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

202 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFTC SLOPE.
ers, which is commonly at a height of from 8 to 12 feet. Usually two branches
are then formed at the top of tlie siigle stem and, in succession, each of these
forms two or more, until a broad, low-branched crown results at maturity. When
from 3 to 6( feet high the trunks are often set with bristling leaves down to the
FIG. 70.-Yucca arborescens: a, leaves ; b, fruit; e, sections of fruit; d, seed.
ground (fig. S0, a). .No living thing intrudes upon the ground they occupy.
The topiiost leaves are upright in position, hut as the stem increases in height
the first leaves grown hegin, during about their second year, to droop, finally
dying and becoiming closely pressed down upon the trunk in a thatch-like cover.