SMOOTH MENZIESIA

Menziesia glabella. Heath Family

Leaves: alternate, obovate, obtuse and glandular-mucronate at the
apex, pale glaucous and glabrous beneath, sparingly pubescent above,
the margins entire, crenulate, ciliolate. Flowers: one to five in um-
bels, cream and pink, spreading, becoming erect; calyx five-lobed;
corolla urn-shaped, four toothed; stamens eight, included. Fruit: seeds
long-appendaged at each end.
If you wish to be quite certain that the shrub before you
is really Menziesia glabella, just break off a branch and
smell it, and you will at once perceive the peculiar pungent
odour of the skunk emanating from its stems and foliage.
The bush grows erect to the height of six feet and bears
abundant foliage. The leaves are small, oval, and pale
green, and have even wavy hairy margins. The flowers are
little roundish pink and creamy urn-shaped bells, which ter-
minate the long slender stalks, and are four-lobed, having



Pink to Red Flowers 229

eight stamens within their cups. They grow in umbels at
the ends of the twigs, and also encircle the stems just below
the topmost clusters of leaves. When in fruit the seeds are
characterized by long appendages at each end.
Menziesia ferruginea, or Scaly Menziesia, differs from
the preceding species in having strigose chaffy ferruginous
scales on the young parts of the straggling branches, while
the somewhat egg-shaped leaves are thickly covered with
rusty appressed straight stiff hairs above, and are pale
green and smooth beneath. The flowers are very like those
of the Smooth Menziesia. Archibald Menzies, after whom
the plants are named, brought the original species from the
North West Pacific Coast when he sailed there with Captain
Vancouver on his famous voyage of discovery in 1790.
