Above this, and just below the forest region, there is a dark, heath-like belt of chaparral, composed almost exclusively of _Adenostoma fasciculata_, a bush belonging to the rose family, from five to eight feet high, with small, round leaves in fascicles, and bearing a multitude of small white flowers in panicles on the ends of the upper branches.

Where it occurs at all, it usually covers all the ground with a close, impenetrable growth, scarcely broken for miles.
Up through the forest region, to a height of about 9000 feet above sea-level, there are ragged patches of manzanita, and five or six species of ceanothus, called deer-brush or California lilac.

These are the most important of all the honey-bearing bushes of the Sierra.
_Chamaebatia foliolosa_, a little shrub about a foot high, with flowers like the strawberry, makes handsome carpets beneath the pines, and seems to be a favorite with the bees; while pines themselves furnish unlimited quantities of pollen and honey-dew.

The product of a single tree, ripening its pollen at the right time of year, would be sufficient for the wants of a whole hive.

Along the streams there is a rich growth of lilies, larkspurs, pedicularis, castilleias, and clover.