94. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. MYRICACEZ. 
stout-stemmed cluster rather longer than the scale of the ament. The ovaries are ovate and gradually 
narrowed into two bright red exserted styles. The fruit, which is borne in short crowded spikes, ripens 
in the early autumn and usually falls during the winter; it is globose, papillose, dark purple, and 
covered with a thin coat of grayish white wax. The nut is thick-walled, and the testa of the seed is 
pale reddish brown. 
Myrica Californica inhabits ocean sand-dunes and moist hillsides in the vicinity of the coast, and 
is distributed from the shores of Puget Sound to the neighborhood of Santa Monica, California. Dis- 
covered by Menzies,’ the surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver, on the Oregon coast at the end of the 
last century, and later by David Douglas? on the shores of Puget Sound, it was first described by the 
German poet and botanist, Chamisso,? who found it on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco, where 
this species grows to its largest size and attains its greatest beauty. 
The wood of Myrica Californica, although brittle, is heavy, very hard and strong, and close- 
grained ; it is a light rose-color, with thick lighter colored sapwood, and contains numerous thin 
conspicuous medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6703, a cubic foot 
weighing 41.77 pounds. 
Myrica Californica is occasionally used in California to decorate gardens.‘ 
1 See ii. 90. ? See ii. 94. have been raised at Santa Rosa, California, by Mr. Luther Bur- 
% See ii. 39. bank. (See Burbank, New Creations in Fruits and Flowers, June, 
4 Hybrids between this tree and the shrubby Myrica Caroliniensis 1894, 27, f.) 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pirate CCCCLXI. Myrica Carrrornica. 
A flowering branch, natural size. 
A staminate flower with its scale and bractlets, front view, enlarged. 
A staminate flower with its scale and bractlets, rear view, enlarged. 
- A pistillate flower with its scale and bractlets, front view, enlarged. 
- Vertical section of a pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
. Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
WCWONAAR WH 
. An embryo, much magnified. 
