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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
jtortjj Jmcntan Sglfoi;
OR, A DESCRIPTION OF THE
FOREST TREES
OF THE
UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND NOVA SCOTIA.
CONSIDERED PARTICULARLY
WITH RESPECT TO THEIR USE IN THE ARTS AND THEIR
INTRODUCTION INTO COMMERCE.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST USEFUL OF THE
EUROPEAN FOREST TREES.
IIXUSTRATED BY 15B COLORED ENGRAVINGS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
F.-"' ANDREW MICHAUX,
MEMBER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, ETC. ETC.
WITH NOTES BY J. JAY SMITH,
EDITOR OF THE HORTICULTURIST, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
PIIILADELPIIIA:
PUBLISHED BY RICE, BUTTER & CO.
No. 525 MINOR STREET.
18 6 5.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in tho year 1SG5, by
RICE, RUTTER & CO..
COLLINS, PRINTER
CONTENTS OF VOLUME SECOND.
Large Magnolia, or Big Laurel Magnolia grandiflora 8
Small Magnolia, or White Bay Magnolia glauca 12
Cucumber Tree Magnolia acuminata 15
Heart-Leaved Cucumber Tree Magnolia cordata 18
Umbrella Tree Magnolia tripetala 20
Long-Leaved Cucumber Tree Magnolia auriculata 23
Large-Leaved Umbrella Tree Magnolia macrophylla 26
Loblolly Bay Gordonia lasyanthus 29
Franklinia Gordonia pubescens 31
Papaw Anona triloba 33
Poplar or Tulip Tree Liriodendrum tulipifera 35
Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua 44
Buttonwood or Sycamore Platanus Occidentals 48
Catalpa Bignonia catalpa 55
Crab Apple Malm coronaria 58
June Berry Mespilus arborea GO
Dwarf Rose Bay Rhododendron maximum 62
Mountain Laurel Kalmia latifolia 64
Canoe Birch Betula papyracea 70
Common European Birch Betula alba 73
White Birch Betula populifolia 78
Bed Birch Betula rubra 80
Yellow Birch Betula lutea 82
Black Birch Betula lenta ; 85
Common Alder Alnus serrulata 88
Black Alder Alnus glauca 89
3
4 CONTENTS.
pace
Locust Robinia pseudo-acacia U2
Rose-Flowering Locust Robinia viscosa 104
Yellow Wood Virgilia lutea 106
Sweet Locust Gleditschia triacantlios 108
Water Locust Gleditsch ia monosperma Ill
Sassafras Laurus sassafras 113
Red Bay Laurus Caroliniensis 118
Camphor Tree Laurus camphora 120
A aierican Holly Ilex opaca 122
S Jrel Tree A ndromeda arbor ea 126
Devil Wood Oka Americana 128
Olive Tree Olea Europoea 130
Wild Cherry Tree Cerasus Virginiana 147
Wild Orange Tree Cerasus Caroliniana 150
Red Cherry Tree Cerasus borealis 152
Large Buckeye Pavia lutea 153
Ohio Buckeye Pa via Oliioensis 156
Persimmon Diospyros Virginiana 157
Carolinian Poplar Populus angulata 161
Cotton Wood Populus Canadensis 164
American Black Poplar Populus Pcudsonica 167
Virginia Poplar Populus monilifera 168
Cotton Tree Populus argentea 170
Balsam Poplar Populus balsam if era 172
Heart-Leaved Balsam Poplar Populus candieans 173
American Aspen Populus tremulo'ides 175
American Large Aspen Populus grandidentata 176
Common White or Gray Poplar Populus canescens 178
THE
NORTH AMERICAN
SYLVA.
MAGNOLIAS.
Magnoliacese. Juss.
The trees and shrubs which compose this genus are, without
exception, natives of Asia and America, where they are found
nearly in the same latitude, being included between the 28th
and 4 2d parallels.
All the Magnolias are adorned with beautiful foliage, and
most of them with magnificent flowers. The species which are
indigenous to North America, and particularly those which grow
in the southern part of the United States, are in these respects
the most remarkable ; hence, for more than half a century, they
have been highly esteemed in Europe as ornamental vegetables.
In the climates of London and Paris, several of the Asiatic and
one of the American species require to be sheltered in the winter,
to secure them from the danger of perishing by cold.
Of thirteen species of Magnolias which have hitherto been
distinctly ascertained, five belong to China and Japan. Of these,
6 MAGNOLIAS.
the Magnolia Yulan* is the largest. It attains the height of
thirty or forty feet, and its Mowers, which are nearly six inches
in diameter, diffuse a delicious odor. It has been cultivated
during several centuries, and serves particularly for the em-
bellishment of the Emperor of China's gardens. In Chinese
poetry it figures as the symbol of candor and of beauty.
Of the eight remaining species, which are natives of the New
World, one belongs to the West Indies, and seven to the United
States : others will perhaps be discovered in the Floridas and in
the country west of the Mississippi.
[{■ 6l.
Seem M.
Poplar or Tulip Tree .
Lyruulendrum tulipifera
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 35
[This is the only fruit of a tropical appearance we possess in
the Middle States, and deserves more general consideration. I
have purchased the fruit recently in the markets of Cincinnati
and Pittsburg, where it is esteemed.]
POPLAR or TULIP TREE.
Liriodendron tulipifera. L. foliis trilobis ; lobo medio truneato ; ca-
lice triphyllo.
Magnoliacese. Juss.
This tree, which surpasses most others of North America in
height and in the beauty of its foliage and of its flowers, is also
one of the most interesting from the numerous and useful appli-
cations of its wood. Wherever it abounds, and throughout the
greater part of the United States, it is called Poplar. In Con-
necticut, New York, and New Jersey, it is known by the name
of White Wood, and of Canoe Wood, and, more rarely, by that
of Tulip Tree. This last denomination, which, since the intro-
duction of the tree, has been adopted in Europe, is certainly the
most proper, because the flower nearly resembles the Tulip, and
because the tree bears in none of its characters any analogy to
the Poplars, which are in every respect inferior to it. But the
name of Poplar has become so generally sanctioned by use in
the United States, that I have not felt at liherty to change it,
and have only annexed the other as a synonym, with a feeble
hope of its ultimately prevailing.
The southern extremity of Lake Champlain, in latitude 45°,
may be considered as the northern limit, and the Connecticut
River, in the longitude of 72°, as the eastern limit, of the Tulip
Tree. It is only beyond the Hudson, which flows two degrees
30 POPLAR OR TULIP TREE.
farther west, and below 43° of latitude, that it is frequently
met with and fully developed. Its expansion is not here re-
pressed, as in Vermont and the upper part of Connecticut, by
the excessive cold, and by a mountainous surface unfavorable to
its growth. It is multiplied in the Middle States, in the upper
parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, and still more abundantly
in the western country, particularly in Kentucky. Its com-
parative rareness in the maritime parts of the Carolinas and of
Georgia,, in the Floridas and in Lower Louisiana, is owing less
to the heat of the summer than to the nature of the soil, which
in some parts is too dry, as in the pine-barrens, and in others too
wet, as in the swamps which border the rivers. Even in the
Middle and Western States, the Tulip Tree is less abundant than
the Oaks, the Walnuts, the Ashes, and the Beeches, because it
delights only in deep, loamy, and extremely fertile soils, such
as are found in the rich bottoms that lie along the rivers, and
on the borders of the great swamps that are enclosed in the
forests.
In the Atlantic States, especially at a considerable distance
from the sea, Tulip Trees are often seen seventy, eighty, and one
hundred feet in height, with a diameter from eighteen inches to
three feet. But the Western States appear to be the natural
soil of this magnificent tree, and here it displays its most power-
ful vegetation. It is commonly found mingled with other trees,
such as the Hickories, the Black Walnut and Butternut, the
Coffee Tree, and the Wild Cherry Tree; but it sometimes consti-
tutes alone pretty large tracts of the forest, as my father ol>-
served in Kentucky, on the road from Beard Stone to Louisville.
In no other part of the United States did he find the Tulip Trees
so lofty, and, of so great a diameter. He observed man}' of them
in passing which appeared to be fifteen or sixteen feet in cir-
cumference; and three and a half miles from Louisville, he
measured one which, at five feet from the ground, was twenty-
two feet and six inches in circumference, and whose elevation
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 37
he judged to be from 120 to 140 feet : the correctness of this
estimate I have since had an opportunity of proving. Of all
the trees of North America with deciduous leaves, the Tulip
Tree, next to the Buttonwood, attains the amplest dimensions;
while the perfect straightness and uniform diameter of its trunk
for upwards of forty feet, the more regular disposition of its
branches, and the greater richness of its foliage, give it a decided
superiority over the Buttonwood, and entitle it to be considered
as one of the most magnificent vegetables of the temperate
zone.
In the development of its leaves, the Poplar differs from most
other trees. Leaf-buds, in general, are composed of scales
closely applied one upon another, which, in the spring, are dis-
tended by the growth of the minute bundle of leaves which
they enclose, till they finally fall. On some trees, those buds are
without scales, as, for instance, on the Butternut. On the Tulip
Tree, the terminal bud of each shoot swells considerably before
it gives birth to the leaf: it forms an oval sac which contains
the young leaf, and which produces it to the light only when it
appears to have acquired sufficient force to endure the influences
of the atmosphere. Within this sac is found another, which,
after the first leaf is put forth, swells, bursts, and gives birth to
a second. On young and vigorous trees, five or six leaves issue
successively in this manner from one sac. Till the leaf has
acquired half its growth, it retains the two lobes which com-
posed its sac, and which are now called stipule.
In the spring, when the weather is warm and humid, the
growth of the leaves is very rapid: they are six or eight inches
broad, borne on long petioles, alternate, somewhat fleshy, smooth,
and of a pleasing green color. They are divided into three
lobes, of which the middle one is horizontally notched at its
summit, and the two lower ones are rounded at the base. This
conformation is peculiar to the Tulip Tree, and renders it easily
distinguishable in the summer. The flowers, which are large,
38 POPLAR OR TULIT TREE.
brilliant, and on detached trees very numerous, are variegated
•with different colors, among which yellow predominates : they
have an agreeable odor, and, surrounded by luxuriant foliage,
they produce a fine effect. In the spring, they are gathered by
■women and children in the neighborhood of New York, and sold
in the market of that city.
The fruit is composed of a great number of thin, narrow
scales, attached to a common axis, and forming a cone two or
three inches in length. Each cone consists of sixty or seventy
seeds, of which never more than a third, and some seasons not
more than seven or eight in the whole number, are productive.
It is also observed that during ten }_ears after it begins to yield
fruit, almost all the seeds of the Tulip Tree are unproductive,
and that, on large trees, the seeds from the highest branches are
the best.
The bark, till the trunk exceeds seven or eight inches in
diameter, is smooth and even; it afterward begins to crack, and
the depth of the furrow and the thickness of the bark are pro-
j)ortioned to the size and to the age of the tree.
The heart or perfect wood of the Tulip Tree is yellow, ap-
proaching to a lemon-color, and its sap or alburnum is white.
Though this tree is classed as a light wood, it is much heavier
than the Poplars : its grain is equally fine and more compact,
and the wood is easily wrought and polishes well. It is found
strong and stiff enough for uses that require great solidity. The
heart, when separated from the sap and perfectly seasoned, long-
resists the influence of the air, and is said to be rarely attacked
by worms. Its greatest defect, when employed in wide boards
and exposed to the weather, is that it is liable to shrink and
warp by the alternations of dryness and moisture; but this de-
fect is in a great measure compensated by its other properties.
The nature of the soil has so striking an influence upon the
color and upon the quality of the Tulip wood, that the mechanics
who employ it have made the remark, and have distinguished
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 39
it by the names of White Poplar and Yellow Poplar. The
external a])pearances which mark these varieties are so equi-
vocal that it can be ascertained to which a tree belongs only by
cutting it. It is known in general that the White Poplar grows
in dry, gravelly, and elevated places; it is recognised, too, by its
branchy summit, and by the small proportion which the light-
yellow heart bears to the sap. The grain also is coarser and
harder, and the wood decays more speedily: hence it is always
neglected when the other variety can be obtained. The Yellow
Poplar possesses every quality requisite to fit it for so great a
variety of uses, that I shall content myself with mentioning
the most common. At New York and Philadelphia, and in the
adjacent country, the Poplar is often employed, in the construc-
tion of houses, for rafters and for the joists of the upper stories,
for which purposes it is esteemed on account of its lightness and
strength. In the other Middle States, in the upper parts of the
Carolinas, and above all in the Western States, it is more gene-
rally used in building, and is considered as the best substitute
for the Pine, the Red Cedar, and the Cypress. Wherever it
abounds it serves for the interior work of houses, and sometimes
for the exterior covering, as I observed in several small towns
situated between Laurel Hill and the Monongahela River. It
is not easy in this region to procure pine boards, which otherwise
would be preferred, as they do not, like those of Poplar, warp
when exposed to the weather. The panels of doors and of
wainscots, and the mouldings of chimney-pieces, are made of
Poplar. In the States of Ohio and Kentucky, on the banks of
the Miami River, and in the upper part of North Carolina,
Poplar shingles about fifteen inches long are preferred for cover-
ing roofs, because they are the most durable, and because they
are not liable to split by the effect either of intense frost or of
ardent sunshine.
In all the large towns in the United States, Tulip Tree or
Poplar boards., which are often two or three feet wide, are ex-
40 POPLAR OR TULIP TREE.
clusively used for the panels of coaches and chaises. When
perfectly dry they receive paint "well and admit of a brilliant
polish. The vicinity of Boston does not produce this tree, and
the coach-makers procure it from New York and Philadelphia :
it is also sent for the same use to Charleston, S.C., -where the
Tulip Trees are few in number and inferior in size. The seat
of Windsor chairs, which are fabricated at New York, Phila-
delphia, and Baltimore, and in many other towns, is always of
Poplar : a larger quantity of the wood than would be supposed
is consumed in this way, and also in the manufacture of trunks,
which are covered with skins, and of bedsteads, which are
stained in imitation of mahogany. I have remarked that the
circular board and the wings of fanning-mills are of this wood.
As it is easily wrought in the lathe, and is very light, it is much
used for wooden bowls : it is also preferred for the head of hair-
brooms or sweeping-brushes. The farmers choose it for the eat-
ing and drinking troughs of cattle : these troughs are formed
of a single piece, and exposed to the weather they last as long
as those made of Chestnut and of Butternut. In Kentucky, I
have seen the Tulip Tree employed for the rails of rural fence ;
but I must confess my inattention in not learning their dura-
tion. It is found useful also in the construction of wooden
bridges, as it unites lightness with strength and durability. I
have been assured that the heart of the Poplar might be profit-
ably employed for the fellies of large mill-wheels. The Indians
who inhabited the Middle States, and those who still remain in
the western country, preferred this tree for their canoes, which,
consisting of a single trunk, are very light and strong, and some-
times carry twenty persons. In fine, the Poplar affords excel-
lent charcoal, which is emploj-ed by smiths iu districts that
furnish no fossil coal. In the lumber-j-ards of New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore, a great quantity of this wood is
found in forms convenient for the uses which I have euume-
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 41
rated. It is very cheap, being sold at half the price of Black
Walnut, Wild Cherry, and Curled Maple.
In all the country watered by the Monongahela Eiver,
between 30° and 40° of latitude, the Tulip Tree is so abun-
dant, that large rafts, composed wholly of these logs, are made
to float down its stream. At Brownsville, they are sawn into
boards, which are used in the environs, and even at Pittsburg,
in the construction of houses, and which are sold at $10 per
1000 feet. I observed that the mean diameter of the logs was
from twelve to fifteen inches ; that of the largest from twenty
to twenty-four inches, and that of the smallest nine or ten
inches : their two extremities were of a dark-blue color. I
have also remarked that, when a Poplar is felled, the chips of
the heart which are left upon the ground, particularly those
which are half buried in the leaves, suffer at the end of three
or four weeks a remarkable change ; the lower part becomes of
a deep blue, and they exhale a fetid, ammoniacal odor.
The live part or cellular tissue of the bark which covers the
trunk of the Tulip Tree, the bark of the branches, and, still
more, that of the roots, has an agreeable smell and a very bitter
taste. In Virginia, some inhabitants of the country steep the
bark of these roots, with an ecpial portion of Dogwood bark, in
brandy during eight clays : two glasses of this tincture, taken
every day, sometimes cure intermittent fevers. Poplar bark,
reduced to powder and given in substance to horses, appears to
be a pretty certain remedy for worms.
The American Museum for December, 1792, contains circum-
stantial details concerning the valuable properties ascribed to
this bark by Dr. Young, of Philadelphia. I shall recall Avhat
he has written on this subject, though these properties have
since been denied by other physicians in the United States ;
and though the use of this bark is not general in the country,
and is unknown in the capitals, where the faculty are most en-
lightened. In Dr. Young's opinion, the most proper time to
42 POPLAR OR TULIP TREE.
gather the Poplar bark for medical use is the month of January.
He asserts that it is more bitter than the Peruvian bark, though
less astringent, and that it possesses some properties in common
with the acrid aromatics; whence he concludes that it is a
jiowerful tonic and antiseptic. The aromatic principle appears
to reside in a resinous part of its substance, which stimulates the
intestinal canal, and which operates as a gentle cathartic. In
many instances the stomach cannot support it unless each dose
is accompanied by a few drops of laudanum. In intermittent
fevers, when taken after the biliary ducts have been evacuated
by an emetic, it is often found ecpial to the Peruvian bark. In
remittent it is used with as great success as in intermittent
fevers, and in one instance it was found to operate more success-
fully than the Peruvian bark. In inflammatory disorders,
where the phlogistic diathesis is not very strongly marked, and
where a weakness of arterial action has taken place, it gives
tone and vigor to the stomach. United with laudanum, it has
frequently dissipated the alarming symptoms of pulmonary
consumption when attended with nightly sweats and diarrhoea.
A person afflicted with catarrh complicated with dyspepsia,
which had resisted the best-chosen remedies, was perfectly
cured by this bark. Dr. Young also assures us that there is not
in the whole materia medica a more certain and efficacious
remedy in hysterical affections than the bark of Poplar roots
combined with a small quantity of laudanum; that, taken after
the first passages have been evacuated, it is a specific in cholera
infantum ; and also that it is an excellent remedy for worms.
It is given in aqueous extract, either in the form of infusion or
of decoction, but it is most efficacious when taken in substance :
the dose for an adult is from one scruple to two drachms.
In Paris, a spirituous liquor is made from the fresh bark of
Poplar roots, with the addition of a sufficient quantity of sugar
to render it agreeable to the taste.
The Tulip Tree was introduced into Europe sixty years ago;
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 43
and many stocks of this species, more than fifty feet high, exist
in France, Germany, and England, which are annually covered
with myriads of flowers, and which yield productive seeds. It
has been so widely spread within fifteen years, that there are
few country-seats where it is not found; and, by the fine form
of its trunk, by the richness and singularity of its foliage, and
by the beauty of its flowers, it is eminently fitted to adorn
them. It is to be desired, on account of the excellent qualities
and diversified uses of its wood, that it should be multiplied
also in our forests.
PLATE LXI.
A branch with leaves and a flower of the natural size. Fig. 1. A cone of
the natural size. Fig. 2. A seed of the natural size.
[This is a difficult tree to transplant, as, like the Magnolias,
its roots have few fibres. It is therefore best grown on the spot
where it is to remain, or the plants may be kept in pots ; if in
the nursery, they should be transplanted every year. It is not
very patient of the knife.]
SWEET GUM.
Liquidambah styraciflua. L. foliis palmatis, lobis acuminaiis, dentatis;
axillis nervorum villosis.
Monceeia polyandria. Linn. Amentaceae. Juss.
No tree lias hitherto been found in North America so exten-
sively diffused as the Sweet Gum. On the sea-shore it is seen,
toward the northeast, between Portsmouth and Boston, in the
latitude of 43° 30'; and it is found as far as Old Mexico, toward
the southwest : from the coast of Virginia it extends westward
to the Illinois River, thus spreading over more than two-thirds
of the ancient territory of the United States, together with the
two Floridas, Upper and Lower Louisiana, and a great part of
New Spain.
In the United States, this tree is universally called Sweet
Gum, and by the French in Louisiana, Cojpalm. In the Middle,
Western, and Southern States, the Sweet Gum is sufficiently
multiplied to be numbered among the most common trees : it is
met with wherever the soil is fertile, cool, and exposed to tem-
porary inundations, and is usually seen in company with the
Maple, the Tupelo, the Swamp White Oak, the Shagbark
Hickory, and the Butternut. In the South, it grows also in
the great swamps which border the rivers; and here, owing-
doubtless to the mildness of the winter and to the intense heat
of the summer, it displays its amplest dimensions. The largest
Sweet Gum that I have observed was in a swamp four or five
miles from Augusta, in Georgia; at five feet from the ground, it
was fifteen feet seven inches in circumference : it ramified at the
height of fifteen or eighteen feet, and its summit was spacious in
proportion to the thickness of its trunk. The soil in which it
grew was rich and constantly moist, and abounded particularly
4-1
P.J.lU&uteJJ
-i\\ cM-i (nun
S W E E T G U M. 45
in the Chestnut White Oak, Willow Oak, Wahoo, Black Gum,
Red Maple, Red Ash, and Black Ash.
From the form of a single tree, it is not to be concluded that
the Sweet Gum generally branches at so small an elevation.
When confined amidst other trees, its trunk, like that of the
Oak, the Elm, and the Poplar, is perfectly straight and of a
uniform size to the height of thirty or forty feet, at which it
begins to divide itself into branches: in these situations it is
usually from one to two feet in diameter. As the Sweet Gum
is profusely multiplied, it is often found on soils unpropitious to
its growth. On dry and gravelly land, its height does not ex-
ceed fifteen, twenty, and thirty feet, and its secondary branches
are covered with a dry and flaky bark, of which the plates are
attached by the edge, instead of the face as on other trees.
The Sweet Gum is garnished with fine foliage, which changes
to a dull red with the first autumnal frosts, and falls soon after.
The shoots upon which the young leaves appear in the spring-
are smooth and of a yellowish-green color. The leaves vary in
size from three to six inches, according to the vigor of the tree
and to the situation of the leaf, being larger and less deeply
palmated on the lower branches: they are alternate, petiolated,
and divided into five principal lobes: in this last particular,
they bear some resemblance to the leaves of the Sugar Maple
and the Norway Maple, from which they differ in having the
lobes deeper and more regularly shaped, and in being finely
denticulated at the edge. It should be remarked also that, at
the birth of the leaves, the back of the principal rib is sur-
rounded by a small tuft of red down. In warm weather, a
viscous substance exudes from the leaves of such of these trees
as grow upon dry grounds : when bruised, they exhale a sensible
aromatic odor.
The barren and fertile flowers are borne by different branches
of the same tree. The fertile flowers are not conspicuous, and
the barren ones are in oval aments an inch and a half in length.
4G STVEET CU M.
The fruit is globular and bristling with points- when arrived at
maturity, it is about an inch and a balf in diameter, and is
suspended by a flexible pedicle, one or two incbes long: the
globes, which are green at first and afterward yellow, are com-
posed of a great number of closely-connected capsules. At tbe
beginning of autumn these capsules open and give liberty to
the seeds, which are small, blackish, oblong, compressed, and
surmounted by a wing. Each capsule contains one or two seeds
united with a great number of minute bodies incapable of
germination, resembling oaken sawdust.
The trunk of the full-grown tree is covered with a deeply-
furrowed bark, not unlike that of several species of Oak. Sweet
Gums are found, of the same size and on the same soil, some of
which have a large proportion of sap and only five or six inches
of heart, while others consist principally of perfect wood, with
only a thin layer of sap. The heart is reddish, and when sawn
into boards it is observed to be transversely marked at consider-
able distances with blackish belts. This wood is compact and
fine-grained, and is susceptible of a bright polish. Though
inferior in strength to the Oak, it suffices for many purposes
which require great toughness and solidity. At Philadelphia,
when perfectly seasoned and stripped of the sap, it is used in
building the interior of houses, and especially for the joists of
tbe upper stories: when employed with these precautions, it
lasts longer than any species of Red Oak. As it furnishes
boards of two or three feet in width, it is sometimes sawn very
thin, and employed by cabinet-makers to line the inside of cer-
tain articles of mahogany furniture: its lightness, the fineness
of its grain, and its reddish complexion, render it peculiarly
proper for this purpose.
In the country, furniture was formerly made of the Sweet
Gum, which, when preserved with care, was not destitute of
beauty, though inferior to the Black Walnut and the Wild
Cherry wood, which are harder and less easily defaced. At
SWEET G U M. 47
Philadelphia, the Sweet Gum is preferred for small oval or
round picture-frames, which are dyed black; it serves also,
though less frequently than the Wild Cherry Tree and the
Curled Maple, for bedsteads and for the balusters of staircases.
At New York, it is commonly taken for coffins. In a word, the
Sweet Gum, however inferior in cpiality to the Black Walnut,
may be usefully employed in all work that is sheltered from the
air, without which precaution it speedily decays. It is little
esteemed for fuel, and, mixed with other species of no greater
value, it forms the lowest quality of wood in the market.
In summer, upon cutting the live bark and at the same time
slightly wounding the sap of the Sweet Gum, a resinous substance
of an agreeable odor distils in small quantities: in repeated
experiments made in Carolina, I was never able to collect from a
tree of a foot in diameter more than half an ounce in a fortnight.
All that has been said of the properties and uses of the Sweet
Gum proves its inferiority to that of many other frees. Pro-
bably, when the attention of the American proprietors becomes
engaged in the composition of artificial forests, they will give
the preference to other more useful species, reserving of the
Sweet Gum only a small number of the most vigorous stocks.
In Europe, this tree has for many years grown in the open
field; but, though it exceeds the height at which it fructifies in
the United States, it has not yet yielded seed, and for this
reason it is not extensively multiplied. It deserves to be more
generally diffused in parks and gardens, on account of the
agreeable tint and singular form of its leaves.
PLATE LXII.
A branch icith a leaf of the natural size. Fig. 1. Fruit of the natural size.
Fig. 2. A seed of the natural size. Fig. 3. Barren dust which accom-
jpanies the seed.
[The round prickly catkins which contain the seeds are hard,
and not readily broken by the hand; but by exposure to the
48 BUTT ON WOOD Oil SYCAMORE.
sun, or to fire-heat, they crack and open, and the seeds may
then he easily shaken out. They may he sown and treated like
seeds of the Pine and Fir tribe; hut, unlike them, they lie a year
in the ground before coming up.]
BUTTONWOOD or SYCAMORE.
Platanus occidentalis. P. foliis lobato-angulosis, ramulis alhcntibus.
Monoeeia monandria. Linn. Amentaceje. Juss.
Among trees with deciduous leaAres, none in the temperate
zones, either on the Old or the New Continent, equals the dimen-
sions of the Planes. The species which grows in the Western
world is not less remarkable for its amplitude and for its mag-
nificent appearance than the Plane of Asia, whose majestic form
and extraordinary size were so much celebrated by the ancients.
In the Atlantic States, this tree is commonly known by the
name of Buttonwood, and sometimes, in Virginia, by that of
Water Beech. On the banks of the Ohio, and in the States of
Kentucky and Tennessee, it is most frequently called Sycamore,
and by some persons Plane Tree. The French of Canada and of
Upper Louisiana give it the name of Cotton Tree. The first of
these denominations appears to be the most widely diffused, and
not to be entirely unknown in those districts where the others
are habitually employed; for this reason I have adopted it,
though a less appropriate appellation than that of Plane Tree.
According to my own observations, the Buttonwood does not
venture, toward the northeast, beyond Portland, in the latitude
of 40° 30'; but farther west, in 73° of longitude, it is found
two degrees farther north, at the extremity of Lake Champlain
P/. 63.
Button ^ ood .
Plattvuts i'1-t 'identaliii
fafo-iel .a.
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH. 73
will prove a valuable acquisition to the European forests, as it
surpasses our native Birch in stature and in the quality of its
wood.
PLATE LXIX.
A branch with leaves and fertile aments of the natural size. Fig. 1. A seed.
Fig. 2. The scale which covers the seeds.
[See Nuttall's Supplement, vol. i. p. 42.
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH.
Betula alba. B. foliis deltoid 'ibus, acutis, duplicato-serra.tis, glabris ; stro-
bilorum squamis lobis lateralibus rotandatis; petiolis glabris, peduncnlis
longioribus.
Of all the leafy trees of the Old Continent, the Birch is found
in the highest latitude; it grows as far north as the 70th degree,
though in vegetation it is so much repressed by the excessive
cold of the winter, that it is reduced to the size of a shrub. A
few degrees farther south, it attains its fullest development, and
it is the most common, the tallest, and most robust of the leafy
trees which compose the forests between the 65th and 55th
degrees of latitude; in which interval are comprised Lapland,
Norway, Sweden, and a great part of Russia. Proceeding still
farther south, the Birch is observed to become less common in the
forests in proportion as the Maples, the Beeches, the Elms, and the
Oaks become more abundant. In France, between the 48th and
45th degrees, it appears to suffer from the influence of too dry
and too warm an atmosphere; for it is inferioi*, in size and in the
quality of its wood, to the same species in the north of Europe.
II.— 5*
74 COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH.
The 45th parallel may be assumed as the limit below which the
Birch is only accidentally found in the forests, if we except
lofty mountains, whose elevation tempers the atmosphere with
perennial coolness.
In Germany, Sweden, and Russia, the Birch is seventy or
eighty feet high, and about two feet in diameter ; but in France
it rarely exceeds two-thirds of this height. The trunk and
limbs of the large trees are covered with a thick bark, whose
epidermis is white and perfectly similar to that of the White
Birch and the Canoe Birch. The small branches likewise re-
semble those of the species just mentioned, being slender, flexi-
ble, and of a brown color spotted with white.
The Birch blooms early in the spring ; the fertile and barren
flowers are borne by different branches of the same tree. The
barren flowers are disposed in pendulous aments about an inch
long; the fertile flowers are greenish, small, and not conspicu-
ous. The seeds also are very small, and- are collected round a
common stem, in the form of aments : each of them is covered
with a scale, and furnished with two membranous wings. The
leaves are alternate, nearly triangular, acuminate, and irregu-
larly toothed ; they vary in size according to the age of the
tree and to the nature of the soil on which it grows ; in very
dry lands they are not more than an inch in length.
In the north of Europe, the Birch affords a singular variety
of resources to the inhabitants, who make use, with admirable
ingenuity, of its wood, bark, and leaves. But the expedients
to which they are obliged to have recourse, for defence against
the extreme intensity of the cold, prove how little these regions
have been favored by the Creator. In Sweden, Norway, and
Finland, this wood is most commonly employed by the wheel-
wright, and serves for the manufacture of almost all the imple-
ments of husbandry. It is used by turners for bowls, plates,
spoons, chairs, &c. The trunk, like that of the Canoe Birch,
affords pieces immediately below the first ramification, which,
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH. 75
when polished, present beautiful wavings of the grain, and form
elegant articles of furniture.
The bark is also subservient to a great variety of economical
uses : boxes, baskets, and sandals are made of it ; it is placed
between the soles of the shoes, or in the crown of the hat, as a
defence against humidity ; and sometimes it is wrapped around
the lower part of posts to preserve them from decay. It endures
many years uninjured, even when exposed to the vicissitudes
of the atmosphere. To prepare the skin of the reindeer, the
Laplanders cut this bark into small pieces, which they mace-
rate, and afterward boil in water, with the addition of a little
salt. The skins are plunged repeatedly into this decoction
warmed, and are allowed to remain in it several days ; when
taken out, they are vigorously curried to render them pliable
and soft; thus prepared, they are hardly permeable by water.
In Russia, by slowly burning the bark of large Birches in kilns
or furnaces, an empyreumatic oil is obtained, with which a lea-
ther is prepared highly esteemed for durability.
The leaves of the Birch, both green and dry, are given to
cattle. When young, they are used by the inhabitants as a
substitute for tea; they are also employed to dye wool of a
yellowish color.
The sap of the Birch is very abundant in the spring, and, by
evaporation, it affords a syrup rich and sugary, but incapable
of crystallization. By the addition of fermenting matter, this
sap is converted into beer, into a species of wine, or into vinegar.
Such are the principal uses of the European Birch, all the valu-
able properties of which are completely united in the Canoe
Birch of North America.
England and the south of Germany, being favored with a
milder climate, and, consequently, with a greater variety of
trees, than the more northern countries, are not dependent upon
the Birch for so great a variety of uses ; but even here it is a
valuable possession, as it is proved, by the experience of upward
7G COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH.
of two centuries, to grow more rapidly than any other tree in
barren soils. Hence, in Europe, all dry, meagre, gravelly lands,
analogous to those which, in the centre and in the north of the
United States, produce the Black Jack Oak, the Bear Oak, and
the Scrub Oak, are found to be more profitably devoted to plan-
tations of Birch than to any other species of culture. In this
manner, also, they are gradually prepared for the growth of
more valuable trees, such as the Oaks, the Chestnuts. &c.
Plantations of Birch are formed by sowing the seed, or by
setting out young plants collected in the woods, or, which is far
preferable, procured from a nursery. "When the first method is
employed, the ground should be turned with an iron-toothed
harrow, in damp weather in the month of November. Fifteen
pounds of seed, including the scales, should be sown upon an
acre, and afterward covered by drawing over it a harrow made
of brushwood.
Nothing contributes more to the success of the seeds than pre-
viously burning the noxious herbs and bushes growing upon the
ground. It is observed in the north of Europe and of the
United States, that the Birch reappears, as if by enchantment,
in forests that have been destroyed by fire. The Birch seed is
sometimes mixed with rye, which, springing with the young
plants, protects them during the first summer from the sun. and
which, by the profit of the crop, indemnifies the husbandman
for a part of the expense of forming his plantation. If the
ground is burdened with the young plants, a part of them may
be taken up the third year to fill the vacant spaces in woods
composed of Oaks, of Pines, &c. They may be sold also to per-
sons who prefer forming their coppices by transplantation, which
is the mode generally employed in Europe. In the month of
November, holes are formed five feet distant, in a straight line,
to which the young plants are committed, in moist weather
which promises rain. In the course of the summer, a day is
chosen for bestowing a light tillage upon the land, to clear it of
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH. 77
the noxious herbs, as is practised for Indian Corn. This is all
the labor required to insure the success of the plantation.
These coppices may be cut every five years, if they are
destined for making brooms, or every eight or nine years for
hoops, which are substituted for those of Oak and of Chestnut ;
at twelve years of age, they afford excellent fuel for baking,
brick-making, and for all manufactures which require a brisk
and clear fire.
I have entered into these details concerning the propagation
of the Birch, because, among the trees of the Old Continent, it
is one of the most profitable for cultivation upon poor lands.
Proprietors in the United States, who read the works which
have been published in Germany, France, and England, on the
management of forests, will be able to appreciate, in this respect,
the importance of the Birch.
The European Birch is so nearly related in its bark, its
foliage, the quality of its wood, and in other properties, to the
White Birch and to the Canoe Birch, that it appears to occupy
a middle place between these two species. Its principal resem-
blance to the White Birch is seen in its leaves, and in its favor-
able growth upon the most sterile soils, upon those even which
are at the same time meagre and humid. The most remarkable
difference consists in the larger size of the European species,
and in the superior quality of its wood. The inferiority of the
White Birch is not attributable to the climate, for it exhibits
the same dimensions in the district of Maine, and in Penn-
sylvania and Maryland. The White Birch of Europe and the
Canoe Birch resemble each other in their wood, their bark, and
their ample proportions, which are perhaps superior in the
American species. They differ in the form of their leaves, and
they grow on very different soils : the Canoe Birch is exclusively
attached to rich lands constantly cool, and capable of yielding
an abundant harvest of corn or of clover, and it propagates
itself naturally only in that part of North America which cor-
78 WHITE BIRCH.
responds in climate to the 54th and 55th degrees of latitude in
Europe. Between the White Birch of Europe and the Red
Birch, I have observed no resemblance, except in the suppleness
of their twigs; which is more remarkable in the Red Birch.
The length of this description will not be deemed superfluous
by persons who justly appreciate the importance of precise ideas
on subjects like the present.
PLATE LXX.
A branch with leaves and aments of the natural size. Fig. 1. ^1 seed. Fig. 2.
A scale which covers lite seed.
WHITE BIRCH.
Betula populifolia. JB. foliis longh acuminatis, incequaliter serratis,
glabcrrimis.
Tins species, like the Canoe Birch, grows in Canada and in
the northern extremity of the United States : it is found also in
the lower parts of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
In Virginia it is more rare, and I venture to assert that it does
not exist in the remaining Southern States. In the environs of
New York and of Philadelphia it is called White Birch, and
this name is habitually used in the district of Maine, where
that of Old Field Birch is also frequently employed, to distin-
guish the White Birch from the Canoe Birch.
The White Birch is most frequently found in places scantily
furnished with woods, where the soil is dry and meagre; in
these situations it commonly rises to the height of twenty
or twenty-five feet. Single trees, which grow accidentally in
White Bir< h.
Betula pouuli/ofia
WHITE BIRCH. 79
moist i)laces, expand to an ampler size, and are sometimes thirty
or thirty-five feet high and eight or nine inches in diameter.
The White Birch appears to be less multiplied than the other
trees of this genus : it is rarely found in groups, and single trees
are met with only at considerable intervals. It is more com-
mon in the district of Maine; but, even here, it is seen only by
the side of the highways, and in sandy soils that have been
exhausted by cultivation.
On trees that are fully grown, the branches are numerous,
slender, and generally drooping. The leaves are smooth on both
surfaces, heart-shaped at the base, very acuminate, and doubly
and irregularly toothed. The petioles are slightly twisted, and
the leaves are thus rendered more tremulous than those of trees
on which this disposition is not observed. I have also remarked
that the buds, a few days after their development, are slightly
coated with a yellowish, odoriferous substance. The trunk of
this species is clad in a bark of as pure white as that of the
Canoe Birch and of the European Birch: but its epidermis,
when separated from the cellular tissue, is incapable of being
divided, like that of the two preceding species, into thin sheets ;
which constitutes an essential difference.
The wood of the White Birch is very soft, brilliant when
polished, and perfectly white. From its speedy decay, and from
the inferior size of the tree, it is employed for no use, not even
for fuel.* The twigs are too brittle for common brooms.
This tree can boast of no utility which should entitle it to be
introduced into the forests of Europe or to be preserved in those
of America.
TLATE LXXI.
A branch with leaves and aments of the natural size. Fig. 1. A seed.
Fig. 2. A scale.
[See Nuttall's Supplement, vol. i. p. 42.]
[It is now much used for shoe-pegs.]
RED BIRCH.
Betula rubra. -B. foliis rhombeo-ovatis, acuminatis, duplicaio-serraiis ;
jictiolo brevi.
Betula nigra. WlLLD. Betula lanulosa. A. Mich. Flor. Bor. Am.
The banks of a small river near Kouacknack, in New Jersey,
about ten miles from New York, may be assumed as tbe most
nortbern point at wbicb this species of Birch is found. I have
never seen it in the Eastern, but it is abundant in the Middle
and Southern States, particularly in Maryland, Virginia, and
the upper part of the Carolinas and of Georgia.
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the name of Red Birch is
given to the Betula rubra, to distinguish it from the White
Birch ; but farther south, where the White Birch does not exist,
or is comparatively rare, this species is simply called Birch.
The Red Birch is not, like the other species of this genus,
seen growing in the midst of the forest, but is found only on
tbe banks of rivers, accompanied by the Buttonwood, the "White
Maple, and the Willow. It expands with the greatest luxu-
riance on the sides of limpid streams which have a gravelly bed,
and whose banks are not marshy, like those of the rivers in tbe
maritime parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia. On the Dela-
ware, thirty miles from Philadelphia, along the i~oad that leads
to New York by New Hope and Somerset, I have seen several
Red Birches which were seventy feet in height and two or
three feet in diameter. They rarely exceed these dimensions
in Virginia and North Carolina, where, from the milder tem-
perature of the climate, they are more abundant.
On the trunk and on the largest limbs of a lofty Red Birch,
the bark is thick, deeply furrowed, and of a greenish color. On
SO
heu I HI'i'll
R E D B I R C II. 81
trees not exceeding eight or ten inches in diameter, the epider-
mis is reddish or cinnamon-colored ; whence probably is derived
the appropriate denomination of Red Birch. The epidermis of
this species, like that of the Canoe Birch, divides itself trans-
versely into thin, transparent sheets, which appear to be com-
posed of a mixed substance, instead of presenting a pure, homo-
geneous texture ; hence they have not a uniform transparency
nor a perfectly even surface : compared with the bark of the
Canoe Birch, they are like coarse paper compared with fine.
When this tree is fully expanded, its summit is ample, but the
uncommon thickness of its branches prevents it from appearing
tufted. The twigs which form the extremity of the tree are
long, flexible, and pendulous, and the limbs are of a brown com-
plexion spotted with white ; their bark is slightly uneven, while
on the other branches it is smooth and glossy.
The petioles of the Red Birch are short and downy; the
leaves are about three inches long and two inches broad, of a
light green on the upper surface and whitish beneath : they
are doubly denticulated at the edge, very acuminate at the sum-
mit, and terminated at the base in an acute angle, more regular
than is seen in the leaf of any other tree. The fertile aments
are five or six inches long, straight, and nearly cylindrical.
The seeds are ripe in the beginning of June.
The wood of the Red Birch is sufficiently compact and nearly
white : very little difference in color is observed between the
sap and the heart. This wood offers the same singularity with
that of the June Berry, being longitudinally marked by red
vessels, which intersect each other in different directions. In
some parts of Virginia and North Carolina, the negroes make
bowls and trays of Red Birch when they cannot procure Poplar.
When saplings of Hickory or White Oak are not to be found,
hoops, particularly those of rice-casks, are made of the young
stocks and of branches not exceeding an inch in diameter. In
Philadelphia its twigs are exclusively chosen for the brooms
Vol. II.— 0
82 YELLOW BIRCH.
"with which the streets and court-yards are swept, which are
similar to those employed for the same purpose in Paris. The
twigs of the other species of Birch, being less supple and more
brittle, are not proper for this use.
Though the Red Birch is constantly found on the borders of
rivers, it is not naturally confined to them : a nourishing stock,
more than thirty feet in height, exists in the garden of the
State-house at Philadelphia. Among all the Birches, the vege-
tation of this species only is invigorated by intense heat : this
consideration suffices to recommend its propagation in Italy,
and in the southern parts of France and of the United States ;
for it has been judiciously observed by authors who have written
on this genus of trees, that, if the good properties of the Birch
are not brilliant, they are at least numerous and useful.
PLATE LXXII.
A branch with leaves and a barren anient of the natural size. Fig. 1. A
seed. Fig. 2. A scale.
YELLOW BIRCH.
Betula lutea. B. foliis oralis, aculis, serratis ; pctiolis pubescentibus.
Betula excclsa. Aiton.
This species, like the Canoe Birch, belongs only to the
northern regions of the New World. It abounds especially
in the forests of Nova Scotia, of New Brunswick, and of the
district of Maine, where it is designated by no other name than
Yellow Birch. On the western bank of the Hudson it is rare;
and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania only a few individuals of
/'/. -'I
■'II mv HiiyI,
73 / ■:.■ /„/<>/>/// fit l>.i\'lt(/t> (ICdCKf
LOCUST. 93
found in the States east of the river Delaware, nor does it grow
spontaneously in the maritime parts of the Middle and Southern
States, to the distance of from fifty to one hundred miles from
the sea, all the stocks that are seen in these parts having been
planted at different jjeriods.
The dimensions of the Locust vary with the soil and climate.
Thus, in Pennsylvania, between Harrisburg and Carlisle, where
it begins to appear, it is much smaller than in Virginia, and
particularly in Kentucky and West Tennessee, which are
situated three or four degrees farther south, and where the soil
is more fertile. In these States, it sometimes exceeds four feet in
diameter and seventy or eighty feet in height ; which is twice
the size it attains east of the mountains.
The foliage of the Locust is light and agreeable to the eye.
Each leaf is composed of opposite leaflets, eight, ten, twelve,
and sometimes more, in number, surmounted by an odd one.
The leaflets are nearly sessile, oval, thin, of a fine texture, and
of so smooth a surface that the dust is blown off from them as
it alights. These leaves are rarely injured by insects.
The flowers are disposed in numerous pendulous bunches :
they are perfectly white, and diffuse the most delicious odor.
Their fine effect, heightened by the fresh tint of the light-green
foliage, renders the Locust one of the most admired in Europe
among ornamental trees. In passing through Harrisburg, on
the 4th of June, 1808, I saw the Locust in full bloom : it was
in flower at the same season of the year 1812, at Paris, in the
latitude of 48° 50'. To the flowers succeeds a narrow, flat pod,
about three inches long, containing five or six small seeds,
which are commonly brown, and sometimes black.
On the trunk and large limbs of the old Locust, the bark is
very thick and deeply furrowed. The young tree, till it attains
the diameter of two or three inches, is armed with formidable
thorns, which disappear in its maturer age. The wood, which
is commonly of a greenish-yellow color, marked with brown
(14 LOCUST.
veins, is hard, compact, and susceptible of a bright polish; it
has a good deal of strength, with but little elasticity. Its prin-
cipal value in the United States, where the greater part of the
houses and of the fences of cultivated grounds are of wood, is its
power of resisting decay longer than almost any other species
of wood.
Though the Locust is multiplied east of the mountains, in the
upper part of Virginia and of the two Carolinas, it forms a much
smaller proportion of the forests than the Oaks and Walnuts,
and is nowhere found occupying exclusively tracts even of a
few acres. For this reason it is the only tree, besides the Black
Walnut, that is left standing in the clearing of new lands:
hence these two species, Avhich are not sufficiently multiplied to
supply the demand for their wood, are frequently seen growing
in the midst of cultivated fields.
The greatest consumption of Locust wood is for posts, which
are preferred for enclosing court-yards, gardens, and farms, in
the districts where the tree abounds, and in the circumjacent
country. They are transported for the same use to Lancaster,
Baltimore, Washington, Alexandria, and the vicinity. When
the trees are felled in the winter, while the circulation of the
sap is suspended, and the posts allowed to become perfectly dry
before they are set, they are estimated to last forty years. Ex-
perience has shown that their duration varies according to certain
differences in the trees from which they are formed : thus, about
Lancaster and at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where a considerable
trade is carried on in wood that is brought down the river, those
trees are reputed the best whose heart is red; the next in esteem
are those with a greenish-yellow heart ; and the least valuable
are those with a white heart. From this variety in the color
of the wood, which probably arises from a difference of soil, are
dei'ived the names of Bed, Green, and White Locust. In the
Western States, there is a variety which is sometimes called
Black Locust.
LOCUST. 95
Great quantities of Locust posts are sold at Harrisburg; they
are seven or eight feet long, and the price is eighteen cents each
in the rough state, or twenty-five cents when hewn and mortised.
They are made from stocks less than a foot in diameter, split
into two pieces. I have remarked that when the trunk of the
Locust exceeds fifteen inches in diameter, it is frequently decayed
at the heart; but I presume this defect is not found in trees
that grow farther south. Posts of Locust and of Red Cedar of
the same dimensions are sold in the lumber-yards of Baltimore ;
those of Locust at forty cents, and those of Ked Cedar at thirty.
This difference is probably attributable to the great strength of
the Locust. In the Western States also, where this tree is larger
and more abundant than in the country east of the mountains,
it is the most esteemed and the most generally employed for
posts.
In naval architecture, the shipwrights use as much Locust
wood as they can procure. It is as durable as the Live Oak and
the Red Cedar, with the advantage of being stronger than the
one and lighter than the other. It enters, with the Live Oak,
the White Oak, and the Red Cedar, into the upper and lower
parts of the frame, though in a very small proportion; for in the
interior of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, where, as I
have observed, it grows naturally and whence it is procured,
nine-tenths of the Locusts do not exceed a foot in diameter and
from thirty-six to forty feet in height : it thus becomes difficult
to procure timber of the requisite size. Another very important
use of the Locust in ship-building is for the tree-nails, or the
pins destined to attach the side-planks to the frame. Instead
of decaying, they acquire with time an extreme hardness ; and
they are used, to the exclusion of all others, in the ports of the
Middle States. The mean price at Philadelphia, whither they
are brought from the river Susquehanna, is ten dollars a thou-
sand. From fifty to a hundred thousand of these pins are
annually exported to England.
96 LOCUST.
In the construction of bouses, even of such as are wholly of
wood, the Locust is not extensively emploj'ed in the countries
where it is most multiplied : the use to which it is more particu-
larly applied is to support the sills, or the beams on which the
frame reposes. These sills are of Oak, and, if they were placed
immediately on the ground, they would decay more rapidly
than the Locust. This invaluable property of durability, which
is possessed by the Locust in a degree far superior to that of any
other tree except the Red Mulberry, sufficiently indicates the
purposes to which it may be advantageously applied ; but in the
United States its use is limited to the objects which I have
enumerated, and it is through mistake that it has been said to
be employed for staves and hoops, and for forming hedges.
From the hardness of the Locust wood when seasoned, and
the fineness of its grain and its lustre when polished, it has
been, for several years, extensively substituted by turners for
the Box in many species of light work, such as saltcellars,
sugar-bowls, candlesticks, spoons, and forks for salad, boxes,
and many other trifling objects which are carefully wrought
into pleasing shapes, and are sold at low prices.
The rapid growth of the Locust was early remarked by the
inhabitants of the United States; for this is an inestimable
quality in a tree whose wood unites so many excellencies. This
consideration has induced many persons to plant it in those
parts of the country where it does not naturally grow, particu-
larly in the lower part of the States lying east of the river
Delaware. Thus, between New York and Boston, a distance of
nearly three hundred miles, it is seen at intervals growing
before the farm-houses, and sometimes by the sides of fences :
but perhaps not one proprietor in a hundred has adopted this
useful measure. On Long Island, near the west end of which
lies the city of New York, the forests were in a great measure
destroyed in the war of Independence, and many persons have
successfully adopted the cultivation of the Locust on an exten-
LOCUST. 97
sive scale ; but those plantations are still very much circum-
scribed, and, except the larger trees which are cut into tree-
nails, and which serve to supply in part the demand of the
shipwrights of New York, the whole growth is consumed by
the cultivators. Regular plantations of Locust, of twenty or
thirty acres, have not been formed in any part of the United
States, though several agricultural societies have offered pre-
miums for their encouragement.
Within eighteen or twenty years, an obstacle has unhappily
appeared, which will contribute greatly to prevent the multipli-
cation of the Locust in all the anciently-settled parts of the
United States : this is a winged insect which attacks the living
tree, penetrates through the bark into the centre of the trunk,
and, for a space of a foot, mines it in every direction, so that it
is easily broken by the wind. This inconvenience is already so
serious as to induce many people to forego all attempts to form
plantations of Locust. In Virginia, I have not learned that
trees of the natural growth have been visited by this destroyer,
but those that have been reared about the plantations have
already felt its ravages. This evil, which it appears difficult to
remedy, will be more sensibly felt when the destruction of the
forests now on foot — an inevitable consecmence of the increase of
population and of the neglect of all measures of preservation —
shall force the inhabitants to have recourse to plantations, which
they will wish to form in a certain proportion of the Locust.
Hence it may result that, disappearing successively from the
American forests by constant consumption, and not being repro-
duced on account of this insect, the Locusts will become ex-
tremely rare in their native country, and abundant in Europe,
where no similar catastrophe forbids their propagation.*
* [The following important information is taken from Emerson's " Trees and
Shrubs of Massachusetts," p. 463 : —
"The practice of planting this tree by roadsides, and along the enclosures o:
98 LOCUST.
Though I have asserted that I have seen Locusts in America
seventy or eighty feet high, it must he observed that this luxu-
riant growth is confined to the most fertile districts of Ken-
tucky and "West Tennessee, where the newly-cleared lands yield
for several years in succession, without manure, from thirty to
sixty bushels of maize or Indian corn to the acre. In general,
this tree does not exceed forty or forty-five feet in height on
lands of middling quality, that produce the Oaks and the Hicko-
ries, compared with which the Locust is a tree only of secondary
size, affording timber of inconsiderable dimensions. For this
reason it should not be substituted for the Oak, the Beech, the
Chestnut, and the Elm, in soils where these species already
flourish.
In Europe, the greatest share of attention has been bestowed
upon the Locust, and the most extended observations have been
published on its culture in countries lying north of 48° of lati-
tude : but, notwithstanding the success which is said to have
been obtained in cultivating it, I cannot think that this is its
proper climate. I have observed, as well as many other per-
sons, that its vegetation is accelerated by the warmth of a more
southern sun : the effect is visible even at Orleans, where,
though the difference of latitude is only one degree, the Locusts
are larger than in the vicinity of Paris. Italy and the southern
pasture-lauds, has much iuoreased of late years, hut has been checked by the fact
that, in such situations, it is exposed to the inroads of an insect, whose -worm
penetrates to the heart of the tree and destroys its life. An unexpected remedy
has, however, been suggested by the success of Joseph Cogswell, Esq., in the
cultivation, some years ago, of a large plantation of the Locust. He found that
when it forms a wood, those trees only are attacked by the worm which form the
outskirts exposed to the sun and free air. Whether it is that the insect parent
of the worm delights, as many do, in the sunlight, and avoids the shade of the
woods, or from whatever cause, it was found that all the interior of the plantation
was free from its attacks."
The great destruction by thoughtless sportsmen of the woodpecker is probably
the reason why the Locusts are now infested with worms more than formerly.]
LOCUST. 99
departments of France are the countries of Europe where the
greatest advantages may be expected from the rapid growth of
the Locust. Individuals, who are more in haste than govern-
ments to realize their gains, may obtain from it, at the end of
twenty or twenty-five years, a mass of wood twice as great as
from any other species of tree : and it might be formed in this
country, as in America, into tree-nails, for the purposes of ship-
building, and sold at a high price in the seaports. Raised upon
uncultivated and open grounds, the quality of the wood would
be superior to that of trees growing in the primitive forests of
the New World, where it is injured by the humidity of the
atmosphere.
It appears from the authors who at different periods have
written on the Locusts, that about a hundred years- since it was
in great request in Europe on account of the beauty of its foliage
and of its fragrant flowers. It was afterward found to have
defects, and declined so far in public favor, that during half a
century it fell into entire neglect. Within ten or fifteen years,
several agriculturists have given it fresh celebrity, by represent-
ing it as a useful rather than an ornamental tree ; though its
merit in this last respect is undeniable.
In France, and still more in Germany, much has been pub-
lished in favor of the Locust, and very little has been written
against it; but the greater part of those who are engaged in
forming plantations oppose its propagation. It appears to have
been too much praised on the one hand, and too much decried
on the other, and not to have been justly appreciated in those
respects in which it has an incontestable superiority over most
other trees of the temperate zones.
If I may be allowed to give an opinion, I should say that its
principal advantages consist in the rapidity of its growth, and
in the excellent qualities by which its wood is fitted for the
most important uses. To these must be added another property
by which it is distinguished from other trees of rapid growth,
100 LOCUST.
and which has not been placed in a sufficiently striking light by
the authors who have treated of the Locust: it is that of begin-
ning from the third year to convert its sap into perfect wood;
which is not done by the Oak, the Chestnut, the Beech, and the
Elm, till after the tenth or the fifteenth year. Hence, if all
these species were planted at the same time upon good land, in
twenty-five or thirty years the Locusts, already one-third larger
in general than the others, and often twice as large, would be
found almost wholly composed of heart, and would be of suffi-
cient dimensions for the various uses to which their wood is
adapted; while the others, besides being too small at this age to
be employed with advantage, would have only half the diameter
of the trunk converted into perfect wood. This is a most im-
portant consideration; for it is well known that every species of
wood must be deprived of the sap before it is used, as this part
is subject to become worm-eaten if it is sheltered, and to decay
if it is exposed to the air.
But these prominent excellencies are balanced by defects
which seem difficult to remedy. When standing alone, the
branches of the Locust are easily broken by the wind : if left
to itself, its trunk, after attaining a certain height, rarely pre-
serves its shape; and the limbs, ill arranged, of unecpial size
and very divergent, give to its summit an uncouth and disagree-
able form. Its thin and restless foliage yields also a scanty
shade : hence this tree is not proper for the avenues and alleys
of extensive gardens, nor for bordering public roads. For these
purposes the Elm is infinitely superior; for, besides the facility
with which it is fashioned by the pruning-hook, its tufted foliage
casts a denser shade, and its wood is of great value to the
wheelwright.
It is observed also that, in plantations of Locusts whose
verdure announces the most vigorous vegetation, there are some
trees which languish and turn yellow : the cause of this malady
it is difficult to assign.
LOCUST. 101
For several years past, the proprietors of the department of the
Gironde and of the neighboring country have taken advantage
of the rapid growth of the Locust by cultivating it in copses,
which are cut at the age of four }ears. The young stocks are
then large enough to be split into props for vines, which are
found to last more than twenty years. Old trees are also
lopped, and the suckers cut every third year for the same pur-
poses. This vigorous vegetation is doubtless attributable to the
warmth of the climate.
The greatest inconvenience attending these copses is the
thorns with which the young plants are armed, and by which
their preparation for use is rendered more difficult and expen-
sive than that of any other species. This disadvantage, how-
ever, is compensated by a double product obtained in half the
time.
I must not omit to mention a new variety of Locusts, called
Robinia iiseudo-acacia speciabilis, which in its early age is en-
tirely destitute of thorns. This valuable variety is distinguished
by the superior size of its leaves and by the greater rapidity of its
growth. Though its seeds produce stocks with thorns, it is still
probable that they will disappear from the future generations of
the tree : in the mean while, it may be multiplied by layers, or
by forming small trenches in which the roots will send up shoots
that may be afterward separated from the parent tree.
I need not say how much this variety is preferable for copses :
the twigs, with their leaves, may also be safely given to cattle,
who eat them with avidity. For the production of this variety,
which gives a new value to the Locust, particularly in the south
of France, we are indebted to Mr. Descemet, a gentleman dis-
tinguished by his theoretical and practical knowledge of agri-
culture.
It has been asserted that the most profitable manner of dis-
posing of poor lands, too much exhausted to produce the Oak
and other species of hard wood, is to cover them with copses of
102 LOCUS T.
Locust; but about Paris, and farther north, the experiment has
not uniformly succeeded. During three or four years, the
Locusts surpass the Birches planted at the same time, and
give the most nattering promise; but by the seventh or eighth
year their voracious roots appear to exhaust the soil, the
branches about the middle of the young tree perish, and its
short and languishing shoots announce its decay; while, on the
other hand, the young Birches continue healthful and vigorous,
and some of them already equal the Locust in height. Perhaps
the Locusts require lopping the third or fourth year.
Such is the fruit of my inquiries concerning this tree in Ame-
rica, and my observation of its culture in Europe. Its propa-
gation is attended with advantages and disadvantages : on
weighing them together, I am of opinion that, as an ornamental
and as a useful tree, it merits a place — particularly the variety
without thorns — both in gardens and plantations.
PLATE LXXVI.
A branch with a bunch of flowers. Fig. 1. A pod. Fig. 2. A seed.
[Few trees arc less injurious to pastures, and its droppings
and flowers are thought to have a favorable effect on the growth
of grass. Its bright and velvety foliage, it has been remarked,
is too smooth to retain the dust, and is often seen bright and
clean on the side of a dusty road. Where resistance to a strain
is required, the Locust is considered superior to any other wood.
As an ornamental tree, it is not now much employed in this
region, on account of its frailness and injuries from insects; but
its pendent racemes of fragrant flowers must be admitted to be
extremely beautiful.
Soil, Propagation, &c. The Locust may be propagated by
cuttings of the branches, but with greater facility by cuttings
of the roots, and also by large truncheons, and by suckers; but
LOCUST. 103
the simplest and best mode is by seed; if not sown immediately
on gathering, it should be kept in pods till the following spring :
when sown in the autumn or spring, it comes up the following
summer, and the plants, at the end of the season, will be fit for
transplanting where they are finally to remain, or into nursery-
lines. Pouring hot water on the seeds, (and even boiling,) as
recommended by Cobbet, should be cautiously done.
The seeds should be sown in good free soil, rich rather than
otherwise, and covered with light earth from a quarter to half
an inch deep. In fine seasons, the plants will be from two to
four feet high by the ensuing autumn. The Locust will trans-
plant at almost any age, and with fewer roots than almost any
other tree. Though it grows on poor land better than almost
any other species of hard wood, on such land sound timber of
Locust cannot be produced, and it will always be good economy
to fell it within thirty or forty years, or, at least, not allow it
to grow, for timber, to a great age. The various kinds of Pine
are better adapted to the poorest soils. As this tree is so ex-
tremely useful in the foundations of railroads, large numbers
have been planted along their borders, particularly in the West,
where they will form a most valuable product for repairs in
future years. In regions where it is not infested by the worm,
it should be generally employed in this way.]
ROSE-FLOWERING LOCUST.
Robinia viscosa. JR. foliis imparl pinnatis ; ramis viseoso glandulosis.
Obs. Flores roseo-albi.
This species of Locust is found only on that part of the Alle-
ghanies which traverses Georgia and the Carolinas, and in the
territory of the Cherokee Indians, situated west of the moun-
tains. My father discovered it in the summer of 1790; and his
subsequent researches, as well as my own, confirm the opinion
that it does not exist north of the 35th degree of latitude, nor
in all the lower part of the Southern States : thus it appears to
be confined to a very small tract.
The Rose-flowering Locust is not as large as the preceding
species : its ordinary stature does not exceed forty feet, with a
diameter of ten or twelve inches. Its branches, like those of
the Locust, are garnished with thorns, which, however, are
smaller and less numerous. The annual shoots are of a dull-
red color, and are covered with a viscid, adhesive humor. M.
Vauquelin, of the French Institute, has analyzed this substance,
and found it to be a new vegetable matter.
The foliage of the Rose-flowering Locust is thick and of a
dusky green. The leaves are five or six inches long, and are
composed of opposite leaflets, ten, twelve, or fourteen in number,
with a terminal odd one. The leaflets are about an inch in
length, oval, nearly sessile, smooth, and of a fine texture.
The flowers are in oval bunches four or five inches long.
They are numerous and of a beautiful rose-color, but destitute
of fragrance. This tree not unfrequently blooms twice in the
year, and it forms one of the most brilliant ornaments of the
park and the garden. The seeds are small, and contained in
104
I \ o s<> 1 lower in »' I .o c u si
ROSE-FLOWERING LOCUST. 105
hairy pods two or three inches long and three or four lines
broad.
Well-informed and unprejudiced cultivators, employed in the
raising of exotic trees and plants, assure us that seeds of the
Rose-flowering Locust, which they have themselves collected and
sown, have produced the Locust. The difference between the
two species is, however, so distinctly characterized, that this
metamorphosis is hardly credible.
The wood of the Rose-flowering Locust is of a greenish color,
like that of the common species, which it resembles also in its
other properties; but the inferior size of the tree, notwithstand-
ing its surprisingly rapid growth, renders it less interesting to
the arts.
This species easily supports the rigorous winters of New
York and Pennsylvania, where it succeeds perfectly well;
several stocks sent b}^ my father to his friends residing in those
capitals bloom luxuriantly every year: but it is liable to the
ravages of the same insect which destroys the Locust.
This beautiful tree was introduced into Europe in 1791: my
father, who had transported it from the mountains to his garden
near Charleston, S.C., sent me a stock, which arrived in July of
that year. I presented it to M. Lemonnier, chief physician of
Louis XVI., who planted it in his garden at Petit Montreuil,
near Versailles, where it is still standing. From this stock are
derived, by sjtrouts or by grafting, all the trees of the species
which at present adorn the pleasure-grounds throughout Europe.
PLATE LXXVII.
A branch with flowers of the natural size. Fig. 1. A pod. Fiij. 2. A seed.
II.— 7*
YELLOW WOOD.
Virgilia lutea. V. foliis, impari-pinnatis, foliolis ovato-acuminatis ;
racemis pendulis ; gemmis indusis.
Obs. Flores albi.
The Yellow Wood is confined to that part of West Tennessee
which lies between the 35th and 37th degrees of latitude,
where it is commonly designated by the name which I have
adopted.
This tree grows of preference on gentle declivities, in a loose,
deep, and fertile soil, and is usually accompanied by the Red
Mulberry, Coffee Tree, Sweet Locust, Black Walnut, and other
species whose presence evinces the richness of the land. It
rarely exceeds forty feet in height and one foot in diameter,
and in general it does not attain even these dimensions. Its
trunk is covered with a greenish bark, which is smooth, instead
of being furrowed like that of most other trees.
The leaves of the Yellow Wood are six or eight inches long
on old trees, and of twice this size on young and thriving stocks.
They are composed of two rows of leaflets, smooth, entire,
nearly round, and about an inch and a half in diameter. The
leaflets are three, four, or five on each side, borne by short
petioles, and surmounted by an odd one, which is supported by
the common footstock. As in the Buttonwood, the lower part
of the footstock contains the bud, which becomes visible on
plucking the leaf.
The flowers form elegant, white, pendulous bunches, a little
larger than those of the Locust, but less odoriferous.
The seeds of the Yellow Wood also nearly resemble those of
the Locust, and are contained in pods that differ only in being a
106
H .' /.:•./.„/. SV
Yellow Wood
YELLOW WOOD. 107
little narrower.* The seeds are ripe in the vicinity of Nashville
about the 15th of August, at which season, in the year 1812, 1
collected a quantity and afterward distributed them in France to
nurserymen and amateurs of foreign plants. From these seeds
have sprung the trees which we see growing with so much vigor
in Europe, and mocking the rigor of our winters: several of
them bloomed in the year 1813.
From the form and foliage of this tree, my father was of
opinion that it belonged to the genus of Sophora : the affinity is
proved by the fact that it is grafted with success into that genus
only. It was hastily ranged as a new genus, by the name of
Yirgilia, before its flowers had been examined ; though without
the inspection of this part of a vegetable no certain opinion can
be formed of its affinities.
To procure the seeds from which have sprung the beautiful
trees that are seen in the gardens of Paris, I felled several
stocks, and thus had an opportunity of examining the quality
of the wood. Its grain is fine and soft; it is principally re-
markable for the yellow color of the heart, which speedily
imparts this hue to cold water; but the color is fugitive, even
where the wood is boiled with alum. The inhabitants of the
country were very desirous of finding some method of rendering-
it permanent.
Aside from the fine vegetation of the Yellow Wood, the bril-
liant color of its heart appears to me to be a sufficient motive
for multiplying it till we become able to appreciate its import-
ance in dyeing.
PLATE LXXVIII.
A leaf of half the natural size. A bunch of flowers of the natural size.
Fig. 1. A pod. Fig. 2. A seed.
* [Gardeners and others should endeavor to procure the seeds from this tree,
which is destined to be one of the most popular, as it is one of the most orna-
mental, of our native productions.]
108 SWEET LOCUST.
[The blossoms, resembling the Locust, the foliage, and the
smooth, greenish-gray bark of this rare tree, are all beautiful,
and it deserves to be more extensively introduced. The wood
is so brittle, that in removing specimens the limbs, unless care-
fully handled, are liable to break. In the autumn, the beau-
tiful yellow of the leaves of the Virgilia is unrivalled by any
other tree. There is a very noble specimen in the grounds of
Mrs. Price, near German town, Pennsylvania; its height is nearly
fifty feet, with a stem measuring six feet ten inches in girth at
the ground, and over four feet at six inches from the ground.
Torrey and Gray have named this tree Cladmtrus tinctorial]
SWEET LOCUST.
Gleditschia triacanthos. G. ramis spinosis; spinis crassis; foliis
lineari-oblongis ; Icguminibus longis, compressis, polyspermia.
Polyganiia dioecia. Linn. Leguuiinosa3. Juss.
The Sweet Locust belongs peculiarly to the country west of
the Alleghany Mountains, and it is scarcely found in any part
of the Atlantic States, except in Limestone Valley and its
branches, which lie between the first and second ranges of the
Alleghanies, beginning near Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, in the
latitude of 40° 42', and extending from northeast to southwest
into the State of Virginia. The soil in this valley is generally
very substantial. In the fertile bottoms which are watered by
the rivers emptying into the Mississippi, in the Illinois country,
and, still more, in the southern part of Kentucky and Tennes-
see, the Sweet Locust is abundant. It commonly grows with
the Black Walnut, Shellbark Hickory, Eed Elm, Blue Ash,
Pfjp.
Sweet Locust.
(r/<'(/l/,\'Kr //■/ttC
flavis; fructibus muricatis.
This species of Horse Chestnut, which is mentioned by no
author that has hitherto treated of the trees and plants of
North America, is unknown in the Atlantic parts of the United
States.* I have found it only beyond the mountains, and par-
ticularly on the banks of the Ohio for an interval of about one
hundred miles, between Pittsburg and Marietta, where it is ex-
tremely common. It is called Buckeye by the inhabitants ; but,
as this name has been given to the Pavia lutea, I have denomi-
nated it Ohio Buckeye, because it is most abundant on the banks
of this river, and have prefixed the synonym of American
Horse Chestnut, because it proved to be a proper Horse Chest-
nut by its fruit, which is prickly like that of the Asiatic spe-
cies, instead of being smooth like that of the Pavice.
The ordinary stature of the American Horse Chestnut is ten
or twelve feet ; but it sometimes equals thirty or thirty-five feet
in height and twelve or fifteen inches in diameter. The leaves
are palrnated, and consist of five leaflets parting from a common
centre, unequal in size, oval-acuminate, and irregularly toothed.
The entire length of the leaf is nine or ten inches, and its
breadth six or eight inches.
The bloom of this tree is brilliant : its flowers appear early
* [Since the above was written, this tree has been generally distributed in the
United States.]
156
Ohio Buck eye
Pavia ohwensur .
■/ ..'.7^.
/'/./A?-
<■:„:.■.■,,„>,
1 CI'SIIIIOIl .
/Jm.iyi/ro.y I inri/iiaiia
PERSIMMON. 157
in the spring, and are collected in numerous white bunches.
The fruit is of the same color with that of the Common Horse
Chestnut and of the Large Buckeye, and of about half the size :
it is contained in fleshy, prickly capsules, and is ripe in the
beginning of autumn.
On the trunk of the largest trees the bark is blackish, and
the cellular tissue is impregnated with a venomous and dis-
agreeable odor. The wood is white, soft, and wholly useless.
The value of the Ohio Buckeye or American Horse Chestnut
consists chiefly in the beauty of its flowers, which, with its
rapid vegetation and hardy endurance of cold, will bring it into
request both in Europe and America as an ornamental tree.
PLATE XCII.
A branch with leaves and flowers. Fig. 1. Fruit.
PERSIMMON.
DiosrYRos Virginiana. D. foliis long?, petiolaiis, oblongo-ovalibus, aeu-
minatis, subtics inibesccntibus.
Polygamia dicecia. Linn. Guaiacanre. Juss.
The banks of the river Connecticut, below the 4 2d degree of
latitude, may be considered as the northern limit of this tree ;
but it is rendered rare in these parts by the severity of the
winter ; while in the State of New Jersey, near the city of New
York, it is common, and still more so in Pennsylvania, Mary-
land, and the Southern States : it abounds, also, in the Western
forests. It is everywhere known to the Americans by the name
158 P E R S I M M 0 N.
of Persimmon; the French call it Plaqueminier, and its fruit
plaquemines.
The Persimmon varies surprisingly in size in different soils
and climates. In the vicinity of New York, it is not more than
half as large as in the more Southern States, where, in favor-
able situations, it is sometimes sixty feet in height and eighteen
or twenty inches in diameter.
The leaves are from four to six inches in length, oblong,
entire, of a fine green above and glaucous beneath : in the fall
they are often variegated with black spots. The terminal shoots
are observed to be usually accompanied, at the base, by small,
rounded leaves.
This tree belongs to the class of vegetables whose sexes are
confined to different stocks. Both the barren and fertile flowers
are greenish, and not strikingly apparent. The ripe fruit is
about as large as the thumb, of a reddish complexion, round,
fleshy, and furnished with six or eight semi-oval stones slightly
swollen at the sides and of a dark purple color. It is not eat-
able till it has felt the first frost, by which the skin is shri-
velled, and the pulp, which before was hard and extremely
harsh to the taste, is softened and rendered palatable. The
fruit is so abundant that in the Southern States a tree often
yields several bushels, and even in New Jersey I have seen the
branches of stocks not more than seven or eight feet in height
bent to the ground by their burden. In the South it adheres to
the branches long after the shedding of the leaf, and when it
falls it is eagerly devoured by wild and domestic animals. In
Virginia, the Carolinas, and the Western States, it is sometimes
gathered up, pounded with bran, and formed into cakes which
are dried in the oven and kept to make beer, for which purpose
they are dissolved in warm water, with the addition of hops
and leaven. It was long since found that brandy might be
made from this fruit by distilling the water, previously fer-
mented, in which they had been bruised. This licpior is said
PERSIMMON. 159
to become good as it acquires age : but it will be impossible to
derive profit from the Persimmon in these modes ; and, in the
country where it is the most abundant, a few farmers only em-
ploy its fruit occasionally for their households. The Apple Tree
and the Peach Tree are far more advantageous, as their growth
is more rapid and their produce more considerable.
The trunk of the full-grown Persimmon is covered with a
deeply-furrowed, blackish bark. The fresh sap is of a greenish
color, which it preserves after it is seasoned, and the heart is
brown, hard, compact, strong, and elastic ; I have been told,
however, that it is liable to split. At Baltimore, it is used by
turners for large screws, and by tinmen for mallets. At Phila-
delphia, shoe-lasts are made of it equal to those of Beech, which
is usually preferred. In Carolina, the negroes employ it for
large wedges, with which, aided by those of iron, they split the
trunks of trees. I have been assured by coach-makers in
Charleston that they had employed it for the shafts for chaises,
and found it preferable to the Ash and to every other species of
wood except the Lancewood of the West Indies, and that the
difficulty of procuring stocks of the proper size alone prevented
it being more frequently applied to this use : in truth, though
it is common in the woods, it is usually of inconsiderable dimen-
sions.
Such are the particulars with which I have become acquainted
concerning the wood of the Persimmon. Its properties appear
not to be distinctly ascertained nor generally recognised ; they
are such, however, as to deserve the attention of persons whose
object is a practical knowledge of the trees of the United States.
I have heard it asserted by farmers in Virginia, that the grass
is more vigorous beneath the Persimmon than under any other
tree, and this fact is attributed to the speedy decay of its leaves,
which form an excellent manure. In an ancient periodical
work printed at Philadelphia, I find that the English govern-
ment, in the years 1762 and 1763, offered a premium of twenty
ICO PERSIMMO N.
pounds sterling for every fifty pounds of gum collected from the
Persimmon in their American Colonies. They were doubtless
misinformed on this subject : a greenish gum, without taste or
smell, exudes from the tree; but, in several hundred experi-
ments, I have not been able, by wounding the bark, to collect
more than two scruples from a single stock.
Breckel, in his " History of North Carolina," says that the inner
bark has been used with success in intermittent fever. The
fact remains to be verified ; I have not had an opportunity of
proving it by my own observations nor by authentic report, but
it is rendered in some degree probable by the extreme bitter-
ness of the bark.
The inhabitants of the Southern States have very properly
preserved the Persimmon in clearing the forests. Its fruit
might, without doubt, be doubled in size by attentive cultiva-
tion. As the tree is dioecious, care must be taken to procure
stocks of both sexes. The root runs to a great distance, and
produces a numerous family of sprouts.
The Persimmon grows perfectly well, and even yields fruit in
the climate of Paris ; but farther south it would succeed still
better. Its propagation may be recommended for the sake
both of its fruit and of its wood.
Observation. Dr. B. S. Barton, Professor of Botany and Ma-
teria Medica in the University of Pennsylvania, believes the
Persimmon of the Southern States to be a distinct species from
that of New Jersey. He grounds this opinion upon the fact
that the leaves of the Virginia Persimmon are one-half larger
and slightly downy beneath, and the fruit one-half smaller,
with flat instead of convex stones. I am disposed to admit the
distinction, but am not prepared to adopt it with confidence.
I have always ascribed the difference to climate, which, as Ave
have had occasion to remark, has so extraordinary an influence
on the development of other trees, that are common to different
J^,(?4
P.J.AaLnUr M
( arolinian Poplar
PopuIu,rAnai/>/{///,t- Canadensis.
Oizhrte/ Jctuv.
COTTON WOOD. mr,
own observations in the country of its natural growth. "The
leaves," says M. De Foucault, "are deltoid, or trowel-shaped,
approaching to cordiform, always longer than they are broad,
glabrous, and unequally toothed; the petioles are compressed
and of a yellowish green, with two glands of the same color as
the base; the branches are angular, and the angles form whitish
lines, which persist even in the adult age of the tree. Every
soil does not suit the Cotton Wood ; in compact argillaceous
lands it grows less kindly than the Virginian Poplar.
"The Virginian Poplar is justly preferred as a useful tree,
not only because it is less difficult in the choice of soil, but
because it is superior in height: the elevation of the Cotton
Wood is repressed by the frequent ramification of its limbs near
the trunk, and if the lower limbs are lopped away the same
form is assumed by those above.
" The Cotton Wood is a more picturesque tree than the Vir-
ginian Poplar, particularly when growing on the sides of rivers.
Its trunk is very plainly sulcated even in its old age. It is less
so, indeed, than the Carolinian Poplar, but far more so than the
Virginian Poplar, whose trunk is rounder and summit more
spherical; hence the two species are easily distinguished. The
Cotton Wood, also, acquires a superior bulk."
The female aments are six or eight inches long, flexible, and
pendulous. The seeds are surrounded with a beautiful plume
which has the whiteness of cotton, and the young buds are
coated with a resinous, aromatic substance of an agreeable odor.
In the Atlantic States, this Poplar is rare, and has received no
specific name. It appears, on the contrary, to be common on
the banks of the Mississippi above the river of the Arkansas,
and on the Missouri and its tributary streams. It is doubtless
the Poplar designated by the name of Cotton Wood, and men-
tioned so frequently by Gass, who accompanied Lewis and Clark
to the Western Ocean, and by Pike in his interesting account of
the northern part of New Spain. Often, say these travellers,
166 COTTON WOOD.
it is the only tree seen growing on the sides of the rivers. The
Mandans, who live 1500 miles from the mouth of the Missouri,
feed their horses during the winter with its young shoots. The
excessive cold experienced in these regions sufficiently proves
that the Cotton Wood is not the same tree with the Carolinian
Poplar, whose annual shoots freeze every year with a degree of
cold much less intense. The Americans of Upper Louisiana, it
is true, confound the two species because they are found growing
in company on the banks of the Mississippi ; but the Carolinian
Poplar, which is more abundant than the other in Lower Loui-
siana, where the temperature of the winter is too mild for snow,
disappears on the Missouri at the distance of 100 miles from its
junction with the Mississippi.
PLATE XCV.
Leaves of the natural size taken from a large tree. Fig. 1. Part of a branch
of two years' growth.
[The Canadian Poplar is propagated by cuttings of the young
wood, about eighteen inches long, put in during autumn; the
shoots produced from these cuttings are always curved at the
lower extremity, though in a few years this curvature entirely
disappears. The fine Poplar avenues in the lower parts of the
gardens at Versailles are formed of this species.
See Nuttall's Supplement, vol. i. p. 70.]
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American I'lacL I oplai
' opiifn.i- Uutx.foniCft .
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AMERICAN BLACK POPLAR.
Populus Hudsonica. P. mmulis junioribus pilosis ; foliis dcniatis, con-
spind acumitanis.
I have found the American Black Poplar only on the banks
of the river Hudson, above Albany; but I presume that it grows
also in the provinces of Canada, which I have never visited.
The stocks which I have observed were insulated, and conse-
quently spread into a diffuse summit; hence I was unable to
determine the stature of this tree when confined in the forest,
but their size, which was thirty or forty feet in height and twelve
or fifteen inches in diameter, sufficiently proves that it surpasses
the American Aspen and the Large Aspen.
The bark of the young branches is of a grayish white, and
the buds, which spring from the bosom of the leaves, are of a
dark brown. One of the distinctive characters of this species is
the hairiness of the young shoots and of the petioles in the
spring, which is perceptible, also, on the back of the young
leaves. The leaves are smooth, of a beautiful green color, den-
ticulated, rounded in the middle, and acutely tapering toward
the summit. When fully developed, they are a little more than
three inches long, about two inches broad, and, unlike the leaves
of trees in general, they exhibit nearly the same shape from the
moment of their unfolding. The aments of this Poplar are
four or five inches long, and destitute of the hairs which sur-
round those of several other species.
As this tree is rare in the United States, and as I have
observed it only on the banks of the Hudson, where it is never
used, I can afford no information concerning the quality of its
wood; but, if we may judge from its appearance, it is inferior
to the Virginian and Lombardy Poplars.
167
1G8 VIRGINIAN POPLAR.
Sevor.il large trees of this species are seen growing in New
York, near the Park, which are called American Black Poplars.
TLATE XCYI.
Fit/. 1. Leaves of the American Black Poplar.
VIRGINIAN POPLAR.
Populus monilifera. P. foliis dcUouleis, glabris, crenalis, petiolis aspice
compressis, in aclultis ramis terclibus.
Though this tree has been found neither by my father and
myself, nor by several learned English botanists, who like us
have traversed the Atlantic and a great part of the Western
States in every direction, I have thought proper to describe it,
because it may possibly be indigenous to some part of the United
States which we have not visited, and because, on account of
its rapid growth, it deserves the attention of the Americans.
It has been cultivated in Europe for many years, and is uni-
versally considered as a native of North America. It is called
Virginian Poplar and Swiss Poplar; the last of which denomi-
nations is owing only to its being abundantly multiplied in
Switzerland.
The Virginian or Swiss Poplar is sixty or seventy feet high,
with a proportional diameter. Its trunk is cylindrical, and not
sulcated like that of the aged Lombardy Poplar, and the bark
upon old stocks is blackish. The leaves are nearly as long as
they are broad, slightly heart-shaped, compressed toward the
summit, obtusely denticulated, and borne by long petioles. On
large trees their mean length is from two and a half to three
VIRGINIAN POPLAE. 109
inches, but they vary in size, being twice as large on the lower
limbs, and on young stocks growing in moist places. On trees
equally vigorous and nourished by the same soil, the leaves of
this species are observed to be only half as large as those of the
Cotton Wood and Carolinian Poplar.
In France we have only the male of this Poplar, which is
propagated by slips. On the young Virginian Poplar, as on the
Cotton Wood and Carolinian Poplars, the annual shoots are
angular, and this form subsists during the second and third
years on vigorous stocks in a humid soil : on trees which are
already twenty or thirty feet high, and which grow on dry and
elevated lands, the young branches are perfectly round; but in
the other species they always retain the angular shape during
several years.
As the Swiss Poplar has been and is still confounded with
the Cotton Wood, I shall succinctly state the characters which
distinguish them, according to the observations of M. De Fou-
cault, a Director of the Imperial Administration of the Waters
and Forests, eminently distinguished by his knowledge of botany
applied to this branch of economy. He remarks that the leaves
of the Virginian Poplar are much smaller and less distinctly
heart-shaped; the young shoots are smaller and less angular,
and on high grounds those of the third year are even cylindrical ;
the limbs also diverge less widely from the trunk. M. De Fou-
cault adds that the wood of the Swiss Poplar is softer than that
of the Cotton Wood, but that its growth is more rapid, and that
it prospers in a less humid soil. This last consideration explains
the profusion with which it is multiplied throughout France,
where it is found to yield a more speedy and more abundant
product than the Lombardy Poplar.
PLATE XCVI.
Fig. 2. Virginian or Swiss Poplar.
11.— n*
170 COTTON TREE.
[Tins tree is called the Necklace-bearing or Black Italian
Poplar. In Great Britain it attains the height of 100 and even
1 20 feet.]
COTTON TREE.
I'opulus arqentea. P. rawulis teretibus ; foliis amplis, shut parvo cor-
datis, obiusis, levitcr dentatis, junioribus tomentosis.
Tins species is scattered over a great extent of country, com-
prising the Middle, Western, and Southern States. But it is so
rare as to escape the notice of the greater part of the inhabit-
ants, and it has received a sj)ecific name only on the banks of
the river Savannah in Georgia, where it is called Cotton Wood.
The same denomination is applied also to the Carolinian Poplar
which grows in the same place.
A swamp in New Jersey near the North River, about, two
miles above Weehawken Ferry, and not far from the city of New
York, is the most northern point at which I have observed this
tree. I have met with it, too, in Virginia, but less commonly
than on the banks of some of the rivers which traverse the
maritime parts of the more southern States. My father appears
to have found it still more abundant in the Western Country.
Among other places, he particularly mentions the environs of
Fort Massac, situated on the Ohio near its junction with the
Mississippi, and a swamp of more than six miles in diameter,
which are entirely covered with it : this swamp is about thirty
miles from the river Wabash, on the road from Kaskaskia to
the Illinois.
This is a towering tree, which sometimes equals seventy or
eighty feet in height and two or three feet in diameter. On
PI.Q-.
Cotton Cree .
X
COTTON TREE. 171
trunks of these dimensions the bark is very thick and deeply
furrowed. The young branches and the annual shoots are
round, instead of being angular like those of the Carolinian
Poplar and of the Cotton wood. The leaves, while very young,
are covered with a thick, white down, which gradually disap-
pears, leaving them perfectly smooth above and slightly downy
beneath. They are borne by long petioles, are often six inches
in length and as much in breadth, of a thick texture, denticu-
lated and heart-shaped, with the lobes of the base lapped so as
to conceal the junction of the petiole. The aments are droop-
ing and about three inches long, or only half as long as those
of the Carolinian Poplar.
The wood of the Cotton Tree is soft, light, unfit for use, and
inferior, in my opinion, to that of the White Poplar and of the
Virginian and Lombardy Poplars. The heart is yellowish, in-
clining to red, and the young branches are filled with a pith of
the same color.
This tree flourishes in France; but it is to be regretted that
the quality of its wood does not correspond to the interest
inspired by its elevated stature and beautiful foliage.
PLATE XCVII.
A leaf of half the natural size. Fig. 1. A small branch with leaves a few
days after their unfolding.
TACAMAHACA, or BALSAM POPLAR.
Populus balsamifera. P. foliis orato-lanceolatis sarcitis, subttis albidis,
stipulis resinosis.
This species of Poplar belongs to the northern regions of
Amei'ica to which I have not extended my researches. My
father, who traversed Lower Canada, and particularly the coun-
try lying between Quebec and Hudson's Bay, found the Balsam
Poplar very abundant on the shores of Lake St. John, and in all
the districts watered by the river Saguenai, between the 47th
and 49th degrees of latitude. Notwithstanding the severity of
the winter, it rises to the height of eighty feet with a diameter
of three feet. It is multiplied at Tadousack and Malabaie near
the river St. Lawrence, but, in approaching Montreal, it becomes
less common, and is rare on the shores of Lake Champlain.
Such are nearly its northern and southern limits.
In the spring, when the buds begin to be developed, they are
abundantly coated with a yellowish, glutinous substance, of a
very agreeable smell; and, though this exudation diminishes at
the approach of summer, the buds retain a strong balsamic odor.
The leaves are borne on long, round petioles, and are of a lan-
ceolate-oval form, of a deep-green color above and of a rusty
silvery-white beneath.
The wood of this tree is white and soft, and is not used by
the Canadians.
PLATE XCVIII.
Fiij. 1. A branch of the natural size from a large tree.
[This is one of the hardiest of the Poplars, though not of
very rapid growth, except during the first three or four years in
172
PLofi.
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1 balsam I oiunr.
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