Malacothrix saxatilis, Torr. and Gray. Composite Family.
Stems.—Stout; a foot or two high; woody. Leaves.—Lanceolate to spatulate; one or two inches long; entire or pinnatifid; somewhat succulent. Flower-heads.—Terminating the paniculate branches; large; two inches or so across; white, changing to rose or lilac; of ray-flowers only. Involucre.—Campanulate or hemispherical; six lines high, with many imbricated scales passing downward into loose, awl-shaped bracts. Hab.—The Coast, from Santa Barbara southward.
This beautiful plant is a dweller upon the ocean cliffs, and may be seen in abundance from the car-windows just before the train reaches Santa Barbara going north. The stems are woody and very leafy, and the plants are usually covered all over the top with the showy flower-heads.
M. tenuifolia, Torr. and Gray, is a very tall, slender, sparsely leafy plant with fragile, airy white flowers. This is common along the dusty roadsides of the south in early summer.
SALAL. WINTERGREEN.
Gaultheria Shallon, Pursh. Heath Family.
Shrubby, and one to three or more feet high or prostrate. Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; ovate to elliptical; pointed; two to four inches long; leathery; bristle-toothed when young; evergreen. Flowers.—Manzanita-like; slenderer; glandular-viscid; white or pinkish. Ovary.—Five-celled. Style single. Fruit.—Black; berry-like; aromatic; edible. (Otherwise like Arctostaphylos Manzanita.) Hab.—Coast woods, from Santa Barbara County to British Columbia.
The floor of the redwood forest in our northern coast counties is often carpeted with this little undershrub, while in other places one can wade waist-deep in it. It grows much larger north of us, and upon Vancouver Island it forms dense, impenetrable thickets. Its dark-purple berries have a very agreeable flavor, and form an important article of diet among the Oregon Indians, who call them "salal."