FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 191 



nounced when they are crushed or bruised. They form pyramidal crowns in 

 youth, while in old age the crown becomes round-topped. The crown is some- 

 what open, and the branchlets droop rather conspicuously. Male and female 

 flowers are each borne on different trees. Male flowers ( pollen hearing only) are 

 small, hud-like, and numerous on the under sides of the branches at the bases 

 of the leaves produced the previous season. Female flowers, which develop 

 into a greenish or purple, thin-fleshed fruit resembling an olive or a nutmeg, are 

 also small, but much less numerous, and grow on the lower sides of the 

 branches from the bases of new leaves of the season or of the previous season. 

 The thin, tough skin of the fruit is resinous, and the seed has a smooth, hard 

 shell. Seed-kernels are characteristically wrinkled, the surface appearing to be 

 infolded, as in a nutmeg. Seed-leaves, 2. The bark is thin, and is distinctly 

 and narrowly seamed and ridged. The trunk, rarely full and round, tapers 

 slowly, and is usually slightly bent. A notable characteristic is the production 

 of thrifty permanent sprouts from cut stumps. Wood, moderately light, hard, 

 and fine-grained, clear lemon-yellow color, exceedingly durable under all kinds 

 of exposure. Our species are so rare or are so limited in occurrence as to be 

 of very little commercial use, for which, however, the extreme durability and 

 good working qualities of their wood fit them. They are trees of only second- 

 ary importance to the forester, and are mainly useful for maintaining a pro- 

 tective cover on the borders of narrow mountain streams, in rocky coves and 

 gulches. 



Two species only are indigenous to the United States. One is confined to 

 Florida and the other to California. Trees of this group are of ancient origin. 

 Species of them inhabited the Arctic Zone in the Tertiary period, and later inhab- 

 ited portions of Europe, where they became extinct. 



California Nutmeg. 

 Tumion califomicutn (Torr.) Greene. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



California nutmeg is a rare tree of small size. It is called nutmeg from the 

 fancied resemblance of its seed-kernel to the nutmeg of commerce, which belongs 

 to a different and unrelated family of broadleaf plants. It is locally known as 

 "stinking cedar'' and "stinking yew." on account of the disagreeable odor 

 emitted by its green parts and, to some extent, by its green wood when bruised. 



In youth and middle age it has an open, wide, pyramidal crown which in the 

 open extends to the ground. The slender branches stand out rather straight 

 from the trunk in formal circles, and are somewhat drooping at their extremi- 

 ties. Crowded in a dense stand, it hears a short, conical crown on a clear 

 trunk, while old trees under such conditions have rounded, dome-like tops. The 

 trunks, which are rarely straight, are clear of branches for two-thirds of their 

 length, and are from 35 to 50 feet high and from 8 to 20 inches in diameter. 

 Under conditions especially favorable for growth it is 75 or 80 feet high and 

 from 2 to 3 feet in diameter; but such dimensions are exceedingly rare. The 

 trunk is uneven, almost never full and cylindrical. P.ark, one-third to five- 

 eighths of an inch thick, is finely checked with narrow seams and short, narrow, 

 loosely scaly ridges, with frequent side connections: rather soft, outer layers 

 easily scaled off; outwardly weathered to an ashy yellowish brown. 



The flat, glossy, deep. yellOW-green, lance-Shaped, keenly pointed leaves 

 (fig. 75), and particularly their sharp aromatic odor when bruised, distinguish 

 the tree; green bark and brancblets also emit, when bruised, the same disagree- 



