30 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



180. RHUS LAURINA, NUTT. 

 LAUREL SUMACH, SUMACH 



Ger., I&rteMattriger Sumach ; Fr., Sumac de laurier ; Sp., ZHIH.- 



<nj_ue de laurel. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves simple, persistent, coriacious, 2|-5 in. in 

 length, the petiole about half as long as the blade, which is ovate-lanceolate to 

 oblong, obtuse or rounded and mucronate at apex, rounded at base, entire, 

 glaucous. Flowers perfect or polygamous, small (about a line in length), yellow- 

 ish, in dense ample terminal or axillary compound panicles, 2-4 in. long. Fruit 

 a small oblong ovoid-globose whitish glabrous drupe, scarcely \ in. in length, 

 beaked with the stout styles, with thin flesh and hard compressed stone. 



(The specific name is*an adjective from the Latin, laurns, laurel, and refers 

 to the resemblance between the leaves of this species and those of the laurel.) 



Generally an evergreen, wide-branched, rather open shrub, but in 

 sheltered places on Santa Catalina Island it attains a height of 25 ft. 

 (7 or 8 m.), with crooked trunk 10 or 12 in. (0.30 m.) in diameter, 

 vested in a thin smooth beech-like bark less than J in. in thickness 

 and of a dark gray color. 



HABITAT. The Rlius laurina is found along the coast from Santa 

 Barbara southward into Lower California, growing on the mesas and 

 hills near the coast and on the off-lying islands. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood quite soft, light, not strong, with 

 quite uniformly distributed ducts and susceptible of a smooth polish. 

 Specific gravity, etc., we believe, have not been determined. The 

 largest trunks we have been able to find have contained no heart-wood ; 

 hence we are unable to show or describe that. They consisted 

 entirely of sap-wood, which is of a pinkish-white color, darkest at the 

 rings, and showing quite rapid growth. 



GENUS HETEROMELES, ROEMER. 



Leaves persistent, simple, alternate, 2-4 in. long, coriacious, obovate to oblong- 

 lanceolate, tapering at both ends, margin remotely serrate with sharp glandular 

 teeth, or occasionally almost entire, dark shining green above, paler beneath, 

 with stout grooved petioles and broad mid ribs grooved above and often with one 

 or two glandular teeth near 1 he blade ; stipules, subulate and early deciduous ; 

 branchlets and leaves at first puberulent. Flowers (June to August) regular, per- 

 fect, in ample terminal corymbose panicles, 4-6 in. across, with caducous bracts ; 

 calyx with turbinate tube more or less tomentose below and with short triangular 

 spreading persistent globes imbricated in aestivation; petals 5, broad, white, 

 emarginate or minutely lobed at apex and inserted near the edge of the calyx 

 tube ; stamens 10, inserted in a single row with the petals, with subulate incurved 

 filaments, and emarginate introrse 2-celled anthers opening longitudinally ; pistil 

 consisting of two carpels united with each other and with the calyx tube below ; 

 styles distinct, with terminal truncate stigmas, ovary 2-celled. each cell containing 

 two ascending anatropous ovules. Fruit (ripe in Nov. and Dec.) scarlet, obovoid 

 or subglobose fleshy drupe-like berry, mealy and astringent in flavor, and formed 

 by the thickening of the calyx tube connate with the membranaceous carpels 

 below the middle but free above, and with the calyx lobes which close in over the 



