75^ The Madronas 



high. The leaves turn scarlet in autumn. The name is Greek, signifying sour 

 wood, in reference to the acid sap. 



VI. THE MADRONAS 



GENUS ARBUTUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



RBUTUS contains about 20 species of trees or shrubs of wide distri- 

 bution ia the temperate and warmer portions of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, not occurring in eastern North America, nor eastern Asia 

 however. They are of no special utility, but very ornamental. 

 They have persistent, alternate, simple, mostly entire leaves. The flowers are 

 bome in racemose or paniculate, terminal clusters, on club-shaped stalks with 

 persistent bracts. The calyx is persistent, free from the ovary, 5-parted, the lobes 

 imbricated in the bud; the corolla is um-shaped, 5-toothed, the teeth small, broad, 

 and more or less recurved; the 10 stamens are short, inserted at the base of the 

 corolla, their filaments free, awl-shaped, thickened and hairy at the base; anthers 

 short, flattened, 2-awned and open by terminal pores; ovary sessile upon a 10- 

 lobed disk, 5-celled, seldom 4-celled, the style exserted ; ovules many in each cell. 

 The fruit is drupe-like, globose, smooth or glandular, the flesh dry and mealy; 

 stone of 5, many-seeded, separable parts; the seeds are small, more or less angu- 

 lar, short-pointed, somewhat hairy. 



The name is an ancient one of the Old World Arbutus Unedo Linnaeus, Straw- 

 berry tree, the type of the genus. Our species all become arborescent. 



Leaves ovate to oblong; bark red-brown. 



Ovary smooth; Pacific Coast tree. i. A. Menziesii. 



Ovary hairy; Texan and Mexican tree. 2. A. texana. 



Leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate; bark gray; ovary smooth; tree of 



Arizona and Mexico. 3. A. arizonica. 



I. MADRONA — Arbutus Menziesii Pursh 



m 



A large evergreen tree extending from British Columbia to southern California, 

 attaining its greatest dimensions of about 33 meters tall, with a trunk diameter 

 of 2.1 m., in northern Cahfomia; in the southern part of its range and on high 

 mountains it is often a mere shrub. It is also called Madroiia tree, Madrove, 

 Manzanita, Laurelwood, and Laurel. 



The trunk is usually straight, the branches stout, upright and spreading, form- 

 ing a roimd headed tree when uncrowded. The bark is 8 to 12 mm. thick, broken 

 into small, thick, dark red plates, brighter red and thinner on younger stems. The 

 twigs are smooth, green, yellow or light red, becoming bright red. The buds arc 

 8 mm. long, blunt-pointed, bright red. The leaves are thick and leathery, oval to 

 elliptic-ovate, 8 to 15 cm. long, rounded or abruptly taper-pointed, wedge-shaped, 

 rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, somewhat thickened, revolute, and 



