
STRAWBERRY SHRUB FAM. Calycanthaceae. 
petals, half an inch long, resembling stamens. The real 
stamens have dark-red anthers, but yellow pollen, and 
both petals and stamens are densely crowded around the 
ovary. The round fruit has a narrow neck, concave top, 
and many seeds. In quiet mountain ponds we find these 
yellow flowers, on stout stems standing up out of the water, 
the lily-pads floating idly on its surface. Indians grind 
the seeds into meal for porridge, or else roast them and 
eat them like popcorn. 
STRAWBERRY SHRUB FAMILY. Calycanthaceae. 
A very small family, of only two genera, one North 
American, one Japanese; aromatic shrubs, with opposite, 
toothless leaves, with short leaf-stalks, without stipules; 
flowers large, solitary, at the ends of leafy branches; sepcels, 
petals, and stamens, indefinite in number, in many, over- 
lapping series, passing one into the other, so that one 
cannot tell which is which, and all borne on the receptacle, 
which is hollow, resembling a rose-hip, almost enclosing 
the numerous pistils; stamens short, the inner ones without 
anthers; receptacle becoming a large, leathery, oblong or 
pear-shaped fruit, containing few or many, smooth, shining 
akenes. 
There are three kinds of Calycanthus in this country, 
two of them eastern; flowers purple or red, stamens in- 
serted in several rows. 
This resembles the familiar shrub of 
Strawberry Shrub < 
Fata old-fashioned gardens and the flowers 
occidentalis have the same pleasant and elusive aroma, 
Red something like strawberries, much more 
Summer 
spicy when crushed. The shrub is four 
to ten feet high, with rather coarse, harsh 
foliage and large, handsome flowers, two or three inches 
across, warm maroon in color, shading to brown and 
purple, with yellow stamens. This is handsome and 
conspicuous, because of the uncommon and rich coloring 
of its flowers, and grows along watercourses in the canyons 
of the foothills and is most common in northern California. 
It has many other names, such as Sweet Shrub, Carolina 
Allspice, Wineflowers, etc. 
California 
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