. Sierra Plum. Shrub 5 to 7 ft. high 

 or sometimes arborescent and 10 ft. high, with crooked and rough 

 gray-brown branches, and more or less spinescent branchlets; leaves 

 ovate, elliptic to almost round, obtuse or truncate at base, rarely 

 subcordate, 2 in. long or less, on petioles 2 or 3 lines long; flowers 

 appearing with the leaves, 2 to 4 in a cluster, on pedicels J in. long; 

 sepals linear or slightly acute, IJ lines long; petals obovate, somewhat 

 concave, 4 lines long; stamens 25 or 30; drupe red, J to nearly 1 in. 

 long, the pulp rather hard but more or less edible. 



Sierra Foothills, more abundant northward. Coast Ranges: Vaca 

 Mountains; Napa Mountains; Oakland Hills. Apr. 



15. HETEROMELES Eoem. 

 Evergreen shrub with simple coriaceous serrate leaves. Flowers 

 white, small, numerous, in terminal corymbose panicles. Calyx 

 turbinate, 5-cleft. Petals 5, spreading. Stamens 10, in pairs oppo- 

 site the calyx-teeth; filaments dilated at base and somewhat connate. 

 Pistils 2, lightly united, tomentose above, and only half-adherent to 

 the fleshy calyx-tube, the thickened persistent calyx-teeth closed 



