$8 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
The leaves are dark green, lustrous, four inches long, one inch 
wide, sharp at both ends, with smooth edges. The foliage is 
dense. The wood is grayish in color, very hard, durable, and 
difficult to split. Both leaves and wood have an aromatic 
odor, which is stronger in the former; and becomes still 
stronger when the leaves are bruised. The odor resembles 
that of bay-rum. It gives the headache to some sensitive 
persons. 
§ 73. Madrona.—The madrofia (Arbutus menziesit) is one 
of the most striking trees of the Californian forest. It is an 
evergreen, with an open growth, somewhat like that of a 
maple, bright-green and lustrous leaves, and a bright-red bark. 
Its height is sometimes fifty feet; its diameter in the trunk 
two feet. The leaves are oval in shape, three inches long, 
pea-green underneath, and dark and shining above. The bark 
is smooth, and it peels off at regular seasons; the new bark is 
a pea-green, which changes to a bright red. The wood is very 
hard, and is used to some extent in the arts, especially for ma- 
king the wooden stirrups commonly used in the state. The 
tree bears a bright-red berry in clusters, of which the birds 
are fond. 
§ 74. Manzanita.—The manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca), 
another prominent feature in the Californian forest, is a dense, 
clump-like shrub, which grows as high as twelve feet, and 
nearly as broad as it is high. The trunk divides near the 
ground into several or many branches, and these terminate in 
a great multitude of twigs, so that the shrub is a dense mass 
of branches and branchlets, all of which are very crooked. 
The wood is dense, hard, and dark-red in color. The bark is 
red and smooth, occasionally peeling off and exposing a new 
light-green bark, which soon turns red. The leaves are regu- 
larly oval in form, about an inch and a half long, thick and 
shining, and pea-green in color; they set vertically upon their 
stems. The manzanita bears a pinkish-white blossom in clus- 
ters, and these are replaced by round red berries about half an 
inch in diameter; they have a pleasant, acidulous taste, and 
