LAUKACE^ 



335 



by one during their second season, or often remaining on the branches until the sixth 

 year; their petioles ^'-1' long. Flowers appearing in January before the unfolding 

 of the young leaves on pedicels sometimes V in length. Fruit about V long, in 



pl^ 266 



clusters of 2 ur 3, on elongated thickened stalks, persistent on the branch after the 

 fruit ripens and falls late in the autumn; seeds germinating soon after they reach 

 the ground, the fruit remaining below the surface of the soil and attached to the 

 young plant until midsummer. 



A tree, 80-90 high, with a trunk 4-5 in diameter, sometimes tall and straight 

 but usually divided near the ground into several large diverging stems, stout spread- 

 ing branches forming a broad round-topped head, and branchlets light green and 

 coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous 

 and yellow-green, and in their second and third years light brown tinged with red; 

 at high elevations above the level of the sea and in southern California much 

 smaller and often reduced to a low shrub. Bark f -1' thick, dark brown tinged 

 with red, separating on the surface into thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, 

 strong, close-grained, light rich brown, with thick lighter colored sap wood of 30-40 

 layers of annual growth ; the most valuable wood produced in the forests of Pacific 

 North America for the interior finish of houses and for furniture. The leaves yield 

 by distillation a pungent volatile oil, and from the fruit a fat containing umbellulic 

 acid has been obtained. 



Distribution. Valley of Rogue River, Oregon, through the California coast 

 ranges and along the high western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the southern 

 slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains up to elevations of 2500; usually near the 

 banks of watercourses and sometimes on low hills; common where it can obtain an 

 abundant supply of water; most abundant and of its largest size in the rich valleys 

 of southwestern Oregon, forming with the Broad-leaved Maple a considerable part 

 of the forest growth. 



4. SASSAFRAS, Nees. Sassafras. 



Aromatic trees, with thick deeply furrowed dark red-brown bark, scaly buds, 

 slender light green lustrous brittle branchlets containing a thick white mucilaginous 

 pith and marked by small semiorbicular elevated leaf-scars displaying single bori- 



