MADKON'A TREE. 99 



nished-green and tropical foliage, vivid semblance of the 

 (.{rand Magnolia (Magnolia grana/Ulora) of the South, laden, 

 as it were, with a mass of burning berries; seen in due season, 

 such smooth, red, naked limbs, gleaming from out the open- 

 ing mantle like the native red man — giant of the wood — 

 stalking the forest with majestic tread, and you have before 

 you the handsomest tree of the west. Like exfoliating trees 

 in general, which have their wood of continuous texture, 

 with little or no separation of porous structure alternating 

 with annual rings of growth, and so are never "shaky" nor 

 liable to split, this timber has a high reputation for furni- 

 ture — polishes, stains, and works well. But spare us, dear 

 reader, the further merited allusion to its timber. Ghosts of 

 departed sawmills and vandal skeletons, with ax in hand, 

 loom up from k ' that other place" to haunt the evening of our 

 days. We would rather sit on Madrona's knees, that resem- 

 ble those of the deciduous or Bald Cypress ( Taxodium dis- 

 tichum) of the East, and teach your children the wisdom that 

 shall reverence sylvan use and beauty, that they may offer, 

 betimes, some acceptable incense of affection for the native 

 forest trees of the land. 



True, this tree, like others we could name, does not bear 

 transplanting from the wild state well, from lack of the usual 

 number of fibrous roots of many other trees, but it germi- 

 nates easily and grows freely from the seed. " Why, then, is 

 it not more cultivated?" Nurserymen justly reply: "Be- 

 cause there is no demand." These, and other tree seed, 

 should be put on the ground so soon as possible after the first 

 rains, and nursed and sheltered from the sun. 



Dr. H. Behr presented to the California Academy of Scien- 

 ces, some years ago, a peculiar web, sent to him from Arizona 

 by Baronet Koels ; these webs were the product of a cater- 

 pillar of a butterfly (probably Euchera socialis), which feeds 

 on this Arbutus Menziesii during the rainy season, and pro- 

 tects itself in these webs against storms and other inclemen- 

 cies of the weather. As these webs are impervious to water 

 in the liquid form, but let it pass through in the state of 

 vapor of perspiration, they would furnish water-proof cloth- 

 ing without accumulating the perspiration like prepared 

 silks, rubber goods, etc. — and, withal, exceedingly light and 

 elegant. The cultivation of the insect would develop a val- 

 uable article of export, amounting to millions annually. 



