Veatchia (veʻchia)

[NL. (Asa Gray, 1884), named after Dr. John A. Veatch, who discovered the Cerros Island trees.] A genus of trees, of the order An a card i aceæ and tribe Spondieæ. It is distinguished from the related genus Rhus (the sumac) by its valvate sepals, accrescent petals, and thin walled fruit. The only species, V. discolor (V. Cedrosensis), one of the most singular of American trees, a native of Lower California, is known as elephant -tree, from the thick heavy trunk and branches (often 2 feet thick and not more than the same height, sending out ponderous bent and tortuous horizontal branches often 20 feet long, and ending suddenly in short twigs loaded with bright pink or yellowish-gray flowers). The trees usually grow close together, often forming low and impenetrable mats. On the mainland the species becomes erect and sometimes 25 feet high, and is locally known as copal - quien. Its bark is there used in tanning leather. The outer bark is a peculiar brown skin, peeling annually, and increasing the resemblance to the elephant. The flowers appear after the fall of the minute leaves, and where the trees are grouped in ma es form a blaze of color visible for several miles.