MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY (_Cercocarpus ledifolius_) is not a mahogany, and is not even in the same family. It belongs to the rose family, and is closely related to the crabapple; but since it is commonly known as mahogany, it is proper to mention it here. Extensive consideration is unnecessary, for the tree is not important as a source of wood. Three species are recognized by some botanists, four by others. All are western, and are noted for their long-tailed fruit. The generic name refers to that feature. The seed, with its tail, is carried by the wind, or it catches in the wool of sheep and the hair of cattle and goats, or the feathers of birds, and is carried far and near. The mountain mahogany sometimes is thirty feet high, and two in diameter. It grows from 5,000 to 9,000 feet elevation, sometimes on steep cliffs. Its range extends from Wyoming and Montana to Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The wood is bright, clear red, or rich dark brown. It reaches its largest size on the mountains of central Nevada. Another species is known as valley mahogany (_Cercocarpus parvifolius_). It ranges from Nebraska to Oregon, and Texas to California. Its rate of growth is very slow, and it seldom exceeds a height of thirty feet and a diameter of ten inches. The wood is reddish-brown. A third species, called Trask mahogany (_Cercocarpus traskiæ_) is chiefly notable on account of its restricted range. It occurs as far as known, in a single canyon of Santa Catalina island, off the southern coast of California. Some of the specimens are twenty feet high and six inches in diameter. A fourth species, or a variety, is known as short-flower mahogany (_Cercocarpus parvifolius breviflorus_). It occurs in western Texas, southern New Mexico and Arizona, usually at elevations about 5,000 feet above sea level where the largest trees are not more than eight inches in diameter and twenty-five feet high. VAUQUELINIA (_Vauquelinia californica_) belongs to the same family as the so-called western mahoganies, that is, the rose family; but it is of a different genus. Its range is largely south of the international boundary, but it extends into southern Arizona where the best development of the species occurs about 5,000 feet above the sea on grassy slopes. It is seldom more than a bush, and the wood is very heavy and hard, and is dark-brown, streaked with red. [Illustration] BLACK WILLOW [Illustration: BLACK WILLOW] BLACK WILLOW (_Salix Nigra_)