} 
IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 53 
intricately branched but erect bush, with yellow flowers appearing 
from May to July, the moderately “tailed” fruits usually being 
fully formed by early August. This species, as well as numerous 
other western shrubs, is frequently called buckbrush; other English 
names often applied to it are antelope-brush, black sage, deer brush, 
and quinine brush. The plant appears in some of the books under 
the name Kunzia tridentata, but Purshia is the older generic name. 
Bitterbrush occurs on dry plains, hills, and mountain sides, mostly 
in well-drained, sandy, cindery, gravelly, or rocky soils, most com- 
monly on south or southwestern slopes, up to about 3,500 feet ele- 
_ vation in the North and Northwest and 9,000 feet toward the 
southern end of its range. It is probably never found in typically 
wet or shaded situations and is frequently associated with species 
of sagebrush, snowberry, mountain-mahogany, serviceberry, and oak 
brush. (PI. 5, A.) 
Despite the characteristic taste of its herbage, alluded to in the 
common name “bitterbrush,” or perhaps partly because of that fact, 
Purshia is one of the most important species of browse plants occur- 
ring on western ranges and in some places ‘is regarded as the most 
important single browse species in the locality. The abundant 
wedge-shaped 3-toothed leaves and the younger twigs, while seldom 
touched by horses, are extensively cropped by sheep, goats, and 
cattle, especially sheep. As the species is usually abundant, 
sometimes being the chief feature of the vegetational landscape, it 
is an important element of the carrying capacity. Its palatability 
appears ordinarily to be greatest in spring, winter and late fall, 
when the evergreen foliage and usual large size of the plant enhance 
its utility. On sheep range its value is increased by an admixture 
of grasses and weeds. In general, bitterbrush may be stated to have 
more value in southern Idaho, Utah, and the Southwest than in Ore- 
gon and the Northwest generally. In northern (especially north- 
eastern) California, however, it is usually held to be good to excel- 
lent browse on sheep range. 
In many places of the West Purshia is one of the chief browse 
plants for game animals, being especially important as a winter and 
early spring feed for deer and antelope. 
Secondary Rosaceous Genera 
Chamiso (Adenostoma fasciculatum), often called chamise and 
ereasewood, is an evergreen, somewhat resinous, mostly spreading 
shrub 2 to 10 feet high, or occasionally higher, having small fascicled 
leaves (fig. 12), and small white flowers. It occurs in the California 
Coast Range (rarely in the Sierra foothills) from Mendocino and 
Lake Counties south to Lower California, and is one of the most 
common and characteristic chaparral species of California, from 
lower middle to high elevations, often forming a transition belt be- 
tween the foothill and yellow pine types. It quickly invades and 
occupies burns, and it is possible that its present abundance is due in 
large measure to this fact. Chamiso is especially characteristic on 
long steep slopes where it forms a chamisal, or dense impenetrable 
thicket, which travelers have frequently likened to the heaths of the 
Old World. It is almost everywhere regarded as a pest, but it is 
possible that it and its congener, redshanks, sometimes called yerba 
