De I. VNER VEW D Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope

FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 191
nounced when they are crushed or bruised. They form pyramidal crowns in
youth, while in old age the crown becomes round-topped. The crown is somewhat
open, and the branchlets droop rather conspicuously. Male and female
flowers are each borne on different trees. Male flowers (pollen bearing only) are
small, bud-like, and numerous on the under sides of the branches at the bases
of the leaves produced the previous season. Female flowers, which develop
into a greenish or purple, thin-fleshed fruit resembling an olive or a nutmeg, are
also small, but much less numerous, and grow on the lower sides of the
branches from the bases of new leaves of the season or of the previous season.
The thin, tough skin of the fruit is resinous, and the seed has a smooth, hard
shell. Seed-kernels are characteristically wrinkled, the surface appearing to be
infolded, as in a nutmeg. Seed-leaves, 2. The bark is thin, and is distinctly
and narrowly seamed and ridged. The trunk, rarely full and round, tapers
slowly, and is usually slightly bent. A notable characteristic is the production
of thrifty permanent sprouts from cut stumps. Wood, moderately light, hard,
and fine-grained, clear lemon-yellow color, exceedingly durable under all kinds
of exposure. Our species are so rare or are so limited in occurrence as to be
of very little commercial use, for which, however, the extreme durability and
good working qualities of their wood fit them. They are trees of only secondary
importance to the forester, and are mainly useful for maintaining a protective
cover on the borders of narrow mountain streams, in rocky coves and
gulches.
Two species only are indigenous to the United States. One is confined to
Florida and the other to California. Trees of this group are of ancient origin.
Species of them inhabited the Arctic Zone in the Tertiary period, and later inhabited
portions of Europe, where they became extinct.
California Nutmeg.
Tumion californicutm (Torr.) Greene.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS.
California nutmeg is a rare tree of small size. It is called nutmeg from the
fancied resemblance of its seed-kernel to the nutmeg of commerce, which belongs
to a different and unrelated family of broadleaf plants. It is locally known as
" stinking cedar " and " stinking yew," on account of the disagreeable odor
emitted by its green parts and, to some extent, by its green wood when bruised.
In youth and middle age it has an open, wide, pyramidal crown which ir, the
open extends to the ground. The slender branches stand out rather straight
from the trunk in formal circles, and are somewhat drooping at their extremities.
Crowded in a dense stand, it bears a short, conical crown on a clear
trunk, while old trees under such conditions have rounded, dome-like tops. The
trunks, which are rarely straight, are clear of branches for two-thirds of their
length, and are from 35 to 50 feet high and from 8 to 20 inches in diameter.
Under conditions especially favorable for growth it is 75 or 80 feet high and
from 2 to 3 feet in diameter; but such dimensions are exceedingly rare. The
trunk is uneven, almost never full and cylindrical. Bark, one-third to fiveeighths
of an inch thick, is finely checked with narrow seams and short, narrow,
loosely scaly ridges, with frequent side connections; rather soft, outer layers
easily scaled off; outwardly weathered to an ashy yellowish brown.
The flat, glossy, deep, yellow-green, lance-shaped, keenly pointed leaves
(fig. 75), and particularly their sharp aromatic odor when bruised, distinguish
the tree; green bark and branchlets also emit, when bruised, the same disagree-