ElirS INTEGRIFOLIA SOUR-WOOD, SoUR OAK, MAHOGAXY. 2 ( - 



rate 1^ to 3 in. long, rounded or obtusely pointed at apex, thick, coriaceous, with 

 revolute margin, irregularly spinose-dentate or entire, puberulous when young 

 but at maturity glabrous, of a yellow-green color, paler beneath, with broad thick 

 midrib, prominent veins and stout thick puberulous petioles about | in. in length. 

 Flowers (Feb. to April) dioecious or polygamo-dioecious, about in. across in 

 short dense puberulous racemes which form terminal panicles 1-3 in. in length ; 

 pedicels short and each furnished with from two to four ciliate bracts ; sepals 

 concave, rose-colored, with ciliate margin ; petals about twice as long as the 

 sepals, rose-colored, ciliate and reflexed ; stamens as long as petals, with slender 

 filaments and pale yellow anthers ; pistil pubescent with broadly ovoid ovary and 

 three-lobed capitate stigma. Fruit a red flattened subglobose drupe ^ in. or less 

 in length, very viscid- pubescent, tart in flavor and containing a flattened kidney- 

 shaped brown thick- walled stone. 



(The specific name is from the Latin integer, entire, and folium, leaf.) 



A small evergreen tree with low wide top of straggling branches, 

 the lowermost often reclining upon the ground, and all forming a 

 dome of foliage. In its center is found a short thick trunk, some- 

 times 2 or 3 ft. (0.7 in.) in diameter, covered with a reddish -gray 

 bark which flakes off in rather small irregular scales. It sometimes 

 attains the height of 30 ft. (9 m.). It is commonly only a wide 

 impenetrable bush, and when in exposed places close to the coast 

 Deeming like a bank of foliage smoothly trimmed from the ground 

 up, and when these banks are bestrewn with its many waxen rose- 

 colored panicles of honey-scented flowers, or later with its lunches 

 of viscid red drupes, it is a very handsome object. 



HABITAT. This Sumach is found along the Pacific Coast from 

 near Point Conception into Lower California, and on some of the 

 off-lying islands, attaining its greatest development in Lower Cali- 

 f < >rnia. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard, strong, with flue 

 grain and susceptible of a smooth polish ; the heart is of a salmon 

 pinkish color, lemon-yellow near the thin white sap-wood of eight 

 or ten annual layers. Specific Gravity, 0.7830; Percentage of Ash, 

 0.20; Relative Approximate Fuel Value 0.7815; Weight of a Cub! r 

 Foot in Pounds, 48.80. 



USES. Little use is made of this wood save for fuel for which it. 

 is very useful in regions where it abounds. The species is well worthy 

 of prominent rank, however, for ornamental purposes. A pleasant 

 refrigerant drink is made from the fruit as with the allied Rhus ovata. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not recorded of this species, though the 

 beverage made from the fruit might suggest its usefulness in this 

 direction. 



