IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 143 
has widely escaped from cultivation and become well established 
from western Texas to southern California (occasionally elsewhere 
northward and eastward, especially in the South) and south into 
Mexico. ‘The species is an evergreen shrub or small tree 6 to 15 
(rarely 20) feet high, occurring in waste places, on banks of streams 
and irrigation reservoirs, flood plains, etc. Tree tobacco is com- 
monly reputed to be poisonous to cattle and human beings (66, 95, 
118, 53, 128), and, in 1915, when feed was short, was reported to 
have caused the loss of several head of cattle on the Sequoia National 
Forest, Calif. 
FIGWORT FAMILY (SCROPHULARIACEAE) 
The vast majority of the United States species of this large family 
are herbaceous and its western browse value is limited. 
BUSH MONKEYFLOWERS (DIPLACUS SPP.) 
This showy California genus, united by. some botanists with the 
genus Mimulus, consists of about nine species of low to moderate 
sized bushes with more or less evergreen and viscid foliage, growing 
for the most part on dry, gravelly, rocky foothills and low ridges. 
As a group these plants require further study to determine their 
forage significance; in general, their palatability appears to be low 
or negligible, 
PENTSTEMONS (PENTSTEMON SPP.) 
This very large North American genus reaches its best develop- 
ment in the western United States, where it forms one of the most 
characteristic floral elements in the great majority of the vegetative 
types from sea level to the limits of plant growth, the species often 
being locally abundant but confined to relatively small areas 
(endemic). The species are often called false foxglove, and those 
with hairy sterile filaments are frequently known as beardtongue. 
Pennell (98) has called attention to the fact that the original spell- 
ing of the generic name is Penstemon, and that spelling has now 
been taken up by some authors. Pentstemon, however, does not 
obscure the etymology and is preferred by most authors. The 
preponderant tendency of the genus is toward herbaceousness, and 
yet it comprises an appreciable proportion of undershrubs and of 
true shrubs as well. The great majority of the herbaceous pentste- 
mons have more or less palatability at least for sheep, but the greater 
part of the woodier species have either small or leathery leaves and 
with a few exceptions tend to have low or negligible palatability. 
Bush pentstemon (P. fruticosus), a woody plant 6 to 24 (rarely 
40) inches high, ranging on open rocky slopes, ridges, and rock 
crevices at 4,000 to 12,000 feet, but largely in subalpine-alpine sites, 
from southern British Columbia to Oregon and western Wyoming, 
typifies a group of about 10 undershrubs or low shrubs in the 
northwestern part of the country, including Pentstemon barrettae, 
davidsonti, douglasti, lewisii, lyallii, menziesii, newberryi, rupicola, 
and scouleri. The forage value of bush pentstemon varies from 
worthless to poor or rarely fair. The other species of this group 
occur in similar sites and have similar characteristics; their thickish, 
mostly evergreen leaves have a like palatability and do not enhance 
