34 MISC. CIRCULAR 31, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
fornia laurel is well worth preserving and planting. In the northern 
coast counties it is known as “pepper wood,” and, in Oregon, as 
“Oregon myrtle,” but its kinsfolk are in the laurel family far 
removed from the true myrtles. 
THE DOGWOOD 
The Pacific dogwood (fig. 22) is one of the most decorative of all 
the small trees of California. It is found in gulches, ravines, and 
along mountain streams. In the spring it is conspicuous because of 
its showy white or pinkish floral bracts that unbotanical folk very 
naturally mistake for petals, and in the fall the scarlet and orange-_ 
colored leaves add greatly to the beauty of the woods. This sole 
* F182520 
FIGURE 22.—Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) 
flowering dogwood of western North America sometimes grows 20 
or 30 feet high and 6 or 8 inches in diameter, and has a thin, mottled, 
grayish bark. 
THE BUCKEYE 
The California Buckeye has been left until the last of the trees, as 
the writer is uncertain whether to group it with trees or with the 
ornamental treelike shrubs. However, it sometimes grows from 25 
to 80 feet high, soit should probably be put with the trees. 
California buckeye is the first tree in the Sierra foothills to put 
out new green in the spring, the vivid 5 to 7 fingered leaves shining 
against the pale stems, and followed by the glorious upright clusters 
(thyrses) of fragrant bloom. Usually from 10 to 20 feet high and 3 
to 6 inches in diameter, this tree occasionally reaches a height of 30 
feet and a diameter of 20 inches. 
In the fall the buckeye leaves are the first to turn—a soft woods 
brown—and then drop before other trees are ready to lose their 
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