32 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



racemes forming a cluster 5-6 in. in length and width, with slender pedicels in the 

 axils of scarious, ciliate bracts; calyx-lobes white and membranous; corolla sub- 

 globose, white; ovary glabrous. Fruit an orange-colored subglobose glandular- 

 roughened dryish drupaceous berry, about ^ in. long and with thin hardly edible flesh, 

 and 5 cells, the walls of which are more or less perfectly developed into a cartilaginous 

 stone and each cell containing several dark brown angular pilose seeds, tightly 

 pressed together. 



(The specific name, Menziesii, commemorates the name of the discoverer, Archibald 

 Menzies, a Scottish naturalist who discovered the tree about a century ago.) 



One of the most beautiful and interesting trees of the American forests, 

 and of which the Califoruians are justly proud. When growing in the 

 forests it attains, sometimes the height of 100 ft. (33 m.) with a tall 

 straight trunk 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) in diameter, but when growing by itself 

 it develops a wide rounded top with large horizontal branches and stout 

 trunk sometimes 5-7 ft. (2 m.) in diameter, with wide burly base con- 

 siderably increasing the thickness at the surface of the ground. Such a 

 tree growing at the base of Mt. Tamalpias, near San Rafael, is perhaps 

 the most wonderful of its kind in existence. It measures 23 ft. in girth 

 3 feet from the ground and its uranches cover an area nearly 100 ft. 

 across. The beauty in the Madrofia is the clear wine color, very smooth 

 bark of branches and small trunks, in combination with the broad, rich, 

 evergreen leaves, and perhaps interspersed with the large panicles of white 

 flowers or the reddish-orange fruit. The outer layer of this bark exfoli- 

 ates annually in large thin scales. The bark of trunk is of a brownish- 

 gray color, checked longitudinally and crosswise into thin irregularly 

 oblong and square scales. 



HABITAT. From the islands along the coast of British Columbia 

 southward among the mountains to southern California, growing on slopes 

 and in rich well-drained soil, within the influence of the fogs which 

 set in from the Pacific. It attains its greatest size among the mountains 

 north of San Francisco and southward becomes reduced to a mere shrub. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard, strong, with many fine 

 medullary rays, close grained and checking badly in drying. It is of a 

 light red color with thin pinkish-white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 

 0.7052; Percentage of Ash, 0.40; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.7024; Coefficient of Elasticity, 83834; Modulus of Rupture, 907; Re- 

 sistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 502; Resistance to Indentation, 207; 

 Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 43.95. 



USES. The wood is used to some extent in the manufacture of furni- 

 ture, etc., and to considerable extent for charcoal for gun powder. Its 

 bark is also used sometimes for tanning purposes. 



As a tree for ornamental purposes it well deserves extensive popularity, 

 as it is of rare good qualities. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES have not been discovered in this species. 



