AMERICAN FOREST TREES 201 



eagerly. The fruit is not poisonous, as the yew berries of the Old World 

 are. It ripens in September and falls in October. The wood is fine 

 grained, clear rose red, becoming gradually duller on exposure. It 

 weighs 39.83 pounds per cubic foot. Its fuel value is high. 



FLORIDA YEW (Taxus floridana) is extremely local in its range, and 

 small in size. Few trees are more than twenty-five feet high and one 

 foot in diameter. They are bushy and of poor form for manufacturing. 

 The only reported use is as fence posts. The wood's durability fits it 

 for that place. The species is found in Gadsden county, Florida. The 

 leaves are one inch or less in length; flowers appear in March, and the 

 fruit ripens in October. The wood is moderately heavy, hard, and 

 narrow-ringed, for the trees grow slowly. Its color is dark, tinged with 

 red, the thin sapwood being whiter. There is little prospect that the 

 wood of this yew will ever be more important than it is now. It is 

 often spoken of locally as savin, which name is likewise given to the red 

 cedar (Juniperus virginiand), which is abundant in this yew's range. 



CALIFORNIA NUTMEG (Tumion californicum) is an interesting tree 

 which ranges over a considerable portion of California, but is at its best 

 in Mendocino county and the coast region north of San Francisco. It 

 occurs also on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, in 

 central California, at altitudes up to 5,000 feet. It receives its name 

 from the resemblance of its seeds to nutmegs. Their surface is shriveled, 

 but they do not have the nutmeg odor. The wood and the leaves, when 

 bruised, give off an odor not altogether pleasing. On account of this, the 

 tree has been called stinking cedar. In some localities it is called yew, 

 and in others California false nutmeg, and coast nutmeg. Trees are 

 generally small, with trunks of irregular form. The crown is open and 

 usually extends to the ground; but in crowded situations, a rather shape- 

 ly bole is developed, and the crown is small. The usual size of the tree 

 does not exceed a height of fifty feet and a diameter of twenty inches. 

 More trees are below than above that size ; but in extreme cases the tree 

 may reach a height of eighty-five feet and a diameter of four. The 

 leaves in form and size resemble the foliage of yew, but their points are 

 stiff and sharp, and if approached carelessly they will wound like cactus 

 thorns. The fruit is an inch or more in length, a pulpy substance sur- 

 rounding the seed. The wood possesses properties which ought to make 

 it valuable, though reported uses are strictly local, such as small cabinet 

 work and skiff making. It is bright lemon, yellow, rather hard, takes 

 good polish, is of slow growth, with bands of summerwood thin but 

 distinct, and medullary rays small, numerous, and obscure. Its weight 

 is 29.66 pounds per cubic foot ; it is not stiff or strong. It cannot attain 

 high place as a manufacturing material, because it is too scarce, but it 



