140 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



worked, regardless of all antecedent customs and experiences 

 of mankind, might be expected — the early California!! is 

 probably not the only one known to career in a maelstrom 

 of self-conceit or marvelous indifference to all the wisdom in 

 the heavens above, earth beneath, and waters under the 

 earth. Better be a little over scrupulous, as our fathers were, 

 in the observance of times and seasons for cutting timber; 

 waiving all cavil, in one universal voice it is agreed by com- 

 mon consent that timber, as a rule, should be cut in the dor- 

 mant state of the sap, as the wood has then finished another 

 greater ripened cycle, closed in and garnered the good — say 

 from about the last of August and September, far into Fall, 

 i. e. according to locality, whenever its closing growth season 

 is, for then the timber is at its best. But if cut in its Spring 

 or juvenile state, the timber is necessarily inferior, if not 

 utterly worthless — for many reasons, but if for no other, 

 because the Ptinus, a little black beetle, bores and eats it up 

 to a perfect powder-post within, with only an outer apple-of- 

 Sodom shell left ; great havoc is thus made of ceilings, ban- 

 nisters, book-cases, and even books themselves, and indeed 

 all kinds of furniture. Dr. Harkness informs me they swarm 

 out, in Sacramento City, by myriads, on the fifteenth of May. 

 In view of these facts, omissions, and commissions, alien to 

 every axiom, ancient or modern, are we not justified in saying, 

 that w T ith this supreme indifference to the wisdom of man- 

 kind in all ages, it is fortunate no Delphic Temples are now 

 built of bay, and dedicated to Apollo as of yore, or thej^ would 

 crumble to dust before the child then born were out of pan- 

 talets? Even heaven's own lightnings might be supposed to 

 take some pity on such puerile and ephemeral proceedings, 

 leaving it exempt and unscathed, as this timber has the 

 reputation of being. 



The Bay Tree, extending from Oregon throughout Califor- 

 nia into Mexico, of such wide and diversified range, must 

 needs bear many local or common names, some of which are 

 sufficiently complimentary and poetical, e. g. " Balm of 

 Heaven," applicable to those mainly w T ithin sounding echoes 

 from off the peaceful shores; farther back and far south 

 on more burning exposures, reduced to a bush, the odor is 

 too rank and disagreeable, might then well carry another 

 name — the famous " Pepper Bush," etc. 



