62 Muhlenbergia, Volume 5 



THE MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY 

 By A. A. Heller 



Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1: 427. 

 1840. 



Nuttall found the original of this species in the "Rocky 

 Mountains, in alpine situations on the summits of the hills of 

 Bear River of Timpanagos, near the celebrated "Beer Springs" 

 which abound with carbonic acid." "Beer Spring" is located 

 in southeastern Idaho, probably at what is now called Soda 

 Springs, near Morristown, Bingham county. 



Nuttall describes it as "a shrub, or small tree, 6-10 feet 

 high, with white tough wood; the branches gray, terete, cov- 

 ered with circular cicatrizations. Leaves resembling those of 

 Ledum latifolium, very coriaceous, on very short petioles." 

 "The acheninm, which with its tortuose and plumose tail al- 

 most exactly resembles the fruit of some species of Stipa, is cor- 

 iaceous and 2-seeded." 



In Zoe 2: 244, Jones remarks as follows concerning this 

 species: 



"C ledifoliiis comes down to an altitude of 7,000 feet in 

 the Wasatch mountains and runs up to over 8,000 feet altitude. 

 It is a densely branched and scrawny shrub on rocky places 

 and where the moisture is greater and the soil better it straight- 

 ens up and is 20 feet high and tree-like. In eastern Nevada 

 where the moisture is far less it grows at 8,000 to 9,000 feet al- 

 titude, and is generally shrubby. Near the East Humboldt 

 mountains it occasionally comes a little lower toward the edges 

 of the lower foothills, but never in the valleys which are here 

 seldom less than 6,000 feet above the sea. I have seen the trees 

 40 feet high there; with a trunk 1 ' _. feet in diameter and So 

 well formed as to make good posts. The leaves and flowers do 

 not vary much except at the lowest altitudes." 



The photograph which furnished the cover illustration was 

 taken by the writer in the Ruby or East Humboldt mountains 

 on the ridge overlooking Ruby Valley, above Cave Creek Post 

 Office, at an elevation of OOOO feet. line it is small and 



