884 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



serrate with spreading or slightly incurved callous-tipped teeth, the lower leaflets often 

 3-parted or pinnate, the terminal one sometimes furnished with 1 or 2 lateral stalked leaf- 

 lets, yellow-green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, covered with scattered 

 pale hairs when they unfold, and at maturity glabrous or soft pubescent beneath (var. 

 velutinaRehd.),ihm, rather firm in texture, bright green above and pale below, l'-6' long 

 and %'-\%' wide, with a narrow pale midrib and inconspicuous veins; petiolules slender, 

 those of the lateral leaflets f '-|' and of the terminal leaflet up to 2' in length; stipels linear, 

 oblong-lanceolate to ovate, rounded or acute at apex, entire or sharply serrate and leaf-like, 

 T V-' long, caducous, often 0. Flowers %' in diameter, appearing from April in southern 



Fig. 777 



California to July in British Columbia, in flat long-branched glabrous or pubescent cymes 

 4 '-10' wide, with linear acute green caducous bracts and bractlets, the lower branches often 

 from the axils of upper leaves; flower-buds globose, covered with a glaucous bloom, some- 

 times turning red before opening; calyx ovoid, red-brow r n, with acute scarious lobes; corolla 

 yellowish white, with oblong divisions rounded at apex, as long as the stamens. Fruit 

 subglobose, %' in diameter, black, appearing blue by its thick covering of mealy bloom; 

 flesh rather sweet and juicy. 



A tree, 30-50 high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes enlarged at base and 12'-18' in 

 diameter, stout spreading branches forming a compact round- topped head, and branchlets 

 usually without a terminal bud, green tinged with red or brown when they first appear, and 

 covered with short white caducous hairs, or densely soft pubescent during their first season 

 (var. velutina Rehd.), stout, slightly angled, covered with lustrous red-brown bark in their 

 first winter and nearly encircled by the large triangular leaf-scars marked by conspicuous 

 fibro- vascular bundle-scars; pith white or rarely brownish; often a broad shrub, with 

 numerous spreading stems. Winter-buds axillary generally in pairs, superposed or in 

 clusters of 4 or 5, only the upper bud or sometimes the lower usually developing, covered 

 with 2 or 3 pairs of opposite broad-ovate chestnut-brown scales, those of the inner rank 

 accrescent, and at maturity acute, entire, green, 1' long, and sometimes developing into 

 pinnate leaves 2'-3' in length. Bark of the trunk deeply and irregularly fissured, the dark 

 brown surface slightly tinged with red and broken into small square appressed scales. 

 Wood light, soft, weak, coarse-grained, yellow tinged with brown, with thin lighter colored 

 sap wood. 



Distribution. Gravelly rather dry soil of valleys and river-bottoms; western Montana 

 (neighborhood of Flathead Lake and Missoula, Missoula. County), through Idaho to the 

 coast of British Columbia (Vancouver Island), and southward to the San Bernardino 



