The mountain mahogany is not uncommon (_Cereocarpus parvifolius_, Nutt.) and though its green flowers are inconspicuous, its long, solitary plumes at fruiting time attract the eye.
While the California laurel (_Umbellularia Californica_, Nutt.) often grows to great height, it is found in chaparral clumps on the mountain sides. It is commonly known as the bay tree, on account of the bay-like shape and odor of its leaves when crushed. It gives a spicy fragrance to the air and is always welcome to those who know it.
In many places throughout the mountains of the Tahoe region there are clumps or groves of wild cherry (_Prunus Demissa_, Walpers), the cherries generally ripening in September. But if one expects the ripe red _wild_ cherries to have any of the delicious richness and sweetness of the ripe Queen Anne or other good variety he is doomed to sad disappointment. For they are sour and bitter--bitter as quinine,--and that is perhaps the reason their juice has been extracted and made into medicine supposed to have extraordinary tonic and healing virtue.
The elder is often found (_Sambucus Glauca_, Nutt.), sometimes quite tall and at other times broken down by the snow, but bravely covering its bent and gnarled trunks and branches with dense foliage and cream-white blossom-clusters. The berries are always attractive to the eye in their purple tint, with the creamy blush on them, and happy is that traveler who has an expert make for him an elderberry pie, or distill the rich cordial the berries make.
Another feature of the chaparral often occupies the field entirely to itself, viz., the chamisal or greasewood (_Adenostoma fasciculatum_, Hook, and Arn.). Its small clustered and needle-like leaves, richly covered with large, feathery panicles of tiny blossoms, give it an appearance not unlike Scotch heather, and make a mountainside dainty and beautiful.
The California buckeye (_Aesculus Californica_, Nutt.) is also found, especially upon stream banks or on the moist slopes of the canyons. Its light gray limbs, broad leaves, and long, white flower-spikes make it an attractive shrub or tree (for it often reaches forty feet in height), and when the leaves drop, as they do early, the skeleton presents a beautiful and delicate network against the deep azure of the sky.