530 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



to struggle up to light from below. It delights in dense thickets, but it 

 prefers thickets of its own species. 



Its fruiting habits and its disposition to occupy the damp, rich 

 soil along the banks of small water courses, are responsible for the 

 thick stands. The fruit itself is an interesting thing. It is yellowish- 

 green in color, as large as a good-sized olive, and looks much like it. 

 The fruit ripens in October, and falls in time to get the benefit of the 

 autumn rains which visit the Pacific coast. Since the trees generally 

 grow along gulches, the fruit falls and rolls to the bottom. The first 

 dashing rain sends a flood down the gulches, the laurel drupes are carried 

 along and are buried in mud wherever they can find a resting place. 

 Germination takes place soon after. The fruit remains under the mud, 

 attached to the roots of the young plants, until the following summer. 



The result is that if a laurel gets a foothold in a gulch through 

 which water occasionally flows, lines of young laurels will eventually 

 cover the banks of the gulch as far down stream as conditions are 

 favorable. 



The wood of California laurel weighs 40.60 pounds per cubic foot 

 when kiln-dried. That is nine pounds heavier than sassafras. It is 

 very heavy when green and sinks when placed in water. It is hard and 

 very firm, rich yellowish brown in color, often beautifully mottled; but 

 this applies to the heartwood only, and not to the thick sapwood. 



Lumbermen have discovered that the wood's color can be material- 

 ly changed by immersing the logs when green, and leaving them sub- 

 merged a long time. The beautiful "black myrtle," which has been so 

 much admired, is nothing more than California laurel which has under- 

 gone the cold water treatment. 



The annual rings of growth are clearly marked by dark bands of 

 summerwood. The rings are often wide, but not always, for sometimes 

 the growth is very slow. The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are 

 small and not numerous. The wood's figure is brought out best by tan- 

 gential sawing, as is the case with so many woods which have clearly- 

 marked rings but small and obscure medullary rays. Figure is not 

 uniform; that is, one trunk may produce a pattern quite different from 

 another. The figure of some logs is particularly beautiful ; these logs are 

 selected for special purposes. Sudworth says that none of our hard- 

 woods excels it in beautiful grain when finished, and Sargent is still more 

 emphatic when he declares that it is "the most valuable wood produced 

 in the forests of Pacific North America for interior finish of houses and 

 for furniture." 



The wood of this tree has more than ninety per cent of the strength 

 of white oak, is considerably stiffer, and contains a smaller amount of 



