96 • FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



leathery; burr horrent, with divergently radiating spines r 

 from murex-like prominences; nut subtrianguloid, shell hard 

 like the hazel and about the common size, but rather more 

 pointed. 



The V&r. Minor, a Chinquapin form of bush, bearing fruit, 

 from one to six feet high. By the way, this native or 

 aboriginal name is of curious and very suggestive origin. 

 Indian traditions say it was derived from some shipwrecked 

 (Chinese?) Asiatics, who, on seeing and recognizing these- 

 American shrubs as like their own species, called them 

 "Shin-Ching-Kang," corrupted "Chinquapin." We have 

 seen this Asiatic species, and a similar one to our "Chin- 

 quapin Oak" (Q. Chinqua/pin Mx.) t the former a true easta- 

 nopsis; also a larger oak quite similar to our common 

 densiflora, and of like use — i. e., for the food of their inval- 

 uable quercophogus silkworm (Saturnia cynalina), formerly 

 known as a bombyx, the silk export of which amounts to 

 over sixty millions of dollars a year, and only raising two 

 crops a year in China, whereas in California we could raise 

 at least five, without any artificial heat and far less care, and 

 even that, simply the light labor of women and children 

 only, thereby more than doubling the annual income of 

 every farmer, ruralist, or laborer in the land. Also feeds 

 greedily upon Ailantus glandulosa, or Tree of Heaven, etc., 

 besides the mulberries, the Japanese being the best. 



MADRONA TREE. 



(Arbutus Menziesii.) 



"Before thee stands this fair Hesperides 



With golden fruit." — Pericles; act first, scene first. 



WHO will solve for us that most marvelous sylvan 

 mystery of the Pacific coast? We allude to the 

 almost universal neglect of the magnificent ever- 

 green, Madrona, the finest ornamental forest tree of the con- 

 tinent, unsurpassed for grandeur and varied beauty. Let us 

 consider its just claims for a moment. We have at our bid- 

 ding a lofty tree fifty to one hundred and twenty or one 

 hundred and thirty feet in height, four to eight feet in the 

 smallest diameter, and some few over ten feet, often with 

 huge limbs two to four feet through, horizontal spread of at 

 least seventy -five to one hundred feet, and at either the main 

 forks or kneed base, transverse sections would give us solid 



