IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 65 
close of the season; cattle will frequently not crop it until after 
frost. The bushes produce a large amount of accessible herbage. 
In some localities the species is quite susceptible to rust and this 
obviously greatly lessens its browse value. Flett (39) states that 
the Oregon jay, or “camp robber” (Perisoreus obscurus) and the 
Clark i (Nucifraga columbiana) relish the fruits of this moun- 
tain-ash. 
Greene mountain-ash (S. scopulina) is easily the commonest and 
often the sole species of the genus occurring in the Rocky Mountain 
region south of the Montana-Wyoming line. It has a very wide 
range, extending from Labrador to Alberta and possibly eastern 
Oregon south to Arizona, New Mexico, and in an indefinite line 
eastward to Michigan and Pennsylvania. The shrub is common 
in many parts of the range, mostly on sandy gravelly or rocky 
slopes and in canyons, between 4,500 and 8,500 feet elevation, often 
growing in association with snowberry, oak, elder, meadowrue, and 
sweet cicely. In general it is of most value late in the season, per- 
haps after frost, and appears to be of greatest browse utility in 
Utah and southern Idaho where it is often’considered very good or 
excellent sheep feed. When in association with a good stand of 
highly palatable species, however, it is likely to be cropped but little. 
Pacific mountain-ash (S. sééchensis),* a smooth shrub (perhaps 
occasionally a small tree) 4 to 16 feet high, with coarse ascending 
branches, ranges from Alaska to Idaho, and California. It is a 
denizen of the (mostly high) mountains, chiefly in the yellow and 
lodgepole pine zones (Transition and Canadian) but sometimes 
extending up into the whitebark pine zone (Hudsonian) as well. 
Brewer and Watson (7/3) give its altitudinal distribution in the 
Sierra Nevada as 6,000 to 10,000 feet, though Jepson (67) indicates 
7,000 to 9,000 as the usual limits. In Washington and Oregon the 
species usually occurs between 2,500 and 5,000 feet. It favors moist 
hillsides and sandy loam soils (frequently those with an acid re- 
action), often occurring in small thickets in open stands of shrubs 
and trees, a very frequent associate being redberry elder. 
Pacific mountain-ash can hardly be regarded as more than fair 
browse, at least on properly grazed allotments, and apparently is 
rather more readily taken by sheep than cattle. It merits recogni- 
tion here more from commonness than palatability to livestock. 
OTHER GENERA 
Oregon crab apple (Malus fusca, syn. M. rivularis) (116, 3) vari- 
ously known as wild crab apple, Pacific apple, Oregon crab, or col- 
loquially shortened to crab, is a small tree 15 to 40 feet high, or 
sometimes shrubby and about 6 to 10 feet high, mostly spiny-twigged 
and rather variable. It is probably the only native apple (Malus) 
found in the Western States. Reaching its best development in 
western Oregon and Washington, it ranges from the Aleutian 
archipelago down the Pacific coast to California, in rich bottom 
and valley lands, along streams, and in swamps, often forming 1m- 
144 Authors preferring to merge the mountain-ashes in the pear genus call this species 
Pyrus sitchensis. Other botanists prefer to regard it as a variety of the eastern American 
mountain-ash, Sorbus americana, 
2(299°—31——__5 
