20 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



LAURACEiE. 



finish of houses and furniture, it is largely employed for these purposes ; and on the Oregon coast it is 

 used in ship and boat building for jaws, bits, cleats, cross-trees, etc. 



The leaves yield by distillation ^ a pungent volatile oil ; and from the fruit a fat containing 

 mnbellulic acid has been obtained.^ 



Umbellularia is not seriously injured by insects ^ or fungal diseases. 



4 



The generic name, a diminutive of 

 genus consists of a single species. 



umhella, relates to the character of the inflorescence 



The 



All parts of Umbellularia contain volatile oil, although it is 



A scale insect, Aspidiotus rapax^ Comstock, is often abundant on 



cardamom, and a camphorous taste. W 



most abundant in the leaves ; it is limpid and straw-color, with a the bark (Rep. U. S. DepL Agric. 1880, 307) and the Fluted Scale 



pungent aromatic odor resembling that of a mixture of nutmeg and (Icerya Purchase Maskell) ouce infested Umbellularia in some parts 



len inhaled, the oil of Um- of California. This destructive insect was first imported into 



bellnlaria produces dizziness and headache, and is supposed to California on plants from Australia, and in time threatened the 



have marked action on the nervous system. It is recommended ruin of the Orange-orchards of California and many ornamental 



for nasal catarrh and nervous headache ; and its use in the treat- plants and forest trees. For several years the artificial remedies 



meat of cerebro-spinal meningitis is said to have been followed by tried were unsuccessful in keeping the pest in control. Studies, 



favorable results. It is believed to possess curative properties in however, of its habits and enemies made by the entomologists of 



chronic diarrhcea and colic, and to relieve rheumatic pains if applied the United States Department of Agriculture in its original home 



externally (Heamy, Am. Jour. Pharm. xlvii. 106. — New Properties^ led to the importation of the Australian Ladybird Beetle (Vedalia 



iii. 223, 288. — Parke, Davis & Co., New Remedies, No. 10, 136. 

 U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1947). 



cardinalis, Mulsant), a predaceous insect which in a short time mul- 

 tiplied enormously in California and soon practically cleared the 



2 Stillman & O'Neill, Am. Chem. Jour. iv. 206. — New Remedies, scale from the orchards and gardens of the state. (See Bull. 21, 



xii. 50. Division of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agric. — Third Biennial Rep, 



2 Few insects are recorded as feeding upon Umbellularia. A State Board, Hort. Cal. 246, t. 4. — Annual Rep. State Board Hort. 



beetle, Sinoxylon decline, Le Conte, is said to bore into the wood Cal. 1889, 267, t. 4.) 



(Insect Life, iv. 260) ; and Ptilinus basalis, Le Conte, and Micracis * More than thirty species of fungi are recorded as growing on 



Tiirtella, Le Conte, have been found boring in dead twigs, although Umbellularia Californica, although they are mostly species which 



they probably do not affect green tissue (Trans. Am. Entomolog. are found also on other plants ; but Anihostomxx Oreodaphnes, 



Soc. viii. p. xxiii.). The larvae of a small moth, Lithocolletis Um- Cooke & Harkness, Nectria Umbellularice, Plowright & Harkness, 



bellularice, Walsingham, form large blister-like mines on the upper and Sphcerella Umbellularice, Cooke & Harkness, are, however, pe- 



surface of the leaves (Insect Life, ii, 78). 



culiar to this tree although they do not produce serious diseases. 



