IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 37 
Creeping hollygrape (Odostemon repens), the commonest of our 
west-American species, is a low trailing species ranging from south- 
eastern British Columbia to northeastern California, New Mexico, 
and the Black Hills region of the Dakotas. In 1919 a loss of cattle 
on a driveway of the Tonto National Forest, Ariz., was attributed 
by the stockmen to this species. C. D. Marsh, of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, called 
attention to the fact that, although the plant is not very poisonous, 
certain toxic alkaloids have been found in hollygrapes. 
Oregon hollygrape (O. aquifolium) (pl. 3, A), usually known 
simply as Oregon grape, has a distinct northwestern range, from 
British Columbia to Oregon. It is a tall erect shrub, 3 to 6 feet or 
occasionally even 10 feet high, and is the State flower of Oregon. 
Oregon hollygrape has no forage utility, but is a valued ornamental 
and the root bark is in the drug trade. 
Red hollygrape (O. haematocarpus) and Frémont hollygrape (0. 
fremonti) are two large shrubs of the Southwest characteristic of 
brush types in the pifion-juniper belt. Maematocarpus occurs also 
at lower elevations in the catclaw belt. This species is one of several 
known by Mexicans variously as algerita, agarita, agrillo, and 
agrito(s). It has juicy, blood-red berries, whereas fremontii has dry, 
inflated, dark-blue berries. Neither species is ordinarily regarded 
as forage, but national-forest officers report that cattle and horses 
crop the leaves and tender shoots of red hollygrape in the Tonto 
Creek country, presumably, however, in the winter season or when 
other feed is scarce. Red hollygrape berries are highly prized for 
domestic jellies and preserves. 
SWEETSHRUB, OR CALYCANTHC(US) FAMILY (CALYCANTHACEAE) 
SWEETSHRUBS (CALYCANTHUS SPP., SYN. BUTNERIA) 
This group of about six species of ornamental shrubs, whereof 
only one occurs in the West, has no known browse interest save 
as a source of sickness or losses under overgrazed or other abnormal 
conditions. Chesnut (17) reports that the notably oily and sugary 
seeds of the eastern Calycanthus fertilis have the reputation of 
poisoning cattle in Tennessee, and on analysis by Harvey W. Wiley 
a high alkaloid content was found in them (144). A very poisonous 
alkaloid, calycanthin, resembling strychnine in its action, occurs 
in the frequently cultivated (. floridws and may perhaps be present 
in other species of the genus (94, pt. 2). 
California sweetshrub (C. occidentalis), known also as California 
calycanth, strawberry-shrub, bubby-bush, and sweet-scented shrub, 
the only member of the genus occurring in the West, is an erect 
branching shrub (fig. 6) 5 to 12 feet high, with thin and usually 
large leaves. The bark has a pungent, somewhat camphorlike taste. 
The species is common in many localities of the Sierra Nevada and 
northern Coast Range Mountains of California, occurring along 
er near mountain streams at medium or lower elevations. The 
flowers, crushed leaves, and wood have a peculiar fragrance likened 
by most persons to that of crushed strawberries. Ordinarily live- 
