48 
CALIFORNIA BUTTONWOOD. 
way down into five sharp pointed, lanceolate portions, of 
which the two lower are the smallest; all the divisions are 
quite entire, two of them in small leaves are suppressed, 
thus producing a leaf of only three parts. Above, as 
usual, the surface is at first clad with a yellowish copious 
down, formed of ramified hairs, which quickly falls off 
and spreads itself in the atmosphere. The under sur- 
face of the leaves are, however, always copiously clad 
with a coat of whitish wool, which remains. The young 
leaves, clad in their brown pilose clothing, have a very 
uncommon appearance, and feel exactly like a piece of 
stout thick woollen cloth. The branchlets, petioles, and 
peduncles are equally villous. The male catkins are 
small, less in size than peas, full of long haired scales, 
and with unusually small anthers. The female catkins 
are in racemes of 3 to 5 in number, with remarkably 
long styles, being between 2 and 3 tenths of an inch 
in length, and persistent on the ripe balls. The raceme 
with the full grown balls measures 9 inches. The tree 
has, therefore, a very unusual appearance, filled with 
these very long pendulous racemes, each bearing from 
3 to 4 or even 5 balls, at the distance of about an inch 
from each other. The stigmas are at first of a deep 
and bright brown. 
The wood of this species, as far as I could learn 
from the American residents at Sta. Barbara, is far 
preferable to that of the common Buttonwood, being 
much harder, more durable, less liable to warp, and 
capable of receiving a good polish; it is of a pale yellow- 
ish colour, like the young wood of the Oriental Plane, 
and bears some resemblance to beech wood in its tex- 
ture. In the radiation of its medullary vessels, it resem- 
bles the wood of the common species. 
Plate XV. 
A branch of the natural size. a. The carpel. 
