12£ TREES 



drained slopes through the coast region and in the red- 

 wood forests of noj-thern California it is a tree that reaches 

 a hundred feet in height. 



John Muir writes: "The madroila, clad in thin, smooth, 

 red and yellow bark, with big, glossy leaves, seems in the 

 dark coniferous forests of Wasliinglon and Vancouver 

 Island like some lost wanderer from tlie magnoha groves 

 in the South." All the year around this is one of the most 

 beautiful of American trees. It bears iai'ge conical clusters 

 of white flowers above the vivid green of its leathery 

 leaves, that are wonderfully hghtened by silvery Hnings. 

 In autumn the red-brown of the branches is enriched and 

 intensified by the luxm-iant clusters of scarlet berries 

 against the red and orange of the two-year-old leaves. 

 Among the giant redwoods this tree commands the highest 

 admiration. 



THE SORREL TREE 



The sorrel tree, or sour-wood {Oxydendrum arhoreum, 

 DC.) belongs among the heaths. Its vivid scarlet autumn 

 foHage is its chief claim to the admiration of gardeners. In 

 spring the little tree is beautiful in its bronze-green foliage, 

 and in late July and August it bears long branching 

 racemes of tiny bell-shaped white flowers. This multitude 

 of httle bells suggests the tree's relationship to the blossom- 

 ing heather we see in florists' shops. 



The leaves give the tree its two common names: they 

 have a sour taste, resembhng that of the herbaceous sor- 

 rels. The twigs, even in the dead of winter, yield this re- 

 freshing acid sap, that flows through the veins of the mem- 

 branous leaves in summer. Many a hunter, temporarily 



