700 AMERICAN FOREST TRICI I 



an effective remedy may be found in a saturated alcoholic solution of 

 acetate of lead, if applied as a wash within an hour or two after the 

 poisoning occurs. A wash with pure alcohol is also effective if applied 

 within an hour. Following either treatment the skin should be thoroughly 

 washed with soap and water. Western sumach (Rhus integrifolia) , 

 a closely related California species, is a small evergreen, seldom more 

 than twenty feet high and a foot in diameter. The wood is heavy, hard, 

 and red, is used as fuel, and occasionally in small turnery. The fruit is 

 a berry half an inch long. 



CASCARA BUCKTHORN (Rhamnus purshiana) is of the buckthorn 

 family, and is known by many names on the Pacific coast where the 

 species is best developed. It grows as far east as Colorado and Texas. 

 Cascara sagrada, its Mexican name, is often used for this tree. It is 

 known also as bearberry, bearwood, yellow-wood, pigeonberry, coffee- 

 berry, bay berry, and California coffee. The tree's usual size is from ten 

 to thirty feet high and twelve to twenty inches in diameter. It is often 

 shrubby, and is more valuable for its bark than its wood. Large quan- 

 tities are peeled for medicinal uses, and many trees are thus destroyed. 

 A little of the wood is burned as fuel, and some is made into 

 handles. Yellow buckthorn (Rhamnus caroliniana), with a range from 

 New York to Texas, and evergreen buckthorn (Rhamnus crocea), a 

 California species, are closely related to cascara buckthorn, but are of 

 comparatively little importance. Blue myrtle (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus) is 

 a California species, sometimes called wild lilac or blue blossoms. It 

 ranges in height from thirty-five feet, among the redwoods on the Santa 

 Cruz mountains, to only one foot high on some of the wind-swept coasts. 

 The wood is pale yellowish-brown, and is somewhat used for novelties. 

 Tree myrtle (Ceanothus arboreus), often known as lilac, is also a Cali- 

 fornia tree, closely related to blue myrtle, but is of smaller size and of 

 very restricted range. Its prospective value lies more in its bloom than 

 in its wood. Naked- wood (Colubrina reclinata), a Florida species, is 

 of a kindred genus. Trees are sometimes fifty feet high and three in 

 diameter. The wood is hard, very strong, and is dark brown tinged 

 with yellow. 



LIGNUM-VIT^B (Guajacum sanctum) grows in Florida, and a species 

 which is probably the same is found in south Texas along the Rio Grande. 

 In Texas the tree is known as guayacon, which name has come down 

 from the times when the Carib Indians ruled the West Indies. That 

 was their name for the tree. The annual rings are usually too vague 

 and too involved to be counted, but the tree is known to be of slow 

 growth. The wood is pitted and it contains cavities and creases; but 

 the clear wood is very hard and of fine and various colors. It is dark 



