The wood of the laurel is one of the most beautiful employed by the cabinet-maker, and it is largely used in the manufacture of choice furniture. The olive-like fruit is ripe by July, and would remain upon the tree until the next year were not the squirrels so fond of it.
This tree is known in different localities by a variety of names, such as "spice-bush," "balm of heaven," "sassafras laurel," "cajeput," "California bay-tree," "California olive," "mountain laurel," and "California laurel." But the last of these is the one prevalent where its finest forms are found.
_Cercocarpus parvifolius_, Nutt. Rose Family.
Shrubs two to twenty feet high; branching from a thick base. _Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; cuneate; serrate across the summit; more or less silky above; densely hoary-tomentose beneath; six to eighteen lines long. _Flowers._--Mostly solitary; axillary. _Calyx._--Narrowly tubular, with a deciduous campanulate five-lobed limb. _Petals._--None. _Stamens._--Fifteen to twenty-five; on the calyx. _Ovary._--One-(rarely two-) celled. Style simple. _Fruit._--An akene with a silky tail, at length becoming three or four inches long. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges from Lake County to Southern California.
The mountain mahogany is a common shrub upon the interior hills of the Coast Ranges; and when one has once made its acquaintance, it is always easily recognized by its wedge-shaped, dark-green leaves, prominently veined and notched at the summit. Its flowers, having no petals, are green and inconspicuous; but the long, solitary plumes of its little fruit are very noticeable and pretty. Its wood is the heaviest and hardest we have.
Mr. Greene says that its leafy twigs have a sweet, birchy flavor, rendering them excellent food for cattle in late summer.
_Aristolochia Californica_, Torr. Birthwort Family.
_Stem._--Woody; climbing. _Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; large; ovate-cordate, two to four inches long. _Flowers._--Greenish, veined with purple. _Perianth._--Pipe-shaped; the lobes of the lip leather-colored within. _Anthers._--Six; sessile; adnate in pairs to the thick style under the broad lobes of the stigma; vertical. _Stigma._--Three-lobed. _Ovary._--Inferior; six-angled; six-celled. _Fruit._--A large, leathery pod two inches long. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from Monterey to Marin County.