132 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



t 



soms throughout the Summer and Fall seasons, often, near 

 the coast and south, far into Winter and even to the open- 

 ing Spring of the following year; in these last localities, and 

 on adjacent islands, perhaps there is no season in California 

 when these flowers may not be found more or less abun- 

 dantly. The very thrifty condition of this shrub, as seen now 

 and then, shows its wonderful capacity for improvement by 

 judicious culture. To ensure success in this enterprise, it is 

 important to observe that, in order to preserve the precari- 

 ous vitality of the seed, they require immediate planting, or 

 deposition in dry, ashy, sandstone soil, and yellow or white 

 loam with magnesian debris, if possible; they require an 

 ardent sun, little water, save underground moisture in abso- 

 lutely sweet drainage. 



MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY— TWO SPECIES. 



(Cereoearpus parvifolius and. ledifolius.) 



* * * ■' her hair 



Is like the Summer tresses of the trees." 



— Longfellow. 



ALTHOUGH the evergreen Mountain Mahogany may 

 be considered as a large shrub, for in this character 

 ~ most of the species mainty abound, yet they are fre- 

 quently found six inches to two feet or more in diameter, 

 thirty to fifty feet high, furnishing large timber-logs, eight to 

 twelve feet in length, or sometimes more, the smaller end 

 nearly or quite a foot through ; the bark brown and shaggy, 

 or somewhat scaly. The largest species (C. ledifolius) is 

 mainly, if not quite entirely, confined to the Eastern arid 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada. This has more the aspect of a 

 depauperated apple tree — if, indeed, the leaves are not too 

 small for the comparison — giving it an air. of littleness not 

 altogether agreeable to an artistic eye. Nevertheless, it some- 

 times becomes a tolerably handsome tree, forty to fifty feet 

 high by two and a half in diameter ; leaves thick and leathery, 

 one half to one and a half inches long, one fourth to one 

 half inch wide, lance-like, rough netted, and nearly naked 

 above, margins entire, and the edges rolled back, dark green 

 and shining, but very short close- woolly beneath, mid-rib 

 prominent on the under side, veins obscure; flowers nearly 

 stemless; fruit-tails about two to three inches long, spirally 

 flourishing its pretty plumes, after the manner of the genus. 

 In this, the flowers are from two to six together, nearly close 



