422 



The Mountain Mahoganies 



deciduous stipules. Flowers perfect, solitary, or in axillary or terminal clusters; 

 the calyx-tube is long-cylindric, abruptly widened at the throat and s-lobed, 

 lobes spreading and deciduous, the tube persistent in fruit; there is no corolla; the 

 stamens, of which there are 15 to 20, are in several rows on the lobes of the ca- 

 lyx, their filaments very short; anthers large and often hairy; pistil included in 

 the calyx-tube, i-carpeled, the style long, thread-like, and very hairy, terminated 

 by a minute blunt stigma. The fruit is a dry, leathery, angular or ridged linear 

 nutlet, enclosed in the persistent calyx-tube and terminated by the enlarged plu- 

 mose style; the single seed is linear, pointed, and without endosperm. 



The wood of all the species is of a reddish brown color, very hard, compact, 

 and heavy. The name Cercocarpus is from the Greek, meaning tailed-fruit. The 

 tj^ species is C. joihergUloides H. B. K., of Mexico. 



The arborescent species of our area are: 



Leaves dentate or serrate, at least toward the apex, or rarely entire. 

 Leaves prominently dentate. 



Leaves glabrous or whitish-pubescent beneath. 1. C. betuloides. 



Leaves densely woolly beneath. 2. C. Traskia. 



Leaves dentate toward the apex or entire, obovate. 3. C. breiriflorus. 



Leaves entire, their margins revolute. 4. C. ledifolius. 



I. SCENTED MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY — CercocaipiiB betoloides 



Nuttall 



Although usually a shrub this frequently becomes a tree with maximum height 

 of 9 meters, and a trunk diameter of 2.5 dm. It occurs in the mountains from 



southern Oregon to Lower California, and 

 has been confused with the shrubby C. 

 parvijolius Nuttall. 



The branches are spreading or some- 

 what pendent. The bark is very thin, sep- 

 arating into irregular scales or flakes, which 

 fall away in the autumn. The leaves are 

 quite leathery, with a birch-like odor, 1.5 

 to 2.5 cm. long, obovate, wedge-shaped 

 and entire below the middle, rounded and 

 coarsely glandular-toothed above the mid- 

 dle, very hairy at first, soon becoming dark 

 yellow-green, not hairy but roughish above, 

 paler and with a few hairs near the promi- 

 nent veins beneath; the channelled leaf- 

 stalks are about 2.5 mm. long. The flowers 

 are usually solitary in the axils of the 

 leaves, 7 mm. long; the woolly calyx is cylindric, its lobes narrow, obtuse; in 



Fig. 369. — Scented Mountain Mahogany. 



