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THE

"$0x11 %mtmm ^^Ite;

OU, A DESCRIPTION OF THE

FOREST TREES

UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND NOVA SCOTIA,

NOT DESCRIBED IN THE WORK OF

F. ANDREW MICHAUX,

AND CONTAINI>fG ALL THE

FOREST TREES DISCOVERED IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE TERRITORY OF

OREGON, DOWN TO THE SHORES OF THE PACIFIC, AND INTO THE

CONFINES OF CALIFORNIA, AS AVELL AS IN VARIOUS

PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

ILLUSTKATED BY 121 COLOKED PLATES.

THOMAS NUTTALL, F.L.S.

MEMEEE OF TOE AMERICAN PIIILOSOPHIOAL SOCIETY, AND OP THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES
OF PUILADELPHIA, ETC. ETC. ETC.

THREE VOLUMES IN TWO.
VOL. I.

BEING THE FOURTH VOLUME OF MICHAUX AND NUTTALL'S
NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA.

PHILADELPHIA :
rUBLISIIED BY RICE, RUTTER & CO.,

No. 5 2 5 MINOR STREET.

1865.

v^

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

RICE, RUTTER & CO.,

in the Clerk's OfSce of the District Cotirt of the United States for the Eastern District of
Peuusyhauia.

COLLINS. PRINTER

TO THE LATE

WILLIAM MACLURE, ESQ.

PRESIDENT or THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES IN PHILADELPHIA, ETC. ETC.

AS A MEMENTO OF HIS ATTACHMENT TO, AND LIBERAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF, NATURAL
SCIENCES IN NORTH AMERICA;

ALSO, TO

F. ATs^DREW MICHAUX,

MEMBER OF THE AMEEICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE
OF FRANCE, ETC. ETC.,

WHOSE NAME IS IDENTIFIED WITH THE HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE PRODUCTIONS
OP THE NORTH AMERICAN FOREST,

%\xs Slork

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR OF THIS SUPPLEMENT.

PREFACE.

The Forest Trees of America being a subject of such great
extent and importance, I felt, consequently, very diffident of under-
taking their study, after what has been already done so well by my
predecessor, M. Michaux. Yet, in oiFering a new edition of the
American Sylva in English, it appeared requisite, in keeping pace
with the progress of discovery, that all the forest trees of the ex-
tended dominion of the United States should, in some way or
other, be included in the present publication ; and, I confess, the
magnitude of the task appeared, at first, sufficiently appalling,
when we reflect on the vast territory now claimed by the United
States. Beginning with the arctic limits of all arborescent vege-
tation, in the wilds of Canada, which we cannot with propriety
exclude, forming as it does the boreal boundary of the iTorth Ame-
rican forest, we then follow the extended shores of the Atlantic,
until, toward the extremity of East Florida, and its keys or
islands, we have attained the very confines of the tropical circle,
and make a near approach to the island of Cuba and the Baha-
mas. Turning westward, we pass over the wide forests of the
Mississippi, pursue the Western streams, through vast woodless
plains, until we attain the long crests of the Rocky Mountains
or Northern Andes. Here, in these alpine regions, we meet with
a total change in the features of the forest : resiniferous evergreens,
of the family of the Pines, now predominate, and attain the most
gigantic dimensions. All the species (and they are numerous) have
peculiar traits, and form so many curious and distinct species, of
which little is yet known more than their botanical designation.
Other remarkable forest trees, also imperfectly known, inliabit this
great range of mountains, which continues uninterruptedly into the
interior of Mexico in its southern course; while on the north, follow-
ing the sources of the Missouri and the Oregon, and after thus dividing
the waters which flow into the Atlantic and Pacific, it is at lengtli

6 PREFACE.

merged in the "Shining Mountains," which send off their distant
tributaries to the Arctic Ocean.

The plains of the Upper Platte, those of the Oregon and of North-
ern California, a region bereft of summer rains, forming extensive
barren steppes, like those of Siberia, present no forests, scarcely
an alluvial belt along the larger streams of sufficient magnitude to
afford even fuel for the camp-fire of the wandering hunter or the
erratic savage. The scanty driftwood borne down from the moun-
tains, the low bitter bushes of the arid plain, even the dry ordure
of the bison, is collected for fuel, and barely suffices to prepare a
hasty meal for the passing traveller, who, urged by hunger and
thirst, hurries over the desert, a region doomed to desolation, and,
amid privations the most appalling, lives in the hope of again see-
ing forests and green fields in lieu of arid plains and bitter weeds,
which tantalized our famished animals with the fallacious appear-
ance of food, like the cast-away mariner raging with thirst, though
surrounded with water as fatal to the longing appetite as poison.

Toward the shores of the Pacific, and on the banks of the Oregon,
we again meet with the agreeable features of the forest : — •

" Majestic woods, of every vigorous green,
Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills,
Or to the far horizon wide diffused,
A boundless, deep immensity of shade."

Transported in idea to the border of the Hudson or the Dela-
ware, we recline beneath the shade of venerable Oaks and spreading
Maples ; we see, as it were, fringing the streams, the familiar Cotton-
wood and spreading Willows. On the higher plains, and ascending
the hills and mountains to their summits, we see a dark forest of
lofty Pines ; we hear the light breeze sigh and murmur through
their branches as it did to the poets of old. But the botanist, in
all this array, fails to recognise one solitary acquaintance of his
former scenes : he is emphatically in a strange land ; a new crea-
tion, even of forest trees, is spread around him, and the tall Andes
and wide deserts rise as a barrier betwixt him and his distant home.

My indulgent reader will then excuse me, if I, on this occasion,
appear before him only as a botanist ; culling those objects which
have given him so much delight, he wishes to present them to the

PREFACE. 7

curious public, alive to the beauties and symmetry of nature's works.
Whatever is yet known of their uses and history is also given ; and,
that the task might be more complete, we have rambled a little be-
yond, rather than fallen short of, the exact limits of the Republic.
We have thus added, as our friends Torrey and Gray have done, in
their general Flora, a collection of the trees of Upper California,
extending our ramble as far as the vicinity of Santa Barbara,
in about the 34th degree of north latitude. We here met with
several Oaks, Pines, a Plane Tree^, a Horse-chestnut, and a Box Elder,
which have not yet been found within the limits of the Territory of
Oregon.

While the work was in progress. Professor Torrey informed me
of the arrival of a large collection of dried plants from Key West, in
East Florida, made by Doctor Blodgett, of the United States army.
All the trees in this herbarium — at least forty species — were in the
most generous manner given up to me for publication by the pro-
fessor. Most of them form distinguishing features in the tropical
landscape of the West India Islands. Among them were the Ma-
hogany, Simancba, the Guaiacum or Lignum- Vitse, the poisonous
Manchineel, several trees of the family of the Myrtles, {Eugenia,)
three or four species of Fig Trees, the Calabash, and Papaw or Me-
lon Tree, the Mangrove, two species of Cordia, the West India Birch,
{Bursera gummifera,) and many other arborescent plants which are
now for the first time added to the Flora of the United States, and
thus in a measure resolving the problem of the geographical limits
of the Caribbean Flora. The island of Key West lies about eighty-
five miles from East Florida, and is the same distance from Cuba.
It is about nine miles long and three broad, containing a popula-
tion of about four hundred people, chiefly engaged as wreckers.

Besides the trees we have noticed, I have been recently informed
of the existence of thickets of Cactuses on the island, one of which,
with an erect, cylindric, and divided stem, attains the height of thirty
or more feet.

In the islands of the Everglades, considerably inland in East Flo-
rida, we have been informed that a Palm about ninety feet high,
forming a magnificent tree, has been seen ; but of this plant we have
been unable to obtain, as yet, any further account.

The haste with which I have been obliged to proceed with the

8 PREFACE.

publication has prevented me from receiving much advantage from
correspondents. Such as have honored me with their remarks are
mentioned under the appropriate articles as they occur in the work ;
and I take this opportunity of tendering them my sincere thanks
for all such assistance.

As fast as new materials may be discovered, we intend to give
them to the world in the form of a supplement ; and we shall then
also have an additional opportunity for correcting any errors which
may have occurred either in regard to information or in the pro-
gress of printing, as well as of making such additions as a more
thorough examination of the subject may suggest, particularly the
characters of the different kinds of wood indigenous to the most
extended limits of the Republic.

Thirty- four years ago, I left England to explore the natural his-
tory of the United States. In the ship Halcyon I arrived at the
shores of the New World ; and, after a boisterous and dangerous
passage, our dismasted vessel entered the Capes of the Delaware in
the month of April. The beautiful robing of forest scenery, now
bursting into vernal life, was exchanged for the monotony of the
dreary ocean, and the sad sickness of the sea. As we sailed up the
Delaware, my eyes were riveted on the landscape with intense ad-
miration. All was new; and life, like that season, was then full
of hope and enthusiasm. The forests, apparently unbroken in
their primeval solitude and repose, spread themselves on either
hand as we passed placidly along. The extending vista of dark
Pines gave an air of deep sadness to the wilderness : —

"These lonely regions, whei-e, retired
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells
In awful solitude, and naught is seen
But the wild herds that own no master's stall."

The deer brought to bay, or plunging into the flood from the pur-
suit of the Indian armed with bow and arrow, alone seemed want-
ing to realize the savage landscape as it appeared to the first settlers
of the country.

Scenes like these have little attraction for ordinary life. But to

PREFACE. 9

the naturalist it is far otherwise ; privations to him are cheaply pur-
chased if he may but roam over the wild domain of primeval na-
ture, and behold

"Another Flora there, of bolder hues
And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride."

How often have I realized the poet's buoyant hopes amid these
solitary rambles through interminable forests ! For thousands of
miles my chief converse has been in the wilderness with the spon-
taneous productions of nature; and the study of these objects and
their contemplation has been to me a source of constant delight.

This fervid curiosity led me to the banks of the Ohio, through
the dark forests and brakes of the Mississippi, to the distant lakes
of the northern frontier ; through the wilds of Florida ; far up the
Red River and the Missouri, and through the territory of Arkansas ;
at last over the

"Vast savannas, where the wandering eye,
Unfix'd, is in a verdant ocean lost ;"

And now across the arid plains of the Far West, beyond the steppes
of the Rocky Mountains, down the Oregon to the extended shores
of the Pacific, across the distant ocean to that famous group, the
Sandwich Islands, where Cook at length fell a sacrifice to his teme-
rity. And here for the first time I beheld the beauties of a tro-
pical vegetation ; a season that knows no change, but that of a per-
petual spring and summer; an elysian land, where nature offers
spontaneous food to man. The region of the Bread-fruit ; the Tar-
row, [Colocasia esculenia,) which feeds the indigent mass of the popu-
lation ; the Broussonetia, a kind of Mulberry Tree, whose inner rind,
called tapa, affords a universal clothing. The low groves produce
the Banana, the Ginger, the Turmeric, the inebriating Kava, (Piper
methysticum,) a kind of Arrowroot, resembling the potato, [Tacca,)
and the Saccharine Tee root, [Draccena ierminalis,) at the same time
the best of portable fodder. The common timber for constructing
houses, boats, various implements, and the best of fuel, is here the
produce of a Mimosa, (Acacia heterophi/Ua.) For lights and oil, the
too tooe kernels [Aleurites triloba) produce an excellent and inexhaust-
ible supply; the cocoanut and the fragrant Pandanus afford deli-
IV.— 1*

10 PREFACE.

cious food, cordage, and mats ; and the very reeds, reduced in size,
whicli border the rivulets, are no other than the precious sugar-
cane of commerce.

Leaving this favored region of perpetual mildness, I now arrived
on the shores of California, at Monterey. The early spring (March)
had already spread out its varied carpet of flowers ; all of them had
to me the charm of novelty, and many were adorned with the most
brilliant and varied hues. The forest trees were new to my view.
A magpie, almost like that of Europe, (but with a yellow bill,)
chattered from the branches of an Oak with leaves like those of
the Holly, {Quercus agrifolia.) A thorny Gooseberry, forming a small
tree, appeared clad with pendulous flowers as brilliant as those of a
Fuchsia. A new Plane Tree spread its wide arms over the dried
rivulets. A Ceanothus, attaining the magnitude of a small tree,
loaded with sky-blue withered flowers, lay on the rude wood-pile,
consigned to the menial office of afibrding fuel. Already the cheer-
ful mocking-bird sent forth his varied melody, with rapture imi-
tating the novel notes of his neighboring songsters. The scenery
was mountainous and varied, one vast wilderness, neglected and
uncultivated ; the very cattle appeared as wild as the bison of the
prairies, and the prowling wolves, [Coyotes,) well fed, were as tame
as dogs, and every night yelled familiarly through the village. In
this region the Olive and the Yine throve with luxuriance and
teemed with fruit; the Prickly Pears [Cactus) became small trees,
and the rare blooming Aloe [Agave Americana) appeared consigned
without care to the hedgerow of the garden.

After a perilous passage around Cape Horn, the dreary extremity
of South America, amid mountains of ice which opposed our pro-
gress in unusual array, we arrived again at the shores of the At-
lantic. Once more I hailed those delightful scenes of nature with
which I had been so long associated. I rambled again through the
shade of the Atlantic forests, or culled some rare productions of Flora
in their native wilds. But the "oft-told tale" approaches to its close,
and I must now bid a long adieu to the "New World," its sylvan
scenes, its mountains, wilds, and plains ; and henceforth, in the
evening of my career, I return, almost an exile, to the land of my
nativity.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST.

Western Oak Quercus Garryana 14

Holly-Loaved Oak Quercus agrifolia 16

Rocky Mountain Oak Quercus undulata 19

Douglas Oak Quercus Douglasii 20

Dense-Flowered Oak Quercus densiflora 21

Lea's Oak Quercus Leana 25

Dwarf Chestnut Castanea alnifolia 36

Western Birch Betula Occidentalis 40

Oval-Leaved Birch Betula rhombifoUa 41

Oregon Alder Ahius Oregona 44

Thin-Leaved Alder Alnus tenuifolia 48

Sea-Side Alder Alnus maritlma 50

Opaque-Leaved Elm Ulmus opaca 51

Thomas's Elm Ulmus racemosa 53

Small-Fruited Hickory Carya microcarpa 55

Inodorous Candle Tree Myrica inodora 59

California Buttonwood Platanus racemosa 63

Narrow-Leaved Balsam Poplar Populus angusiifolia 68

Long-Leaved Willow Salix speciosa 74

Long-Leaved Bay Willow Salix peniandra 77

Western Yellow Willow Salix luiea 78

Silver-Leaved Willow Salix argophylla 87

Dusky Willow Salix melanopsis 93

California Bay Tree Drimophyllum paucijiorum 102

Large-Leaved Linden Tilia heterophylla 107

American Mangle Ehizophora Americana 112

Florida Guava Psidium buxifolium 115

11

12 CONTENTS.

FAQG

Forked Calyptranthes Calyptranthes thytraculia 117

Small-Leaved Eugenia Eugenm dichotoma 120

Tall Eugenia Eugenia procera 122

Box-Leaved Eugenia Eugenia buxifolia 123

Indian Almond Terminalia caiappa 125

Button Tree Conocarpus erecia 128

White Mangrove Laguncularia racemosa 132

Babbit Berry Shepherdia argentea 134

Mountain Plum Ximenia Americana 138

Osage Orange Madura aurantiaca 140

Small-Leaved Nettle Tree Celtis reticulata 147

Long-Leaved Nettle Tree Celtis longifolia 148

Cherry Fig Tree Ficus pedunculata 151

Short-Leaved Fig Tree Ficus brevifolia 153

Small-Fruited Fig Tree Ficus aurea 154

Red Thorn Oratcegus sanguinea 157

Lance-Leaved Hawthorn Cratcegus arborescens 160

Soft-Leaved Cherry Cerasus mollis 164

Holly-Leaved Cherry Cerasus ilicifoUa 165

Wild Plum Prunus Americana 169

River Crab Apple Pyrus rivularis 172

American Mountain Ash Pyrus Americana 175

Feather Bush Cercocarpus ledifolius 178

Jamaica Dogwood Piscidia erythrina 180

Broad-Podded Acacia Acacia latisiliqua 183

Blunt-Leaved Inga Inga unguis-cati 186

Guadaloupe Inga Inga Guadalupenis 188

Jamaica Boxwood Schceffera buxifolia 190

Tree Ceanothus Ceanothus thyrsijiorus 193

Snake- Wood Colubrina Americana 195

Carolina Buckthorn Phamnus Carolinianus 198

Manchineel Hippomane mancinella 202

THE

NORTH AMERICAN

SYLVA.

OAKS.

Natural Order, Cupulifer^. Linnwan Classification, Mon(ECIa,

POLYANDRIA.
QUERCUS. (TOURNEFORT.)

MoNCECious. Male flowers in loose catkins or racemes. Calyx mono-
phyllous, more or less deeply 5-cleft. Stamens, five to ten with
sliort filaments, the anthers oval and 2-celled.

Female flower solitary, with a cup-shaped, undivided, hemispherical
involucrum formed of agglutinated imbricate scales, sometimes
free at the summit. Perianth minute, superior. Ovary terminated
by two to three stigmas, 3-celled, with two ovules. Nut or gland
ovate-cylindric, coriaceous, and smooth, 1-celled; albumen none,
germ erect, with thick and fleshy cotyledons.

Trees or shrubs, principally of temperate regions. Leaves alter-
nate, stipulate, simple. Flowers green and inconspicuous, appearing
before the complete expansion of the leaves. Nearly allied to the

Chestnuts, [Castanca.)

13

WESTERN OAK.

QuERCUS Garryana, (Dougl. Mss.) FoUis peUolaiis, obovaiis, utrinque
ohtusis sinuatis suhius jpuhesceniibus^ adultis subglabris, lobis obtusis sub-
cequalibus superioribus subbilobis, fructibus sessilibus, cupula subhemi-
sphcerica dense squamosa, squamis acuminatis pubescentibus, glande ovata.

QuERCUs Garryana, Hooker, Flor. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 159.

I^f our western tour across the continent, no feature of the
landscape appeared more remarkable, after passing the Mis-
sissippi to the wide alluvial borders of the Platte, than the
almost total absence of our most characteristic forest trees, the
Oaks. When at length we aj^proached the Rocky Mountains,
or Northern Andes, we looked in vain for any species of this
important genus ; and, as far as the eye could trace, we com-
monly saw nothing but a dark, unbroken mass of gigantic Firs
and Pines. It was not till we had nearly reached the shores
of the Pacific, that we again beheld any of the familiar features
of the Atlantic forest. At the confluence of the Columbia and
the Wahlamet we pitched our tents and moored our vessel,
which had passed Cape Horn, beneath the spreading shade of
majestic Oaks. With the first appearance of extended alluvial
plains, immediately below the singular falls of the Oregon,
called the Dalles, or Dykes, w^e observed, for the first time, this
Western Oak loaded with its fruit.

The strong resemblance of the leaf of this species to that
of the Post Oak (Quercus stellata) is almost a libel ujDon our
gigantic plant, which may well rank among the largest of its
species. It attains the height of ninety or one hundred feet,
if not more, with a diameter of from three to six feet; indeed,
amidst a forest the most remarkable in the world for its ex-
treme elevation, our Oak still bore a strict comparison with the
14

PI. I.

li'c.ttcr/i OiiJe.

Qixercus GaiTvaiia.

Cfiene occideTttni

WESTERN OAK. 15

rest. Its character, in nearly all respects, equals the famous
Oak of Northern Europe, [Q. peduncidata ;) its lofty summit
and enormous branches spread out far and wide, affording the
most perfect shade ; and, as a picturesque tree, it is much the
most striking in the Western landscape. As an object of
economy, we found it of the last importance, useful timber
trees being scarce along the Oregon; indeed, no other Oak
exists along the coast of the Pacific but the present, till we
arrive at the absolute boundary of California. How far it
extends to the north I am unable to say, but probably as
far as Nootka Sound. In Upper California it is scarcely found
beyond Monterey ; its limit is probably somewhere between the
3 8th and 50th degree.

The wood is remarkably white for an Oak, hard and fine-
grained, and well suited for almost every kind of construction
for which the White Oak or English Oak is employed. It was
used by our trading party as barrel-staves, and was found no-
way inferior to White Oak. Logs of it brought a good price
at the Sandwich Islands; and, in short, there is scarcely any
thing in which strength or durability are requisite, for which
this timber is not suited. The acorns, being sweet and agree-
able, form an excellent mast for hogs ; and even the aborigines
of this region, who never cultivate the soil, employed them for
food, first preparing them by stoving and afterward laying them
away under ground for future use.

The acorns are much larger than those of the Post Oak, as
well as rounder. The leaf bears a considerable resemblance to
that species, but is smaller, and, in fact, intermediate in form
between it and the European species, {Q. pedunculaia.) It
differs from both in the whiteness of its wood. The bark is
whitish and scaly, almost similar to that of the White Oak.
The leaves from the first are not pubescent above, or only
slightly so along the midrib ; the hairs, more numerous beneath,
are, as in many other species, collected into stellated clusters ;

16 HOLLY-LEAVED OAK.

the young leaves of the Post Oak, previous to expansion, appear
brownish-yellow and like a mass of velvet, with the copious
pubescence by which they are clad; in ours this appearance
never occurs, and the old leaves become nearly smooth; the
lobes have narrow, sinuous openings, which scarcely pass half-
way down through the leaf; the lobes are usually four on a
side, and possess no great inequality with each other; the
upper pair mostly present a notch or small division on the
lower side, but nothing analogous to the singular obtuse dilata-
tion which that part of the leaf exhibits in the Post Oak.
The acorns, besides being larger, are not striated, and the scales
of the cup are acuminate, and the upper ones free.

PLATE I.

A young branch, loith the leaves not fully expanded, with barren aments.

HOLLY-LEAVED OAK.

QuERCUS AGRiFOLiA. FoUis lato-ovatis subcordatls dentato-spmosis glabris,
fruciibus axillaribus sessilibus. — Nee, in Annal. Scieuc. Nat., vol. iii.
p. 271. Annals of Botany, No. 4, p. 106.

QuERCUs AGRIFOLIA. FolUs pcrennanHbus subrotundo-ovatis subcordatls
utrinqiic glabris remote sjnnoso-dentatis, ciqjula hemisphcerica ; squamis
adpressis obtusiusculis, glande ovata acuta. — PuRsn, Flor. Bor. Am.,
ii. p. 657. WiLLD. Sp., pi. 4, p. 431.

An Ilex folio agrifoUi Americana, forte agria, vcl aqidfolia glandifera? —
Plukenet, tab. 196, fig. 3.

This species, almost the only one which attains the magni-
tude of a tree in Upper California, is abundantly dispersed over
the plain on which Santa Barbara is situated ; and, being ever-
green, forms a conspicuous and predominant feature in the vege-

pi.n.

Q,Tiercus Adrifolia .
Eollr leaved OaJr. fh^-^n- a i'euillfs deSouJc.

II 0 L L Y-L E A V E D OAK. IT

tation of this remote and singular part of the Western world.
It appears more sparingly around Monterey, and scarcely ex-
tends on the north as far as the line of the Oregon Territory.
It attains the height of about forty or fifty feet, with a diameter
rarely exceeding eighteen inches. The bark is nearly as rough
as in the Red Oak ; the wood, hard, brittle, and reddish, is used
only for the purposes of fuel or the coarse construction of a log
cabin.

As an ornamental tree, for the South of Europe or the
warmer States of the Union, we may recommend this species.
It forms a roundish summit, and spreads but little till it attains
a considerable age ; as a hedge, it would form a very close
shelter, and the leaves, evergreen and nearly as prickly as a
holly, would render it almost impervious to most animals.

The leaves vary from roundish ovate to elliptic, and are of a
thick, rigid consistence, the serratures quite sharp ; the young
shoots are covered more or less with stellate hairs, and, for
some time, tufts of this kind of down remain on the under side
of the midrib of the leaves, which are, however, at length per-
fectly smooth and of a dark green above, often tinged with
brownish-yellow beneath. The staminiferous flowers are very
abundant and rather conspicuous, the racemes the length of
three or four inches, the flowers with a conspicuous calyx and
eight to ten stamens. The female or fruit-bearing flowers are
usually in pairs in the axils, or juncture of the leaf with the
stem, and sessile, or without stalks. The cup of the acorn is
hemispherical, and furnished with loose, brownish scales : the
acorn, much longer than the cup, is ovate and pointed.

We do not recollect to have seen this tree properly associated
with any other, except, occasionally, the Platanus racemosui^ ;
their shade is also hostile to almost every kind of undergrowth.

By Persoon, this species is said to have been found on the
eastern coast of North America, while Pursh attributes it to
the northwest coast, about Nootka Sound. It does not, how-

VoL. IV.— 2

18 SMALL-LEAVED OAK.

ever, extend even to the territory of Oregon, as far as my ob-
servations go. Nee says, " I have only seen branches collected
at Monterey and Nootka." The leaves of the young plants (if
I am not mistaken) are perfectly smooth when first developed,
of a thin consistence, with numerous slender, sharp dentures ;
beneath they are of a brownish-yellow color, and appear
smooth and shining.

PLATE 11.

A young branch with barren aments. a. A branch with acorns.

SMALL-LEAVED OAK.

QuERCUS DUMOSA. Bamis gracUibus pubescentibus ; foliis rotiindato-ovali-
biis subsessilibus sjnnoso-dentatis glabriuscuUs, subtiis villosis concoloribus.

I OBSERVED this spccics to form entangled thickets over the
base of the hills which flank the village of Santa Barbara, in
Upper California. It attains the height of four to six feet, is
of a very unsightly appearance, forming what we should call
Scrub Oak thickets, of considerable extent, over a barren and
rocky soil, which denies sustenance to almost every thing else :
the branches divide into many irregular, straggling, and almost
naked, slender twigs, clothed with a whitish, smooth bark.
The leaves are evergreen, small, and wholly resemble those of
the Quercus cocci/era, but are somewhat pubescent above and
softly so beneath ; the young twigs are also hairy, with a per-
sisting pubescence. Being unable to discover upon it at the
season I visited that country (in the month of April) either
flowers or fruit, I am not able to give a figure of it that would
be at all interesting.

PI. m.

Suiflairg liih

Quercus Undulata.
Jiocky Mountain OtiJc. Chme oiuiule

ROCKY MOUNTAIN OAK.

QuERCUS UNDULATA. Fruticosa ramosissima ; foliis jperennantibas hreci-
IKtiolatis oblongis aciUis smuato-dentails dentibas acutis, basi cuneatis,
subtus lyulverulento-tomentosis, supra nitidis; fruciibus subsolitariis ses-
silibus, cupula hemisphcerica squamis appressis, glande ovaia acuta. —
ToRREY, in the Annals of the Lyceum of New York, voh ii.
p. 248.

This dwarf Oak, considerably allied to our small-leaved
preceding species, Avas discovered by Dr. James, in Long's Ex-
pedition, toward the sources of the Canadian, a branch of the
Arkansas, and likewise in the Rocky Mountains. It is said
to be a small, straggling shrub, with the under surface of the
leaves clothed with a close, whitish tomentum or down, more
or less spread, though more thinly, also, on the upper surface,
with the hairs stellated. The leaves are small, and somewhat
resemble those of the Holly, about an inch and a half or two
inches long, rather narrowed at the base, of a thick and rigid
consistence, as in all the sempervirent Oaks, reticulately veined
beneath, with the margin sinuately toothed, but not, that I can
perceive, waved, as the specific name implies; the teeth sharp
and acute at the points ; above somewhat shining and minutely
pubescent. The acorns are large, and strongly resemble those
of the Live Oak; they are, however, without stalks, and grow
alone or in pairs ; the cup is deep and hemispherical, with the
scales pointed.

It is so nearly allied to the Holly Oak of the South of

Europe {^Quercus Ilex) that it is necessary to distinguish them.

In our plant the base of the leaf is wedge-formed ; in the Ilex

it is usually rounded, the border less deeply toothed, and not in

19

20 DOUGLAS OAK.

the least sinuated. The cup and acorn are wholly similar, but
in our plant a little larger and less pointed.

PLATE III.

A branch of the natural size, loith the acorn.

DOUGLAS OAK.

QuERCUS DouGLASii. FolUs membranaceis oblongo-ovalibus basi acutis
petiolatis smuato-]}innaiijidis siccitate hand nigrescentibus, supra glabris,
subtus puberulis, lobis brevibus acutiusculis, petioUs ramidisque junioribus
dense fulvo-pubescentibus; fructibus sessUibus solitariis binisve, cupula
hemisphcerica dense squamosa squamis ovatis eonvexis in appendicem
submembranaceam fidvam appressam linearem obtusam productis pubes-
centibus ; glande ovaia cupulam triplo supcrante obtusa cum umbone
conico. — Hook. Icou. ined. Hook, and Arnot, Bot. Beechy, p. 391.

This curious species, of which we have seen only a dried
specimen, was collected in Upper California, and bears some
affinity to the Q. Garryana. According to Hooker and Arnot,
the leaves and whole appearance of the plant closely resemble
Q. sessiliflora, but with different scales to the cup of the acorn.
The leaves appear to be smaller, narrower, and less deeply
divided than in Q. Garryana. The young leaves are covered
with down on both sides, and the lobes tipped with short, soft,
acute points.

To us, the branch which we have seen bears some resem-
blance, though vague, to the Post Oak, [Q. stcllata.) The cup
and acorn is also somewhat similar, but larger, while the leaf is
smaller and scarcely dilated above. The under surface is

PI. IV.

SuuJuu-s- liOi

J)oiUj/lns's' Oak.

Qiiercus Douolasii

Client de Vmn/las

riv.

OiH'i'ciis l)ciiHiri(H-:i

DENSE-FLOWERED OAK. 21

covered with the same steUated pubescence. The stigmas of
the fertile flowers are from three to five in number.

PLATE IV.

A branch of the natural size, ivith acorns, a. The male catkin arid yoimg
leaf. b. The staminiferous flower magnified.

Castanopsis. Aments elongated and persistent, perianth lanuginous,
divided to the base; scales of the spreading cup loose and squar-
rose ; stamens exserted ; nut somewhat angular and downy ; stig-
mas several, filiform, and deciduous.

Trees of Oregon, California, and the Himalaj^a Mountains in India,
with the aspect of the Chestnut. Leaves entire, penuately nerved,
sempervirent. Aments elongated, erect, the flowers conglomerated.
Fertile flowers . . . . ? To this section, or rather genus, beloug
also, as far as the male specimens are concerned, the Qaercus glomerata
and Quercus spicaia of Dr. Wallich.

DENSE-FLOWERED OAK

Quercus densiflgra. Foliis percnnaniibus coriaceis petiolatis oblongo
lanceolatis basi obtusis breviter acuminatis parallele nervosis integerrimis
margine revolutis jimioribus fulvo-furfuraceo-tomentosis subtus p)(dlidiori-
bus demum glabris, amentis maseulis elongatis folia superantibus densi-
fioris valde tomentosis nunc ad basin flores paucos femineos gerentibus,
fructibus sessilibus, cupula brevi heynisphmrica dense squamosa, squami-
bus clongato-linearibus laxis sericeis, glande ovaio-globosa sericea. — Hook.
Icon. PL ined. Hook, and Arnot, Bot. Beechy, p. 391.

This remarkable tree, scarcely a true Oak, but congeneric with
species in the Himalaya Mountains, in India, is a native of

22 OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS.

Upper California. It has so much the appearance of a Chest-
nut, that the cup of the fruit alone attests what it really is.
The leaves are evergreen, and of the same lanceolate outline
with the Common Chestnut, having similar pennate nerves, but
entire, or nearly so, on the margin; at first they are softly
clothed beneath with dense, stellate, brownish hairs, but at
length become smooth : they are about four inches long and one
to one and a quarter wide. The catkins are erect, about four
inches long, presenting the aj^pearance of cylindric, woolly
spikes, beset with numerous exserted stamens with long, slender
filaments, as in the Chestnut. The cup is shallow and patulous,
within and without softly sericeous, the scales numerous and
acuminate, very loose, somewhat spreading, and two and a half
to three lines long. The acorn is large, evidently angular, and
more convex on one side, covered with whitish down, and
terminated with several filiform, lanuginous, and deciduous
stigmas.

The Caskinea cJirysophijUa of Douglas, if not the same plant,
appears to be another species of this section or genus.

PLATE V.

A branch of the natural size. a. The acorn.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS.

QuERCdS MARITIMA, {the Mtiritime Oak.) The fruit of this
species, and sometimes the leaves, approach to the Willow
Oak; but this is a low, shrubby plant of the Southern States,
with semj)ervircnt leaves, which are very often deeply and
distinctly sinuated, rigid, with the lobes often obtuse and
mucronate.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS. 23

QuERCUS MTRTiFOLiA, [MyrtU-leaved Oah.) Of this elegant
and curious species, we have yet no materials deserving of a
figure.

QuERCUS STELLATA. Q. OBTUSILOBA, MiCH. [Post Ocih.) The

variety which I mentioned in the Genera of North American
plants, vol. ii. p. 215, under the name of /3. de^jressa, rarely
exceeds three feet in height, and bears acorns at the height of
twelve to eighteen inches from the ground. I first observed it
on the hills of the Missouri, up to its confluence with the river
Platte, and it is also almost the last species which we find to
the westward. I have since met with apparently the same low
variety on the gravelly poor hills of the island of Martha's
Vineyard, near Massachusetts Bay : it is this scrubby growth of
Oak which still affords shelter to the grouse on that island. In
some parts of Massachusetts, (according to Emerson,) the usual
large growth of this tree is occasionally met with. The species
of Quercus which I call Q. Ilichauxii is, I now believe, nothing
more than a mere variety of Q. prinus.

Swamp White Oak, ( Quercus hicolor.) Of this species I first
observed a curious variety, which I called /?. mollis or Soft-
leaved Swamp Oak, in the swampy elevated forests of the
Hudson, near New York; it occurs likewise near Philadelphia
and Boston. The leaves, I find, are of the same form as in Q.
hicolor, but the under side is not white, but partly ferruginous or
green, and softly pubescent. The quantity of this clothing, how-
ever, varies, and in large leaves it becomes very thin. It forms
a somewhat-pyramidal tree, sixty or seventy feet high, branched
nearly from the base, the branches deflected and intricately
ramified. The leaves are narrowed at the base, and abruptly
dilated toward the summit; the dentures are few and sometimes
almost wanting; the breadth is about two-thirds of the length;
the fruit-stalk or peduncle filiform, two or three inches long.

24 OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS.

bearing about one to three acorns on each. It may perhaps be
Quercus filiformis of Muhlenberg's Catalogue, page 87.

MossT-CuP Oak, {Quercus oUvceformis.) This rare Oak,
(which Michaux found only above Albany and in Genesee,) or
at least a variety of it with less attenuated cups, is met with in
Orange county. New York, where it was observed by Dr.
Horton; and it also grows near Vernon, in Sussex county. New
Jersey. It has much the aspect of the Water White Oak, ( Q.
discolor,) but the leaves are sinuated.

White Oak, (Quercus alba.) According to Emerson, the
roots of the White Oak make very beautiful furniture. In
England, five pounds sterling have been given for the roots of a
White Oak. The pieces have been taken out, and, when sawed
and planed, present a wood of extraordinary beauty. A cabinet
and table made from the forked branches of this Oak, now in
the possession of Mr. C. J. Wister, in Germantown, Pa., may
well vie with the finest woods known: it is of a clear, pale
yellow, inclining to olive, and feathered in the most beautiful
manner; the polish is also equal to that of the finest mahogany.

Bartram's Oak, [Quercus heierophylla, Mien. vol. i. pi. 16.)
This curious tree, which, in 1837, had attained the height of
fifty feet and a circumference of three feet nine inches, was
inadvertently cut down, and with it the species, if such it was,
appeared to be annihilated; but Thomas G. Lea, Esq., of Cin-
cinnati, informs me "that several years ago he discovered an
Oak between two and three miles north of that city, the leaves
and fruit of which accord with Michaux's figure. The leaves
are sometimes larger than those represented, but with the same
outline, irregularly and coarsely toothed, or sub-lobed, and on
longish petioles: the margin is very rarely entire. The tree is
about twenty-five feet high, and in a vigorous state of growth.

Pl.T.(T)ift^

ZeasOaJc.

Quercus Leamt

('/(i-fte f/e He/x

L E A' S 0 A K. 25

Some scattering Oaks of other species are in its immediate
neighborhood. I think it is not a variety of Q. imhricaria,
many trees of which I have examined, but never found them
with leaves the least indented. The Q. pliellos,'' to which it
might be allied, "does not grow in the vicinity of Cincinnati,
nor, that I know of, in any part of Ohio : this tree, therefore,
cannot be a variety of that species." Its nearest affinity
appears to me to be to the Quercus amhigua of Michaux, Jr.,
from which it is principally distinguished by the narrower and
more simple divisions of its leaves.

LEA'S OAK.

QuERCFS Leana. Foliis membranaceis, longissime petiolatis, ohlongo-
ovalibus, basi rotundatis, subcordaiis, sinuato-pinnatifidis, demum glabris,
lobis latis integris setaceo-acuminatis ; frudibus brevi-pedicellatis ; solitariis
binisve, cupula hemisphcenca, squamis ovatis obiusis, glande subglobosa
vittaia subsemi-immensa, cum umbone brevi conico.

Of this remarkably-ambiguous Oak I have already spoken, in
a note on Q. lieteropliylla, having at that time, in concert with
Mr. Thomas G. Lea, its discoverer, considered it as a variety of
that rare species, or some analogous hybrid. Other specimens,
accompanied with the ripe glands, have now convinced me that
it is either a distinct species or another strange hybrid; but, as I
am by no means satisfied of the existence of such spontaneous
mixed races among our Oaks, I have taken the liberty of giving
it as a species, and dedicating it to its discoverer, an ardent and
successful botanist. I shall also take the liberty of adding a
quotation from Mr, Lea's notes, made on this plant and sent to
me with the specimens.

IV.— 2*

26 LEA'S OAK.

"The fruit resembles Michaux's figure of Q. heteropliylla, but
differs in being more depressed and obtuse at the summit. The
cups, I think, are alike. The leaves are on longer petioles, but
accord in being inclined to be cordate at base. If it is a hybrid,
it may have come from the Q. imhricaria, or Q. tindoria, or Q.
coccinea. The fruit is too widely different from Q. rubra. The
peduncles are about the same length as in my specimens of Q.
imhricaria; in Michaux's figure of that species, the fruit is
represented as sessile, which I think is wrong. The petioles are
much longer than in Q. imhricaria, the leaves larger and more
obtuse at base. These modifications (if it is a hybrid) may be
derived from the long petioles and larger leaves of the Black
and Scarlet Oaks. I think it does not partake of Qiiercus
pliellos, (Willow Oak,) a species that does not grow, to my
knowledge, within several hundred miles of this place, (Cin-
cinnati.)

" I saw two individuals of Q. pliellos in the Bartram garden,
which Colonel Carr assured me were propagated from the seed
of the original Bartram Oak. Certainly our plant is very like
Michaux's figure; but, as that appears to be a hybrid of Q.
pJiellos, I think they must be considered distinct. If ours be a
hybrid, it most likely comes from Q. imhricaria and Q. tinctoria,
or coccinea.

"I have found but a single stock of this, (about five years
ago.) It grows three miles north of Cincinnati."

I confess I see too little resemblance in our plant with Q.
imhricaria to agree with my friend, Mr. T. G. Lea, as to any liy-
l^rid connection with that remotely-allied species. BetAvixt the
Gray Oak [Q. amhigua, Mich.) and Q. tinctoria I perceive a
nearer resemblance. The fruit appears to be wholly that of
the Gray Oak. The gland in both is striated, and with a sm.all
conic projection. In our plant, however, the base of the gland
and that of the cup are yellow, indicating its alliance to Q.
tinctoria. The leaf differs wholly from both in its simple un-

L E A' S 0 A K. 27

divided lobes, though the long petiole and rounded base is that
of tinctoria. Scarce as this species yet appears to be, under the
present circumstances, I am inclined to believe it of a distinct
race, with features as distinct as any species in the genus; for
the Gray Oak, being, I believe, unknown in Ohio, is again out
of the question. I suspect it is in all physical respects allied to
t'mdoria, and would equally afford a yellow dyeing-material.

The full-grown leaves are from five to five and a half inches
long by three to three and a half wide, smooth and shining
above, with a small quantity of deciduous stellate pubescence
beneath. The lobes are about a single pair on a side: the
central lobe only sometimes again subdivided into three lesser
lobes, all of them ending in bristles. The base is rounded, and
often hollowed out, or somwhat sinuated. The buds are small
and brown. The fertile flower often by threes, on a short,
thick, common pedicle, the middle flower abortive. Male
flowers .... not seen. Cups rather deep, as in Q. tinctoria,
with the scales ovate, obtuse, and closely imbricated. The
acorn roundish, somewhat ovate, broadly striate, with a short
roundish conic point or umbo about half-way, or nearly so,
immersed in the cup.

PLATE V. {his.)
A branch of the natural size with fruit, a. The cujy. h. Tlie gland.

The Willow Oak appears to be very nearly allied to the
Cluster-leaved Oak of New Spain, ( Quercus confertifiora,) figured
and described by Humboldt and Bonpland; but in that, though
otherwise so very similar, the leaves are hairy beneath, while
ours are perfectly smooth.

The Willow Oak is found as far west as the banks of the
Arkansas and several of its branches.

28 OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS.

Live Oak, ( Quercus virens.) Trees near Magnolia, in West
Florida, occur of eight to nine feet diameter: it consequently
affords large timber. Great quantities of this wood are now
brought from the coast of West Florida. According to Wm.
Bartram, the Live Oaks on the St. John's in East Florida are
from twelve to eighteen feet in circumference; the trunk there
rises only from twelve to twenty feet, when it throws out three
to five large limbs, which continue to grow in nearly a horizontal
direction, each limb forming a gentle curve from its base to its
extremity, {Bartram s Travels, p. 85;) and he adds, "I have
stepped above fifty paces on a line from the trunk of one of
these trees to the extremity of the branches." The wood is
almost incorruptible, even in the open air. The acorn is small,
agreeable to the taste when roasted, and in this state they are
eaten by the aborigines as we do chestnuts.

Stately avenues are formed of the Live Oak in South Carolina
and Georgia, which, robed in Long Moss, put on an air of
sombre grandeur and wildness.

In addition to the geographical limits of the Oaks, I may add
that, according to the observations of Emerson, the Rock Chest-
nut Oak {Quercus mantana, Willd.) occurs in many parts of
Massachusetts; he has also found the Yellow Oah {Q. castanea,
Willd.) about Agamenticus Mountain in York, Maine. "It is
also found at Saco, in Maine, twenty-five miles farther north."
The Black Oak [Q. tinctoria) "is found in York county, Maine.
Q. palu^tris (Pin Oak) is veiy rare in Massachusetts." Mr.
Emerson also corroborates my own observations concerning the
prevalence of the Post Oak on the island of Martha's Vineyard,
and adds that "it hardly exceeds twenty inches in diameter
and thirty feet in height," which is a circumstance I had over-
looked, its prevailing character there being that of a shrub.

The Oaks, though a very extensive genus, are confined to the
Northern hemisphere. Besides the numerous species which

OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKS. 29

pervade the United States, sixteen were discovered by Nee in
Mexico and New Spain, one of which, the Q. agri/olia, is found
in Upper California; twenty-one species were added to the
Flora of North America by Humboldt and Bonpland, found
also in New Spain ; four species were discovered in Japan by
Thunberg ; two in China by Bunge ; one in Cochin China, and
one in the island of Formosa; two very remarkable species,
with lanceolate entire leaves and very long spikes of flowers,
like those of a Chestnut, were met with in Nepaul by Wallich ;
six other species likewise exist in that portion of India; Europe,
chiefly the southern part. Northern Africa, and Armenia, afibrd
about twenty-eight species and several varieties ; Java, Sumatra,
and the Molucca Islands, also produce nineteen species. Thus
it appears, of the whole number, according to the enumeration
of Willdenow and more recent discoveries, the Old World
contains sixty-three species, and North America, including New
Spain, about seventy-four. Of these the United States possess
about thirty-seven, and New Spain the same number. To these
I may also add an additional species from the island of Cuba,
nearly allied to our Southern Gray Oak, ( Q. cinerea :) this I pro-
pose to call, after its discoverer, M. La Sagra,

QuERCUS Sagr^eana. FoUis jyerennantihus oblongo-eUlpticis
ohovatisque integris s. suhlohatia brevi petiolatis obtusis nitidis
margine revolutls subtus tomentosis nervosis subalbidis, fructibus
binis pedicellis incrassatis, cupula hemisphcerica, squamis appressis,
mice avata.

This species apparently forms a tree. The leaves are broader
than those of the Gray Oak, of a thick and rigid texture, and
are strongly veined both above and beneath ; they are about
two and one-third inches long and about one inch wide.

Additional Observations. In density and hardness the Live
Oak much exceeds every other species of the genus hitherto
examined. At first glance, and aided by its great weight, it

30 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS.

appears almost like Lignum- Vit93. The sap-wood is of a pale
brownish-yellow, the perfect wood of a pale chestnut-brown, and
the extremely fine sawdust almost as bright a brown as that
from mahogany. Growing in a climate subject to small changes
of temperature, and being evergreen, the woody circles of annual
increment are very faint and obscurely marked, which adds to
the common density of the fibres. These rings, on young trees,
vary from one to two lines in width, but in the older wood they
are much narrower. One of the most striking features of this
wood, however, is the distinctness of the medullary rays, which
traverse in strong and pale lines the faint waves of the annual
increments. For the first forty or fifty years, the Live Oak
appears to increase in the bulk of its trunk as fast as our White
Oak; but after that period the growth is much more slow; still,
the density of its wood is so great, that, through a strong mag-
nifier, the pores and vessels are barely visible. In the United
States Navy Yard, in this place, I have measured a squared log
of Live Oak, thirty-two feet long, which probably formed the
trunk of a tree not less than fifty to sixty feet in height. The
present value of moulded Live Oak varies from $1.20 to $1.30
and $1.45 per cubic foot. Promiscuous un2:)repared logs sell
from $1.20 to 98 cents and $1 the cubic foot. Some very choice
timber sells as high as $1.65. This valuable timber has been
employed in the United States navy between fifty and sixty
years.

Little is yet known respecting the southern limits of this
species of Oak, though there can be little doubt that it con-
tinues along the borders of the Mexican Gulf to Yucatan. Dr.
Burroughs informs me that it is said to be found growing on
the banks of the Alvarado River, about seventy-five miles south
of Vera Cruz. I am also informed of the existence of the Live
Oak near Matagorda in Texas.

It is stated in a late Texian paper that an English company
have recently landed on the Brazos, in the neighborhood of

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. 31

Brazoria, for the purpose of getting out Live Oak. Tliey are
said to have contracted with the EngUsh Government to deUver
two millions of cubic feet. The country about Brazoria is
loaded with enormous trees, some of them casting a shade of
one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The Live Oak extends
into Texas at least one hundred and fifty miles, according to the
observations of Dr. Casper Wister, Jr., of Germantown, Pa.

John Lenthall, Esq., United States Naval Constructor, has
favored me with the following remarks concerning the timber
used in the United States navy.

The frames and principal j)ieces are all of Live Oak; and the
frames of several of our ships that were cut from the islands of
Georgia and on the coast, thirty years since, are still in an
excellent condition, though in some ships, in which the timber
was cut inland, the result is not so favorable. The weight of a
cubic foot varies from seventy-three to seventy-eight pounds.
This timber is peculiarly adapted to ship-building, and is
scarcely fit for any thing else, being short and crooked, so that
the timbers are rarely grain-cut.

The White Oak, used almost exclusively for plank, is cut from
the seaboard of the Middle States, and is equal to the best
English or foreign timber. The Red Oak is never used. The
Oak from Canada is that which has generally been introduced
into England, and from it a very erroneous opinion has been
formed with regard to the Oak timber of the United States, for
the Northern timber is much inferior to that from the Southern
States, and is never used. A cubic foot of unseasoned White
Oak weighs from fifty-eight to sixty pounds, and when seasoned,
forty-seven to forty-nine pounds. White Oak timber is often
brought from the Lakes and used for keels and bottom-planks;
but for upper works that from the Delaware and Chesapeake
Bay is preferred, being much stronger and more durable. This
Lake timber is principally to be found at New York.

From the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay large quan-

32 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS.'

titles of White Oak are likewise shipped for the Eastern States,
of which the better class of ships are built. A great deal of
Pine timber is also shipped from thence for the same purpose.

The Quercitron is the bark of the Quercus tinctoria, freed from
the epidermis. Besides tannin, it contains a yellow coloring-
matter, which may be extracted by water, and which, on evapo-
ration, yields a peculiar extract to the amount of eight per cent,
of the bark employed. The tannin belongs to that variety
which precipitates iron of a green color. This tannin is very
injurious to the color, because it is precipitated by the sar^e
reagents with the color, and imparts to it a brownish tint. To
obtain the coloring-matter free from it, a bladder softened in
water, and cut into small pieces, freed from all the parts which
are soluble in water, is applied to the infusion of the Quercitron
bark, which takes up the tannin ; or it may be precipitated by a
solution of isinglass.

According to Chevreul, the coloring-matter which he calls
quercitrin, although not a simple substance, is obtained by cau-
tiously concentrating an infusion of Quercitron. A crystalline
substance then precipitates, which, while yet in suspension in
the liquid, imparts to it a pearly appearance. It exhibits a
slight acid reaction by curcuma-paper. It is slightly soluble in
ether, but more completely so in alcohol. Water dissolves it;
and the solution becomes orange-yellow by the addition of alkali.
The acetate of lead and of copper, as well as the protochloride
of tin, precipitate it in yellow flakes. Sulphate of the peroxide
of iron colors it at first olive-green, and then causes a precipitate.
Sulphuric acid dissolves quercitrin, and the greenish-orange
colored solution becomes cloudy by the addition of water. By
dry distillation it yields, among other products, a liquid which
soon crystallizes, the crystals possessing all the properties of
quercitrin.

In the dyeing-establishments the clear yellow color is obtained

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. 33

by precipitating the tannin by means of a solution of glue or
buttermilk; the coloring-matter then remaining in the solution
is mixed with the solution of alum and carbonate of potash, by
which it is precipitated of a yellow color in combination with
the alumina. Protochloride of tin also produces with it a strong
yellow precipitate.

QuERCUS RUBRA? The largest Red Oak in North America,
says a correspondent of the Natchitoches Herald, can be seen
on the plantation of W. Smith, Esq., eighteen miles from Natchi-
toches, on the road leading to Opelousas. This majestic Oak
stands in the midst of a rich and heavy bottom, on the Bayou
St. Barb. Two feet from the ground it measures forty-four
feet in circumference, and at six feet, ihirty-two feet. The trunk
appears sound and healthy, and its height, to tlw hranclies, is
from fifty to sixty feet.

From Dr. G. Engelmann, of St. Louis, I learn that the White
Oak (Q.alba) and the Rock Chestnut Oak {Q.montana, Willd.)
grow in that vicinity, where there are two varieties of each with
sessile and with pedunculated fruit, in this respect agreeing with
the two varieties of the English Oak, (Q. rohicr,) which have
been considered as two species. He also informs me that the
Chinquepin Oak ( Q. prinoides, Willd. ; Q. prinus cJiiiicajjin,
Mich. Sylva, t. 11) grows commonly in Southwestern Missouri.
He also adds, that the Spanish Oak {Q. falcata) he has only
seen in the southern extremity of Missouri; and that the Water
Oak {Q. aqicatica) grows no nearer to him than the banks of
the Arkansas.

The Sweet Gum Tree {Liquidamhar styraciflua) he saw on
the borders of the Wabash ; it grows also in Southern Missouri,
and all through Arkansas to the province of Texas ; but he has
not seen it through the greater part of Missouri and Illinois.

The Black Gum Tree, {Nyssa midtiflora, Walt. N., Sylvcdlca,

Vol. IV.— 3

34 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS.

Mich. Sylva, t. 110,) according to Dr. Engelmann, is common
in the southern parts of Missouri.

The Wahoo Elm {JJlmus alata) Dr. Engelmann finds as far
north in Missouri as the vicinity of Herculaneum.

Around Cape Girardeau, one hundred and fifty miles south of
St. Louis, he also observes the Tulip Tree, [Liriodendron.)

Beech Trees, the doctor informs me, he has not seen west of
the Wabash, except near Cape Girardeau : they grow associated
with Pines in Western Louisiana, and I have seen them in the
forests which border the Arkansas.

CHESTNUT.

Natural Order, Amentace^, (Juss.) Linncean Classification,

MOJSrCECiA, POLYANDRIA.

■■J

CASTAITEA.* (TOURNEFORT.)

PoLYGAMUS. The male anient elongated, composed of numerous
interrupted clusters of flowers, with a five or six-parted perianth.
Stamens ten to twenty. Female flowers about three in an ovoid
muricate valvular involucrum. Perianth urceolate, 5 or 6-cleft,
having rudiments of abortive stamens. The ovary incorporated
with the perianth, the stigma pencillate, exserted, its divisions
rigid and pungent. Nuts one to three, included in the enlarging
echinate, 4-cleft involucrum.

These are trees or shrubs of temperate Europe and l!^orth Ame-
rica, with alternate, stipulate, mucronately-serrated leaves, and very
long, axillary aments. Kuts farinaceous, edible.

* So named from Castanea, a town of Thessaly, near the river Peneus, where
lar<re Chestnut Trees are still found.

35

DWARF CHESTNUT.

Castanea alnifolia. Depressa, foUis obovatis suhacutis, rnucronafo-
serraiis suhciliatis juniorihiis subtus puhcscentibus, amentis jillformihus
solitariis tomentosis.

/3 PuBESCENS. Foliis brevioribus, adidtis subtus pubescens.

Castanea alnifolia, Nutt., Gen. Am., vol. ii. p. 21T.

Castanea nana, Elliott, Sk., vol. ii. p. 615, (not of Muhl.)

Fagus pumila, var. prcecox, Walter, Carolin., p. 233.

A SPECIES remarkable for its dwarf growth, and inserted only
to complete the history of the genus. It rarely exceeds a foot
in height, growing in small jpatches, with creeping roots. I
first met with the variety /3 in the vicinity of Charleston, South
Carolina; afterward the smoother kind, much more abundant,
and in flower in the month of March, round Tallahassee, in
West Florida.

The Floridian plant is scarcely a foot in height, with smooth,
purplish-gray branchlets; the leaves obovate, on very short
petioles, deeply serrate, obtuse or acute, elliptic-obovate ; when
young, whitish pubescent; the adult almost perfectly smooth
on both surfaces ; about three inches long by one inch or more
wide. Stipules subulate, rather persistent. Male aments soli-
tary, long, and filiform-, tomentose. The fruit I have not seen.

The Charleston plant grows in sandy pine-barrens, and the
nut, which is solitary, is said by Elliott to be much larger, but
less abundant, than in the other native species. This plant
rarely exceeds two feet in height. Its leaves are glossy above,
pubescent, but not tomentose, beneath. Fertile flowers one to
three in an involucrum, only one perfected.

The wood of the Chinquepin, (C. pumila,) whenever it can
be obtained large enough for posts, is much valued, as it is sup-

Ca«tanea abiifolia.

GOLDEN-LEAVED CHESTNUT. 37

posed to be more durable when exposed to the weather than
any other timber except the Red Cedar. — Elliott.

PLATE VI.

A branch of the natural size.

GOLDEN-LEAVED CHESTNUT.

Castanea chrysophylla, (Dougl. Mss.) Foliis sempervireniibus lato-
lanceolatis acuminatis coriaceis integerrimis glabris subtus aureo-farinosis.
Hook., Flor. Bor. Am., vol. h. p. 159,

According to Douglas, this is a splendid evergreen tree,
varying in height from twenty to seventy feet, with leaves
four to five inches long, deep green above, and below of a rich
golden yellow. These leaves are, also, (very diiferent from all
the rest of the genus) quite entire. The spikes or catkins of
the flowers scarcely exceed an inch in length, including the
peduncle, and they are solitary in the axils of the upper leaves.
Sometimes all the flowers on a catkin are male ; sometimes the
two or three lower flowers are female. The fruits are two or
three, crowded or densely covered with acicular prickles. Said
to be common at the Grand Rapids of the Columbia, Cape
Orford, and near Mount Hood; constantly affecting the hills.
This species rests wholly on the authority of Douglas. I did
not meet with it, nor does it appear that any specimens were
sent to England. It will probably prove to be some very dif-
ferent genus to that of the present.

Additional Observations. In regard to the Western range of
our forest trees, Dr. Engelmann informs me, by letter, that.

38 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS.

though the Chestnut [Castanea America7ia) does not grow in
the immediate valley of the Mississippi, it still reappears again
in Southwestern Missouri and the northwestern portion of Ar-
kansas, where is also found the Locust Tree, {Rohinia i^seud-
acada.)

Chestnut Tree, [Gastmiea Americana.) The wood of this
tree is capable of receiving a fine polish, and well-selected
pieces present waves and feathered figures of considerable
beauty and variety, the more striking as they are seen with
great distinctness through a pale and light ground. Furniture
of this kind may be seen at Mr. Croufs cabinet-warehouse in
Philadelphia.

BIRCH.

Natural Order, Betuline^, (Richard.) Linncean Classification,

MON(ECIA, POLYANDRIA.

BETULA.* (Linn.)

Male flowers in long, cylindric aments. Scales in a double series,
the inner by threes, 1-flowered ; stamens six to twelve. Female
flowers with ovoid or oval aments; the scales trifid, 1 to 3-
flowered. Styles two. Nuts minute, compressed, 1-seeded, edged
with an alated, thin margin.

Trees or shrubs of the colder parts of the northern hemisphere
on both continents, with the bark often exfoliating in thin, circular
plates. Leaves alternate, ovate, or deltoid, serrated ; producing sti-
pules ; aments axillary.

* Supposed to be derived from Betu, the Celtic name for the Birch.

WESTERN BIRCH.

Betula occidentalis. JRamis resinoso-verrucosis, foliis lato rhombco-
ovatis sublobaiis inciso-serratis hirsntuUs, subtus pallidioribus punciaiis,
nervis reynaiis, ameiiiis femineis lato-cylindraceis squamis lobis laterali-
bus ovatis intermedio longiore.

Betula occidentalis. Hook., Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 155.

This low species of Birch, only six to ten feet high, was first
observed westward near the sources of the Sweet Water, a
northern branch of the Platte, and where it penetrates into the
first range of the Rocky Mountains. On the borders of this
clear stream, diminished to a small, purling brook, and accom-
panied by clumps of willows, we first saw it growing. Accord-
ing to Drummond, it occurs on the east side of the Rocky
Mountains down to Edmonton House. Douglas found it near
springs on the west side of the Rocky Mountains; and Dr.
Scouler met with it in Oregon, near to the Straits of Juan de
Fuca; it also grows near Walla- Walla, and continues up the
Oregon to the country of the Flatheads.

The principal branches are erect and somewhat virgate,

clothed with a bright brown bark, copiously sprinkled with

small resinous warts, so as to render the branches rough to the

touch. The leaves are somewhat deltoid, or rhomboidly-ovate,

on shortish petioles, in my specimens acute, but not acuminate,

sharply and somewhat unequally serrated, and very slightly

lobed; above, somewhat glutinous, with very few pinnated

nerves; below, paler; the midrib and nerves sprinkled with

a few long hirsute hairs, which are also seen above, on, and

near the petiole. The leaves, in flowering specimens, are only

about one and a half inches long by an inch wide. (The adult

leaves described by Hooker are much larger, two to two and a
40

IMTll

Betula oceidentalis.

Jie^tern^ Ui^'cTv.

HouleUiAy occidervtuZ

PI.YIIT.

B e tula rh ombif oli a.
Ot'ol Imx-ed Birch. BoideazL d FeuUles ovale^.

OVAL-LEAVED B I R C IL 41

half inches long.) The aments are cylindric, in the stami-
niferous plant, composed of a double series of scales. Female
aments pedunculated, cylindric, at length drooping, often ac-
companied by a very small leaf at the base; the scales trifid
and dilated, strongly ciliated, the lateral lobes ovate; the
central one nearly linear and longer; three germs beneath
each scale. Nuts broadly winged. Styles two, very long and
subulate; summit of the germ pubescent.

The trunk of this species is only a few inches in diameter, so
that it scarcely ranks with proper trees. The leaves are bitter
to the taste.

PLATE VII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The seed-vessel.

OVAL-LEAVED BIRCH.

Betula khombifolia. Bamis resinosis gracilibus, foliis suhrhomhoideo-
ovalibus, vix acutis, grosse serratis, subtus palUdloiibus epunctatis ; venis
pilosiusculis amentis femineis cylindraceis, squamis tripartitis glabrius-
culis lohis ovatis, lateralibus brevibus.

This is a still more humble shrub than the preceding, which
it somewhat resembles. It grows in the central Rocky Moun-
tain range, and continues more or less to the banks of the
Oregon. It is spreading and somewhat decumbent, with slender
brown twigs, which, when young, are more or less covered with
resinous atoms. The leaves, with their petioles, which are two
or three lines, are not more than an inch long by half an inch
wide, oval, and somewhat rhombic, deeply, sharply, and almost
equally serrate, rounded, but still generally acute, smooth

IV.— 3*

42 OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIRCH.

above, paler beneath, with a very few distant nerves, somewhat
hairy along their margins beneath. External scales of the
male aments ovate and ciliate. Stamens about six. Female
aments with nearly smooth, deeply 3-parted scales, of which
the central division is the longest. I have not seen the ripe
fruit.

PLATE VIII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The seed-vessel.

Ohservations. On the summit of the White Mountains of
New Hampshire grows the Betida nana of Europe, found there
by Mr. Oakes as well as myself.

Dr. Charles Pickering also collected a specimen on those
mountains, which appears to be the Betida frutlcosa of Pallas,
first found in Siberia.

In the Rocky Mountains, besides the two species now de-
scribed, we met with the Betula glandidosa, which is also found
on the high mountains of the United States.

Canoe Birch, or Paper Birch, (Betida ]papyraGea.) This
very useful species of Birch to the aborigines of the North is
found, according to the observations of Dr. Richardson, as far as
the 65th degree of latitude.

White Birch, {Betula iwindifolia.) Hooker very justly re-
marks the near affinity which this species bears to the common
European Birch, {B. alba.) The general aspect is the same.
In our plant, however, the leaves have longer acuminated points
and smaller fertile catkins. The scale of the same catkin in
ours is also comparatively smaller and shorter-clawed, with the
middle lobe acute and much smaller than the lateral lobes;
whereas, in the European Birch, the lobes are nearly all equal
and obtuse.

ALDERS.

Natural Order, Amentace^, (Juss.) Linncean Classification,

MON(ECIA, TeTRANDRIA.

Genus ALNUS. (Tournefort, Decandolle.)

Character. The flowers are monoecious, (or of two different kinds
on the same plant,) disposed in catkins, (or cylindric spikes of
short duration ;) those producing the stamens are long and cylin-
dric; those of the fruit or seed are ovoid or globular, produced
upon branching peduncles. The scales of the male flower are pedi-
cellated, and in the form of an inverted heart, bearing beneath
each three lesser scales ; the proper flowers are situated at the base
of each of these, and are composed of a cup with four lobes and
four stamens. The scales of the fruiting catkins are wedge-shaped,
hard, and persistent. The ovary is compressed, and bears two
long stigmas. The envelop of the seed is hard, with a border
which is either thick or membranaceous, and presents two cells
with two seeds : the ovules in the germ are about four, or two in a
cell, three of them usually abortive.

The plants of this small genus, confined to the temperate or colder
parts of Europe and North America, are either shrubs or trees, with
deciduous leaves, generally growing by streams, or in cool and humid
places. As trees, they seldom attain a greater elevation than thirty
to forty feet ; the wood is hard and yellowish, becoming of a brown-
ish red, nearly like mahogany, when exposed to the air, and capable
of acquiring a fine polish. When stained black, it resembles ebony ;

and it is capable of enduring moisture for a great length of time.

43

44 OREGONALDER.

The Alders may be divided into the two following sections: iu
both the peduncles are subdivided.

§ I. The seed-vessel furnished with a membranaceous loinged margin, and
with the scales of the fertile ament retuse or obscurely lobed.

The White Alder, [Alnus incana.)
The Oregon Alder, {Alnus Oregona.)
The Heart-leaved Alder, [Alnus cor data.)
Mountain Alder, {Alnus viridis.)

§ U. The margin of the seed-vessel thick and opaque, and with the scales of
the fruiting ament distinctly lobed.

Common Alder, {Alnus glutinosa.)
Fine-toothed Alder, {Alnu^ serrulata.)
Sea-side Alder, {Alnus maritima.)
Oblong-leaved Alder, {Alnus oblongata.)
Short-leaved Alder, {Alnus brevifolia.)
Rhombic-leaved Alder, {Alnus rhombifolia.)

§ I. Fruit alated.

OREGON ALDER.

Alnus Oregona. Foliis lato-ovatis utrinque acutis, duplicaio-serratis juni-
oribus glutinosis, venis subtus pubesceniibus pallidis; stipulis oblongis
deciduis glutinosis, ranmlis glabris.

Alnus glutinosa. Pursh, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 623, (in part.)

This tree, like the Common Alder of Europe, attains the
height of thirty or forty feet, with an erect, smooth trunk of
small diameter, the wood of which is very similar to that of the
European species, and might, no doubt, be employed for the same
purposes: it is, however, lighter in color, but of a close grain.

Pi. IX.

Oregon MJer June^ dcKh'et^on.

OREGONALDER. 45

As an ornamental tree, it is well worth attention, producing
an elegant erect top, and affording considerable shade by the
largeness of its leaves, which are about three inches long by
two and a half wide. We found it, as usual with the plants of
this genus, growing along the borders of small, clear brooks,
near the confluence of the Wahlamet, but seldom, if ever, on
the banks of the larger streams which are subject to inundation.
In our progress to the "West, we first observed this tree on the
borders of the rivers Boisee and Brulee, which pass into the
Shoshonee not far from Walla-Walla, and at intervals it con-
tinues more or less common to Point Chinhook, near the shores
of the Pacific.

The twigs are smooth and of a brown color, and the young
buds of every kind resinous, as well as the upper surface of the
younger leaves ; beneath, the leaves are more or less pubescent,
particularly along the veins, and paler and often somewhat
ferruginous. The veins are very strongly marked and pro-
minent beneath, the teeth large, but the denticulations minute
and glandular at the points. Sometimes the leaves are elliptic-
ovate, the stalks about the third of an inch long. The stipules
are resinous, and disappear with the evolution of the bud. The
fruiting ament is roundish-ovoid, and very similar to that of
the Common Alder.

This species is nearly allied to the White Alder [Almis in-
cana,) but differs sufficiently in its buds, branchlets, stipules, and
leaves; in both the fruit is provided, as in the Birch, with a
translucent, membranous wing. It appears, likewise, to have a
considerable affinity to A. acuminata of Humboldt and Bonpland,
a tree of Peru, discovered by Dombey, but in that species the
leaves are more lanceolate than ovate and acuminate.

Besides the other economical uses for which the wood of the
Alder is employed, the knots furnish a beautifully-veined wood
for cabinets; handsome chairs have been made of it, which
acquire the color of mahogany. In France it is used in making

46 WHITE ALDER.

sabots, or wooden shoes, and in the North of EngLand it is
employed for the thick soles of a kind of shoes called clogs, and
is preferred for these uses, in consideration of its durability and
lightness. The chips, boiled with copperas, give a black dye to
wool, and the leaves have been used in tanning; sheep will
browse on them and on the smaller branches.

PLATE IX.

A branch of the natural size. a. The seed-vessel.

WHITE ALDER.

Alnus incana. Follls ohlongis acuiis suhtus pubcscentibus, axillis vena-
rum nudis, stipidis lanceolatis. "Willd. Sp. pi.
Alnus undulata, Willd., Sp. pL, vol. iv. p. 336.
Black Alder, (Alnus glauca,) INIiCH., Sylva, vol. i. p. 378.
Betula Alnus, crispa, Mich., Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 181.
Betula crispa, Aiton, Kew., vol. iii. p. 339.
Betula alnus, ^. Linn., Sp. pi

This species forms a much smaller tree than the Common
Alder, being only twelve to eighteen feet high, and sometimes
indeed a mere shrub, as in the Alleghany Mountains in Penn-
sylvania. In Massachusetts and Maine it attains its greatest
size. Its bark is gray or cinereous : the leaves are sometimes
villous beneath, and the stipules persistent after the develop-
ment of the leaves, which are noway glutinous; those of the
young plants are smooth and glaucous beneath. It is common
to the mountainous parts of Europe not less than to the north-
ern parts of the United States. It occurs likewise in this
vicinity.

MOUNTAIN ALDER.

Alnus viridis, (Decandolle.) Foliis rotundato-ovaiis irregulariter argute
serraiis glabriuscuUs, siipuUs ovatis membranaceis deciduis; fructibus late
alatis.

Alnus viridis, Decandolle, Flore Fran9aise, vol, iii. p. 304.

Betida viridis, Villars, Dauphin, vol. iv. p. 789.

Betida ovata, Schrank, Salisb., p. 25.

Betula incana, /9. Lamarck, Diet., vol. i. p. 455.

Alnus Alpi7ia minor, Bauhin's Pinax, p. 428.

Labrador, the elevated summits of the White Mountains of
New Hampshire,* and the tops of the high mountains of North
Carolina,-]' are the only localities on this continent where the
Mountain Alder has yet been found. It occurs likewise in the
Alps of Switzerland, at an elevation of between four and five
thousand feet above the level of the sea, where it frequently
forms a small tree about' six feet in height. In the White
Mountains its stature is much more depressed, and it is of rare
occurrence. It grows likewise in the barren and cold climate
of Kamtschatka.

The wood is white, and the branches are covered with a
cinereous smooth bark. The leaf is near two inches long and
one and a half wide, nearly smooth on both sides, but generally
somewhat hairy along the veins beneath, rather acute, with
numerous sharp, small, and irregular serratures, but not doubly
serrate. The male catkins are long, and grow, two or three

* A specimen in tte herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Phila-
delphia was discovered on the "White Mountains by my friend, Dr. Charles Picker-
ing, at an elevation of four thousand feet above the level of the sea.

I Recently discovered by Dr. Gray and Mr. Curtis.

47

48 THIN-LEAVED ALDER.

together, at the extremities of the twigs; each scale contains
three tetrandrous flowers, as usual in the genus. The fertile
aments are roundish and elliptic, about three together, and ter-
minal; the scales are truncated and obscurely lobed at the
extremities; the fruit, like that of the Birch, is furnished with
a broad, thin, conspicuous winged margin.

§ IL Fruit not alated; the margin opaque.

THIN-LEAVED ALDER.

Alnus tenuifolia. Fol'ds lato-ovatis suhacutls dfaplicato-crenatis glabris
basi rotundatis longe petiolatis, stipulis deciduis, peduncidis femneis
dujylieato-ramosis.

This very distinct species of Alder, which arranges with our
common species, (A. serrulata,) was met with on the borders of
small streams within the range of the Rocky Mountains, and
afterward in the valleys of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, a
chain which may be called, as it were, in comparison of their
elevation, the Alleghanies of the West.

This species falls short of the character of a tree ; but yet it
is scarcely inferior in size with our common species, growing to
about the height of a man, with numerous short branches
covered with a smooth gray bark. The leaves are about two
inches long by one and a half wide, with slender petioles, from
a half to three-quarters of an inch in length ; they are of a thin
consistence, and usually smooth, with obtuse denticulations.
The fruiting-branches are often subdivided, each branch bearing
from three to live small, roundish, ovate aments, of which the

Almis twmifoliu.

Thin 7 failed -d^lder. • /it/if nn'tvu tl'ni/h

RHOMBIC-LEAVED ALDER. 49

scales are very distinctly lobed. The fruit is unusually small
and elliptic, terminated by the two remaining styles, and having
a thin, opaque margin.

PLATE X.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fruit.

RHOMBIC-LEAVED ALDER.

Alnus rhombifolta. Foliis subrhomboideo-ovatis obiusiusculis glutinosis
basi acuiis, subduplicaio-serndatis serraturis crebris acuiis, subtus pube-
rulis axillis venarum nudis, siipidis oblongis membranaceis deciduis.

I OBSERVED this species, a large shrub, in the vicinity of Mon-
terey, in Upper California. Its nearest relation appears to be to
the European Alder, (J., glutinosa,) from which, however, it is
abundantly distinct. The fruit I have not seen.

The leaves are about two inches long and one and a half
wide, glutinous, beneath nearly the same color as above, and
pubescent along the veins; the petioles are not more than about
two lines long. The twigs are smooth and brownish. It
appears to be allied to the oblong-leaved Alder [A. oblongaki) of
the South of Europe.

Vol. IV.— 4

SEA-SIDE ALDER.

Alnus makitima. Foliis ovalibus glabris serratis ohtusis vel acuminatis,
basi acutis, subius ferrugineis; ameniis femineis maximis, squamis
dwplica to-lob atis.

Alnus maritima. Foliis ovatis serratis, basi acutis. — Muhl., Mss.
Observationes Botanicae de Plantis Am. Septent., p. 193, (iu the
Library of the Acad. ITat. Sc. Philad.) and Herbarium.

A SPECIMEN of this very distinct species of Alder was collected
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, by my friend, Charles Picker-
ing. It has the appearance of being a low shrub, with slender,
smooth branches. The leaves are two and a half to three
inches long by one and a half or more wide, of an elegant, well-
defined, oval outline, and supported upon longish petioles; the
young buds and leaves, after the manner of the genus, are
slightly glutinous ; the nervings very slender, serratures shallow,
and in the larger leaves rather remote; the uppermost leaves on
the infertile shoots are acuminated, and, at first glance, look
almost like the leaves of a Camellia. The male catkins are
unknown, as are the stipules, which are probably small. The
fertile ament, in size and general appearance, might be taken for
the strobile or cone of a Spruce ; it is about the size of a Hop-
cluster, nearly black, with the scales very thick and deeply and
obviously lobed. The carpel is small in proportion, and with a
thick, opaque, and obscure margin, as in A. serrulata.

PLATE X.

A branch of the natural size. a. The seed-vessH.

50

PlX(bLs)

Aliiijs juarlliiuij.

Sea STii^^ild^r

.Azote nvari£ime

PI, XL

THimis opaca.

ELMS.

Natural Order, Ulmace^, (Mirbel.) Linncean Classification,
Pentandria, Digynia.

ULMUS. (Linn.)

OPAQUE-LEAVED ELM.

ITlmus opaca. Foliis parvis ohlongo-ovatis ohlusis scabris, subduplicato
denticulaiis, basi cuncaiis obliquis subius pubescentibus, Jlonbus fascicu-
laiis, frucUbus hirsutis.

In the summer of 1818, on my journey into the interior of
the territory of Arkansas and on the plains of Eed River, near
its confluence with the Kiamesha, 1100 miles up the former
stream, I had the satisfaction of discovering this curious Elm,
which, like our other species, forms a majestic and spreading
forest tree of the dimensions of an ordinary Oak. In those
dry and open savannas, the shade of this densely-verdant tree
proved more than usually acceptable. It is remarkable for the
smallness and thickness of its oblique and usually blunt leaves,
which, with their short stalks, are only about an inch in length
by half that dimension in breadth; they are also very nume-
rous, close together, scabrous, with minute papillse, of a deep
green above, and somewhat shining, oblong-ovate, mostly ob-
tuse, the margin with shallow, double denticulations ; beneath,

the leaf is paler, a little brownish, with strong pennate, simple,

51

52 OPAQUE-LEAVED ELM.

or forked nerves ; the base of the leaf is oblique, as well as the
whole outline, and one half of the leaf is much narrower than
the other ; the nerves are pubescent. The young branches are
smooth and brownish. The leaves, before complete develop-
ment, are canescently tomentose and attended by large, oblongs
membranous, brown stijDules. The taste of the plant is astrin-
gent, but noway mucilaginous.

This remarkable species appears to be nearly allied to Ulmus
chinensis, judging from the short description in Persoon and
Duhamel. The flowers are fasciculated in small numbers and
on short peduncles. The samara is elliptic, rather deeply bifid
at the summit, covered with a dense and somewhat ferruginous
pubescence even when ripe.

. Of the uses and quality of the timber of this species I am
unable to speak from experience, as it grew remote from the
settlements at that time established in the territory. The den-
sity of shade produced by it, so crowded with rigid leaves, and
the peculiarity of its appearance, entitle it to a place in the
nurseries of the curious, and it is probably quite hardy enough
for all temperate climates. To this species Virgil's epithet —

" Fcecundae frondibus ulmi" —

might more justly be applied than to any other.

PLATE XL

A branch of the natural size.

PI.XU.

CItous xaceauosa.

ThojruJS's E/f/u

0,

line/ a^yrappe/

THOMAS'S ELM.

Ulmus racemosa, (Thomas.) FoUis ovatis acuminaiis duplicaio-serratis
glabris suhius puhescmtihus ; floribus racemosis fasciculatis.

Ulmus racemosa, flowers in racemes ; pedicles in distinct fascicles,
united at their bases ; leaves ovate, acuminate, doubly serrate,
glabrous above, [minutely] pubescent beneatb; stigmas recurved.
Eaton's North Am. Bot., (ed. 8.,) p. 464. Thomas, in Silliman's
Journ. Sci., vol. xix. p. 170, with a Plate.

This species, confounded with our other Elms, is, according
to Professor Torrey, an abundant species in the western part
of the State of New York, and, probably, of the Western
States generally. Mr. Thomas, its discoverer, found it in Ca-
yuga county, in the State of New York, and in the adjacent
country. According to Emerson, he believes Mr. Oakes has
obtained specimens from Vermont, collected by Dr. Kobbins, so
that it is probably a Northern and Western species.

The lower, stout branches, according to Mr. Thomas, produce
corky excrescences like the Wahoo Elm. Leaves broad-ovate,
acuminate, obliquely auriculated on one side, doubly serrate,
smooth, and somewhat shining above, with the under surface
and ribs minutely pubescent. The flowers, unlike any other
Elm, are disposed in racemes, composed of several clusters of
two to four together, and extending to the length of one to two
and a half inches, often furnished with one or two small but
perfect leaves before the terminal buds are open; the flowers
distinctly pedicellate. Calyx 7 to 8-cleft. Stamens seven to
ten. Stigmas two, recurved. Samara elliptic, large, and very
pubescent, with the margin thickly fringed, and the membrane
more extended on one side as indicative of a second but abor-
tive cell.

PLATE XII.

A branch of the natural size. a. Thejiower. b. A branch with the corky bark.

53

HICKORY.

Natural Order, JuGLANDE^, (Decand.) Lirmcean Classification,

MoNffiCIA, POLYANDRIA.

CARTA.* (:N'utt., Gen. Am.)

Staminate flowers in very long and loose, ternate aments, scales im-
bricated, 3-parted. Stamens three to six, with pilose anthers.
Fertile- flower with a single 4-cleft superior, herbaceous perianth.
Stjle none ; stigma partly discoid, 2-lobed, the segments bifid.
Pericarp woody, 4-valved. Nut mostly somewhat quadrangular,
with an even surface.

Large trees of ITorth America, confined to the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains, and extending from Upper Canada to Florida.
Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, without stipules. Flowers poly-
gamous, in compound, pendulous, pedunculated aments appearing
with the leaves; female flowers terminal; the pericarp opening by
four valves. Nuts edible or bitter, usually more or less quadran-
gular; in the Pakan, even. Pubescence tufted or stellate. Persoon,
as far back as 1807, divided the genus Juglans into the two natural
sections which it presented : his second division included the Hicko-
ries only. " * * Amentis mascuUs compositis, tetrandris.'"

* From xapoa, the ancient Greek name of the Walnut. Hickori/ is an Indian
name for some of the species of this genus ; one of them was known to the
Indians by the name of Pecan or Pakan. Rafinesque applied the barbarous
name Hickoria to this genus, without describing or limiting it ; in so doing he
has no higher claims for the adoption of the name than our woodsmen and the
aborigines.
54

PLXDE

C arya Mrcr o o aij) a .

§ I. Nuts more or less quadrangular. Hickory, properly so called.

SMALL-FRUITED HICKORY.

Carya microcarpa. Foliolis quints ad septenis, ohlongo-lanceolaiis serratis

jwomisse acuminatis glahris subtus glandulosis ; amentis glabiis, nuce

subglobosa subquadranguMa, testa tenuL
Carya microcarpa. — Nutt., Gen. Am., vol. ii. p. 221. Darlington,

Flora Cestrica. [Ed. alt.] p. 545.
Juglans compressa. a. microcarpa. — Muhl., Catal., p. 88. Bart., Flor.

Pliilad., vol. ii. p. 179.
Juglans alba odoraia. Balsam Hickory. — Marshall, p. 68.

This species, allied to G. tomentosa, or the Common Hickory,
becomes a fine, lofty, spreading tree sixty to eighty feet high,
having a diameter of eighteen inches to two feet or more, with
an even bark. I first observed it on the banks of the Schuyl-
kill, in the vicinity of Philadelphia; and my friend Dr. Dar-
lington remarks that it is frequent in moist woodlands in the
vicinity of West Chester. The nut is of the same form nearly
as that of C. tomentosa, of a pleasant taste, with a thin shell,
but usually small, not much exceeding the size of a nutmeg. It
grows, I believe, also in Massachusetts, where I have seen these
peculiar nuts. The wood is white and tough, and possessed of
most of the good qualities which recommend the ordinary
Hickory. This species is remarkable for the smoothness of its
leaflets, which, in that respect, approach C. glabra or the Pig
Nut, but they are everyway larger and less deeply serrate;
two or three pairs with a terminal odd one, four to eight or nine
inches long and two to three and a half inches wide, oblong-
lanceolate, with shallow serrulations, smooth on both sides when
fully expanded, except a slight tuft in the axils of the nerves
beneath; the under surface sprinkled with minute resinous par-
ticles; the lateral leaflets subsessile and rather obtuse at base,

55

56 COMMON HICKORY.

the terminal one with a short petiole and attenuated below.
Aments three together, upon a common peduncle, slender, nearly
quite smooth, scales trifid, the lateral segments ovate, the middle
one long and linear; anthers hairy, mostly four, sometimes three
or five. Female flowers two or three together, sessile, on a
common peduncle; segments of the perianth very long and
somewhat foliaceous. Stigma discoid, four-lobed; fruit globose-
ovoid, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter; the pericarp
thin, with the sutures rather prominent. Nut somewhat quad-
rangular, with the shell thin.

By the leaves it appears to be allied to G. glabra; but the nut,
on a small scale, is that of G. tomentosa, or the Common Hickory.

PLATE XIII.

A small branch, reduced about one-third, a. The nut.

Common Hickory, {Garya t&mentosa, /9. maxima) This is a
remarkable variety for the great size of its fruit, which are as
large as a moderate apple. It grows a few miles from Phila-
delphia. Mr. Elliott also observed it on the sea-islands of South
Carolina.

Garya glabra, (Juglans glabra, Du Roi, Harbk., vol. i. p. 335.
J. porcina, Mich., North. Am. Sylva, vol. i. pi. 38.) Of this there
are two varieties, one with globose and the other with turbinate
fruit : intermediate forms are also met with, proving them to be
no more than varieties.

IT. Nuts even, wltlwut prominent angles. Leaflets often nume-
rous.— Pecans.

Garya angustifolia. Juglans angiisti folia, Ait. Kew., vol. iii.
p. 3G1. J. Pecan, MuiiL. in Nov. Act. Soc. Nat. Scrut. Berolin.,
vol. iii. p. 392. J. olivwfm'mis, Willd., Sp. PI. 4, p. 457. A fine,

BLACK WALNUT. 57

stately tree, formerly cut down for the sake of obtaining a single
crop of nuts J remarkable for its numerous leaflets and their
almost falcate form. In Massachusetts, where it has been sub-
mitted to cultivation, it never grows beyond the size of a shrub,
being every year more or less cut down by the effects of the
severe frosts.

Carya Pecan. Juglans Pecan, Walter. J. myristkcefcn^misl
Mich., Sylva, vol. i. pi. 39. This obscure plant of Walter may,
perhaps, be nothing more than C. glabra. Michaux's plant was
unknown to Elliott.

Carya amara. Juglans amara, Mich., Sylva, vol. i. pi. 33.

Observations. According to an experiment published in the
" Massachusetts Agricultural Journal," the sap of the Butternut
Tree {Juglans cinerea) is capable of producing as much sugar as
that of the Maple. Four of the trees yielded in one day nine
quarts of sap, which produced one and a quarter pounds of
sugar.

The Black Walnut [Juglans nigra) is met with as far north
as Massachusetts, particularly in the western part of the State,
as around Northampton. Mr. Emerson says, ^^ Juglans nigra I
have found repeatedly as far north as Boston. It is in Middle-
sex, Worcester, and Norfolk counties, Massachusetts."

On the banks of the Scioto, in Ohio, I have seen a tree of six
feet in diameter.

IV.— 4*

CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE.

Natural Order, Myrice^, (Richard.) Llnncean Classification,

DkECIA, TeTRANDRIA to OCTANDRIA.

MYRICA. Linn., (in part.)

Flowers unisexual ; those of the two sexes upon the same or more
commonly upon different plants. 3Iale flowers in cylindrical sessile
catkins ; each flower with four to eight stamens, with the filaments
elongated and more or less united at the hase ; the stamens exserted
hej'ond the borders of the dilated short scale, many stamens in
branching clusters nearly without scales at the summit of the catkin ;
bracteoles none in either sex. Female flowers in loose, sometimes
filiform catkins, with many of the lower scales abortive ; scales
1-flowered, the germ naked. Styles two, very long, linear, and
acuminate; ovary villous. Drupe 1-seeded, spherical, coated with
a grumose waxy pulp. Nut very hard; seed erect; embryo with-
out albumen, the radicle superior. Cotyledons thick and oily.

A genus wholly distinct from Myrica Gale, which is common to
Northern Europe and North America. The character of lunate scales
given to Myrica by Linnaeus applies only to the Gale, which there-
fore constitutes a genus by that name. The rest of our species
belong to Myrica. Li the Gale, the fruit is a small, ovate, dry nut,
with an indurated bracte on either side of it, giving it the appearance
of being 3-lobed.

The species of this genus are few, natives of the warmer and
colder zones of both hemispheres, growing generally near the sea-
coast, and are chiefly shrubs, with alternate, persistent, or annual

simple leaves, usually more or less serrated or pinnatifid, and be-

58

P]XI\:

M\i'ira inodora.

INODOROUS CANDLE TllER. 59

sprinkled with aromatic resinous scales, as are also tlie scales of the
buds. Catkins axillary, expanding early in the year. There are
several species in Nepaul in India, and at the Cape of Good Hope.
The M. Faya, with a 4-celled drupe, and about ten stamens in loose
catkins, will, no doubt, constitute a different genus, which I propose
to call Faya Azorica.

INODOROUS CANDLE TREE.

Myrica inodora. Arhorca, foliis kmccolaio-elliptids mtcgris ohtusis mar-
giiie revohUis hasi cuneatis suhtus vix squamosis plerisque nudis, haecis
majiisculis albidis.

Myrica inodora, Bartram's Travels in Florida, &c., p. 405.

Myrica obovata, Chapman, MSS.

In the month of March, 1830, on the borders of the Escambia,
in West Florida, I had the fortune to rediscover this fine
species of Myrica, so long since described by the amiable and
excellent Wm. Bartram, near Taensa Bluff, on the Mobile River,
where he remarks, August 5, 1776, "In my excursions about
this place, I observed many curious vegetable productions,
particularly a species of Myrica, (Myrica ijiodora.) This very
beautiful evergreen shrub, which the French inhabitants call
the Wax Tree, grows in wet, sandy ground, about the edges of
swamps; it rises erect nine or ten feet, dividing itself into a
multitude of nearly erect branches, which are garnished with
many shining deep-green entire leaves of a lanceolate figure.
The branches produce abundance of large round berries, which
are covered with a scale or coat of white wax : no part of this
plant possesses any degree of fragrance. It is in high estima-
tion with the inhabitants for the production of wax for candles,
for which purpose it answers equally well with beeswax, or

60 INODOROUS CANDLE TREE.

preferable, as it is harder and more lasting in burning." — Bar-
tram's Travels, p. 405-406.

We found it exactly in similar situations as those described
by Bartram ; and it has also been found in Alabama by Dr. Juet,
from whom I have been favored with specimens. It may with
propriety be called a tree, though never so large a one as the
Myrica Faya, or Fayal Myrtle. The stem sometimes attains
the thickness of a man's arm, and, like the rest of the genus, it
is gregarious and forms stout thickets on the margins of small
streams and swamps. The berries are twice as large as those
of the common Wax Myrtle. Though the leaves have no per-
ceptible scent, they are not always entirely without the usual
scaly resinous glands; they have no serratures, and are about
three to three and a half inches long by one to one and a half
wide. The bark is of a gray color, inclining to brown. The
male catkins are unusually large, as well as the berries, and the
leaves, when old, are as stiff as in the laurel. The stamens
beneath each scale of the ament are eight, with distinct
filaments and monadelphous at base; the summit of the catkin
is nearly without scales, and terminates in monadelphous
branchlets of stamens, each bearing three or four anthers. The
female catkin is loose, and the lower scales empty; the germ is
pilose. The wood appears compact, fine-grained, and nearly
white. The candles formed of the mj^rtle wax burn long, yield
a grateful smell, and are destitute of the disagreeable scent pro-
duced on extinguishing tallow candles. In Carolina, a kind of
sealing wax has been made of it, and the root has been
accounted a specific in toothache. In Prussia it has been culti-
vated for the wax.

The Fatal Myrtle [M. Faya) is in Fayal the principal
article of fuel; it there attains the ordinary height of a peach-
tree, with a more erect stem: it produces a considerable

INODOROUS CANDLE TREE. 61

quantity of compact, reddish wood. It is also cultivated in rows
between and around the orange trees for the purpose of shelter
from the cutting sea-breezes, which would otherwise abridge
their height and retard their growth. All the gardens of the
island require the same shelter for which the evergreen Faya is
so well calculated, being perfectly hardy and indigenous to the
Azores.

PLATE XIV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The herry.

PLANE TREE.

Natural OrtUr, PLATANEiE. Linnwan Classification, Moncecia,

POLYANDRIA.
PLATAmiS.* (TOURNEFORT.)

Flowers of one sex, those of the two kinds situated upon tlie same
plant, and eacli of tliem disposed in spherical aments on pendulous
stalks, producing from two to five upon each. Male flowers
formed of minute thickish bractes ; the filaments very short, situ-
ated betvreen the bractes. Anthers 2-celled, attached to a connec-
tivum broader than the filament, with a peltate summit. Female.
Pistils, numerous, in pairs. Ovary of 1-cell, including one to t\ro
pendulous ovules. Stigmas 2, long and filiform. Fruit, a carpel
seated in a tuft of articulated hairs, including one pendulous
oblong seed, destitute of albumen.

Lofty, deciduous-leaved trees, with widely-spreading branches
and a dense, broad foliage having a pentangular outline.
Natives of Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, and the temperate
parts of North America. The species about three. Leaves
alternate, palmate; the bud concealed beneath a conical envelop
and immersed in the base of the petiole. The young shoots
and leaves covered with a deciduous down. The old bark at
length scaling off in extensive patches, leaving the trunk
smooth.

* The name is from the Greek wurJ plates, broad, iu allusioa to its wide-spread
leaves and branches.
G2

I'latnnn* rarritiosa

(h/t/ornia^.BnttoHtt'ood

P/a/anedi- Ccdifvrnie.

CALIFORNIA BUTTONWOOD,or PLANE.

Platanus racemosus. Foliis quinqiielobo-palmatis basi tnmcatis subsinu-
atls subius lanuginosis paUidis, lanciniis lanceolatis acuminatis mtegris,
stipidis avgulcdis fructibus racemosis. — Nuttall, Mss. in Audubon's
Birds of America, tab. 362.

This remarkably distinct species of Platanus is a native of
Upper California, in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, where it
puts on very much the appearance of our common Buttonwood,
(Platanus Occidentals.) As far as I yet know, it is the only
species on the western coast of America. It grows probably
farther north, but I did not meet with it in the territory of
Oregon. It does not appear in this unfriendly climate to arrive
at the gigantic magnitude of its Eastern prototype, though it
equally affects rich bottom-lands and the borders of streams;
but the scarcity of rain, in this climate, which had not for three
years been sufficient to encourage the raising of crops, and the
consequent disappearance of water in most of the brooks,
prevented, no doubt, this subaquatic tree from assuming its
proper character in a mote favorable soil. At first view it
would be taken for the ordinary species, spreading out the
same serpentine picturesque limbs, occasionally denuded of
their old coat of bark, and producing the same wide and gigan-
tic trunk ; but a glance at the leaves, no less than the fruit, would
remind the Eastern traveller that he sojourned in a new region
of vegetation, and objects apparently the most familiar he met
around him, associate them as he would, were still wholly
strangers.

The leaves not fully expanded were about four inches wide

and the same in length, divided more than half-way down into

five sharp-pointed, lanceolate portions, of which the two lower

are the smallest: all the divisions are quite entire; two of them

63

64 ORIENTAL PLANE TREE.

in small leaves are suppressed, thus producing a leaf of only
three parts. Above, as usual, the surface is at first clad with a
yellowish copious down formed of ramified hairs, which quickly
falls off and spreads itself in the atmosphere. The under sur-
face of the leaves are, however, always copiously clad with a
coat of whitish wool, which remains. The young leaves, clad
in their brown pilose clothing, have a very uncommon appear-
ance, and feel exactly like a piece of stout, thick woollen cloth.
The branchlets, petioles, and peduncles are equally villous. The
7nale catkins are small, less in size than peas, full of long-haired
scales, and with unusually small anthers. The female catkins
are in racemes of three to five in number, with remarkably long
styles, being between two and three-tenths of an inch in length,
and persistent on the ripe balls. The raceme with the full-
grown balls measures nine inches. The tree has, therefore, a
very unusual appearance, filled with these very long pendulous
racemes, each bearing from three to four or even five balls, at
the distance of about an inch from each other. The stigmas
are at first of a deep and bright brown.

The wood of this species, as far as I could learn from the
American residents at Santa Barbara, is far preferable to that
of the common Buttonwood, being much harder, more durable,
less liable to warp, and capable of receiving a good polish : it is
of a pale yellowish color, like the young wood of the Oriental
Plane, and bears some resemblance to beech wood in its texture.
In the radiation of its medullary vessels, it resembles the wood
of the common species.

PLATE XV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The carpel.

The Oriental Plane (Platanus OrlentaUs) deserves to be
planted in the United States as an ornamental tree. It grows

ORIENTAL PLANE TREE. 65

to the height of from seventy to ninety feet, with widely-sprearJ-
ing branches and a massive trunk, forming altogether a ma-
jestic object. The leaves are more deeply divided and indented
than in our common species. A native of the East, where
shady trees are not so abundant as in North America, it was
celebrated in the earliest records of Grecian history. Xerxes,
it seems, (according to Herodotus,) was so fascinated with a
beautiful Plane Tree which he found growing in Lycia, that
he encircled it with a ring of gold, and confided the charge of
it to one of the Ten Thousand. He passed an entire day
under its shade, encamping with his whole army in its vicinity ;
and the delay so occasioned was believed to be one of the causes
of his defeat. Pausanius (a.d. 170) mentions a Plane Tree of
extraordinary size and beauty in Arcadia, which was said to
have been planted by Menelaus, the husband of Helen, and to
have been, at the time he saw it, 1300 years old.

Plane Trees were planted near all the public schools in
Athens. The groves of Epicurus, in which Aristotle taught
his peripatetic disciples, the shady walks planted near the
Gymnasia and other public buildings of Athens, and the
groves of Academus, in which Plato delivered his celebrated
discourses, were all formed, of this tree.

The remarkable Plane Tree at Buyukdere, or the Great
Valley, mentioned by Olivier, the naturalist, and after him by
Poucqueville, Hobhouse, and various other writers, has a trunk
that presents the appearance of seven or eight trees having a
common origin, which Olivier supposes to be the stool of a
decayed tree, and which were all connected at their base. Dr.
Walsh, who measured the tree in 1831, found the trunk one
hundred and forty-one feet in circumference at the base, and
its branches covered a space of one hundred and thirty feet in
diameter. The trunk divides into fourteen branches, some of
which issue from below the present surface of the soil, and
some do not divide till they rise seven or eight feet above it ;

Vol. IV.— 5

66 ORIENTAL PLANE TREE.

one of the largest is hollowed out by fire, and affords a cabin
to shelter a husbandman. The tree, if it can be considered a
single plant, is certainly the largest in the world. But what
renders it an object of more than usual interest is, that M. De-
candolle conjectures it must be more than 2000 years old.

The wood of the Oriental Plane, in the Levant and in Asia,
is used in carpentry, joinery, and cabinet-making. It is said
to make beautiful furniture, on account of the smoothness of
its grain and its susceptibility of receiving a high polish.

Concerning our common Plane Tree or Buttonwood, [Plata-
nus Occidentalis,) Dr. Darlington remarks, in his " Flora Ces-
trica," page 542, " It makes a noble shade in front of houses
where it has room to develop itself:" and he further remarks,
that "the wood is not much esteemed, but is occasionally
sawed into joists and other lumber." It is beginning to be con-
siderably planted as a shade-tree on the side-walks of the streets
in several of the large towns of the United States, and, being
seldom attacked by insects, and rarely elevating the pavements,
it is exceedingly well calculated for this useful purpose in a
climate subject to such ardent summer heats ; but, if the Orien-
tal Plane would answer the same purpose, and it is easily pro-
pagated, we should not only possess an ornamental but also a
use/id tree, as it regards the wood. The finest specimens of
trees of this species, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, are those
round the Pennsylvania Hospital, which were planted about
the year 1760.

POPLARS.

Natural Order, Amentace^, (Juss.) Suhorder, Salicine^.
Linnoean Class and Order, DiGECiA, OctandriA.

POPULUS.* (Linn.)

DiCECious. Amenis cylindric, with tlie scales deeply cleft. Perianth
cup-shaped, oblique, and entire. Stamens about eight, (or from
thirty to one hundred or more,) inserted on the scale or perianth.
Fertile florets with the scales and perianth as in the male.
Stigmas three or four. Capsule 1-celled, 2 to 4-valved. Seeds
numerous, comose, with long, soft hairs like wool.

Trees of the temperate and colder parts of Europe and N^orth
America, with one species in Asia. The leaves are alternate, round-
ish, or deltoidly cordate, the petiole, for the most part, vertically
compressed toward the summit, and often glandular at the base ; the
flowers (as in the "Willows, to which they are intimately allied) ap-
pearing before the leaves.

The Poplars are divisible into two sections or subgenera.

§ 1. Those properly so called, with about eight stamens, and,
usually, filiform stigmas.

§ 2. Those with from thirty to one hundred or more stamens, and
with broad, dilated, reniform stigmas. Potameria. These are mostly
large trees, which affect the banks of rivers, and includes Populus
Icevigaia, (P. Canadensis, Mich, fil.,) P. angulata, P. monilifera, P. hete-
rophjlla, (P. argentea, Mich, fil.,) and probably P. candicans, P. bal-
samifera, and our P. angustifolia.

* An old Latin name of uncertain derivation.

67

NARROW-LEAVED BALSAM POPLAR.

PopuLUS ANGUSTiFOLiA. FolHs ovato-lanceolaHs lanceolatisve acutis, su-
perne attemtatis penninerviis concoloribus glabris adprcsso-serraiis ;
ramulis ieretihus glabris, gemmis rcsinosis.

P. angustifoUa, Torrey, Lyceum Nat. Hist. N. York, vol. ii. p. 249.

Narrow-leaved Cottonwood, of Le'wis and Clarke.

As we ascended the banks of the river Platte, in our ex-
tended journey to the West, about Laramie's Fork, a northern
branch of that extensive stream, we observed scarcely any
other tree along the alluvial plains but the present and the
Cottonwood; and those were chiefly confined to the islands, a
circumstance accounted for by the annual burning of the prai-
ries, which wholly strips the streams of their margin of forest,
so that we behold, far and wide, nothing but a vast plain, a sea
of grass undulating before the breeze; and the illusion appears
more sensible by the fact that the only variation to the scene
is produced by the scattered islands of the lofty Poplar, which
gives life and variety to the wild and boundless landscape.

The height of this species, which so nearly resembles the
Balsam Poplar, may be about sixty to one hundred feet, having
a trunk of proportionate diameter, clad, like the Cottonwood,
with a rough, grayish bark. Although a brittle and poor wood
for almost every purpose, it will, like the Cottonwood of the
Mississippi, [Populus angulata,) become, of necessity, important
for fence and fuel, whenever this country shall become settled,
as scarcely any other timber exists in sufficient quantity for
economical purposes. When dry, it burns well, but is quickly
reduced to ashes.

Whatever may be the immediate uses of the Narrow-leaved
Poplar, we must say that, in a country so exposed and arid as

the Rocky Mountain region, we felt grateful for the shade and

08

pi.xyr.

Popiilus Aiigiistifolia.

NARROW-LEAVED BALSAM POPLAR. 69

shelter it so often exclusively afforded us, with the exception of
a few insignificant Willows, that frequently associate with it.
In short, we rarely lost sight of this tree, which accompanied us
to the northern sources of the Platte, presented itself, as usual,
on the alluvial banks of the Colorado of the West, along Lewis
River, of the Shoshonee, the banks of the Oregon from the
Walla- Walla to its estuary, attaining along the banks of this
noble stream, and its southern tributary the Wahlamet, an
augmention so great as to vie in magnitude with the tall Cotton-
wood of the Mississippi, and to pass amidst the mighty forests
of the West as one of the largest deciduous-leaved trees of the
country. We find this species of PojDlar also on the banks of
the Missouri, on the upper part of the river, from whence it
continues uninterruptedly to the valleys of the Rocky Moun-
tains. In the severity of winter, the boughs are collected by
the aborigines to support their horses ; the beaver likewise feeds
upon them by choice.

Early in the spring the balsamic odor of its. resinous buds
may be perceived far and wide, and the shade of its tall, round,
and spreading summit invited hosts of birds to its branches,
particularly the large and fine Band-tailed Pigeon, which feeds
with avidity on its seed-buds in the spring, affording them an
abundant article of food.

The lesser branches are rather tough than brittle, covered
with a smooth, yellowish bark. The leaves vary on the same
branch, in this respect, that the earliest brought out are the
widest; these are generally ovate and acute, (not acuminated as
in the Balsam Poplar,) rounded below; afterward come out a
set of lanceolate leaves, much longer than the others, often
three inches by only one inch wide: these are acute at both
ends, and would pass very well for those of a Willow; they are
all margined with fine, bluntish, appressed serratures, and
beneath they are nearly the same color as above. The foot-
stalks of the leaves or petioles are about three-quarters to an

70 COTTONWOOD— AMERICAN ASPEN.

inch in length. The nerves are all faint beneath and pennate,
with no appearance of being 3-nerved at the base; the number
of these nerves or lateral vessels are twelve to fifteen on a side,
at least double the number they are in the Balsam Poplar.
The rachis of the female ament is smooth, the germs much cor-
rugated in drying, and the scaly cup of the germ very shallow,
not more than half the size of that of the species to which it is
so closely allied. Upon the whole comparison, we are satisfied
that this is as distinct a species as any in the genus. In the
Flora Rossica, vol. i. p. 67, t. 41. B., a leaf is given as a variety
of the Balsam Poplar from Altai, very similar to our present
species.

PLATE XVI.

A branch of the natural size. a. The capsule.

Cottonwood, Populus l^vigata, Willd. (P. Canadensis, Mich.,
Sylva, vol. ii. pi. 95.)

This species, more hardy than the Mississippi Cottonwood, is
found on the banks of most of the Western rivers for a consider-
able distance toward the Rocky Mountains. It is abundant on
the borders of the Arkansas, but is nowhere met with in Oregon
Territory.

Balsam Poplar, {Populus halsamifera.) In Flora Rossica,
vol. i. pp. 07 and 41, is given a figure of a Poplar from Daouria,
called the Balsam Poplar, which does not appear to be our
plant. The leaves are wider, with shorter petioles. This spe-
cies stretches into Eastern Siberia, along the river-banks, to the
peninsula of Kamtschatka.

American Aspen, {Populus tremuJoides, Micii., Fl. Bor. Am.,
vol. ii.p. 243. P. trepida, Willd.) This elegant species, of which

WHITE POPLAR. 71

the leaves, like the European Aspen, tremble and vibrate in the
faintest breeze, is met with west of the Mississippi, in scatter-
ing groups, chiefly in the ravines of the mountains, where
springs issue out, and in narrow valleys, where considerable
groups of this tree may be seen, into the centre of the Rocky
Mountain chain; but they here attain a very inconsiderable
magnitude, being seldom thicker than a man's arm.

White Poplar, (P. alba,) now commonly cultivated with us
for ornament, soon attains the magnitude of an Oak. This
wood, remarkable for its whiteness, is generally used in the
South of France for wainscoting and flooring houses, and in
England it is employed by turners for a host of small articles
and utensils of housekeeping;

The wood of various species of Poplar has been employed for
dyeing: that of the Lombardy or Italian Poplar boiled in water
with wool communicates a very permanent golden-yellow color;
other species, as the Black, Virginia Poplar, and Cottonwood,
give, according to the length of time employed and the quantity
of the wood boiled, various shades of color, as that of nankeen,
muse, the color of the Vicunga, with other shades, and answer
conveniently for the ground of other colors.

WILLOWS.

Natural Order, Amentace^, (Jussieu.) Siihorder, SALiciNHiE.
lAnncBan Classification, Dkecia, Diandria, &c.

SALIX.* (TouRXEFORT, Linn.)

The flowers are DKECiousf or very rarely mon(ecious, disposed in ovoid
or cylindric catkins, composed of undivided scales, which are im-
bricated over each other, and each with the pistils or stamens form
a flower; at the base of these scales exists a small glandular body,
which is either simple or bifid, and surrounds the interior organs
of reproduction. In the male flowers there exist from four to five,
or even seven to nine stamens ; (ordinarily there are only two.) In
the female flowers the ovary is single, terminated by a bifid style,
having usually four stigmas. The capsule or follicle consists of one
cell with two valves. The seeds are very numerous and minute,
each terminated by a long tuft of hairs or pappus; the radicle is
inferior, or in an inverse position to that of the Pojilars, to which
they are so intimately allied.

The Willows, numerous in species, are all (with two excej)-
tions in the Straits of Magellan and Peru) natives of the north-
ern hemisphere, and all of them shrubs or trees, some not more
than an inch in height above the ground, confined to the high-
est summits of lofty mountains, others attaining an elevation of

* Said to be derived from the Celtic sal, near, and lis, water.
f A term used by Linnaeus to designate a class of plants which have flowers of
diflFerent sexes on two different individuals, motiackt, with two sorts of flowers on

dift'crcnt parts of the same plant.
72

WILLOWS. 73

fifty or sixty feet. The wood is usually light and close-grained :
the twigs of several species, used by basket-makers, are remark-
able for their pliability. The bark of most of the species con-
tains a peculiar vegetable principle, called salicine, which, for
intermittent fevers, is nearly as serviceable as Peruvian bark;
and the down of the seeds has been manufactured into a coarse
paper. Most of the species affect wet or humid situations,
being common on the immediate borders of brooks and rivers,
which they fringe with a luxuriant and agreeable vegetation.
The flowers generally precede the appearance of the leaves, and,
though not beautiful, they are seen with delight, as the earliest
harbingers of our northern spring. The species, more than
two hundred in number, present nearly the same general form
of foliage, with the margin entire or serrated; the catkins are
lateral or terminal, and the stamens are too variable in number
to admit of a classification by them; there are some with only
one, a good nlany with two, others with three, four, five, or even
nine or ten. The capsules, though small, afford the best traits
of specific distinction. The leaves put on various appearances,
and even outlines, in the progress of their growth, and the
Willows justly rank among botanists as the most protean and
difficult family of plants to discriminate in the northern hemi-
sphere. In our tour across the continent we have met with
some remarkable species, four or five of which become trees :
we shall offer descriptions of the whole, but only give figures
of those which rank among arborescent species.

IV.— 5*

LONG-LEAVED WILLOW.

Salix speciosa. Foliis longissimis lanceolaiis serrulatis promisse aciLnii-
7iatis glahris subtiis glaucis junioribus pilosis; amentis serotinis 6-9-an-
dris, germinibus pedicellatis lanceolaiis acuminatis glabris, squamis lan-
ceolato-oblongis sericeis, stigniatis lobis hijidis.

Salix lucida, Hook, (as it regards tlie Oregon plant.) — Flor. Bor.
Am., vol. ii. p. 148.

No Willow on the American continent presents so remarkable
and splendid an appearance as the present; the effect of which
is produced no less by its magnitude than the size and beauty
of its foliage. Its aspect is that of a large Peach Tree, with
the leaves and their stalks from five to eight inches long by an
inch to an inch and a half wide ; beneath, wdien adult, they are
glaucous, like those of the River Maple. The summit is tufted
and spreading, and the tree attains the elevation of about twenty
to thirty feet, with a trunk of twelve to eighteen inches in
diameter. When in full bloom, which is with the first ex-
pansion of the leaves, in May, the numerous and large bright-
yellow catkins, loading the branches, emulate the finest Acacia
of New Holland; they are also agreeably fragrant, and attract
swarms of wild bees and other insects, in continual motion
among their weaving branches. We have seen this noble spe-
cies nowhere in such perfection as along the banks of the deep
Wahlamet and the wide Oregon, whose numerous islands are
almost exclusively decked with this imposing Willow, which
continues to the Blue Mountains, and along the neighboring
streams as far east as the river Boisee. As we sailed along the
smooth bosom of these extensive streams, for many miles we never
lost sight of the Long-leaved Willow, which seemed to dispute the
domain of the sweeping flood, fringing the banks of the streams

and concealing the marshes entirely from view; at every instant,
74

P1.XML

Salix specrosa.

LONG-LEAVED WILLOW. 75

when touched by the breeze, displaying the contrasted surface
of their leaves, above of a deep and lucid green, beneath the
bluish-white of silver: the whole scene, reflected by the w^ater
and in constant motion, presented a silent picture of exquisite
beauty. Immediately behind this foreground of spreading Wil-
lows arose, in the first rank of the legitimate forest, the lofty
Poplars we have already described, succeeded by the majestic
Oaks and Maples, while the distant hills to their summits were
impenetrably hid by the vast towering Pines and Firs, which,
mingling as it were with the clouds, close in the rest of the
landscape with funereal grandeur.

This species is related to the Lucid and Bay Willows, and
the buds have something of the same aromatic exudation ; the
^errulations and the base of the leaf are also equally glandular.
The bark of the trunk is rough and divided, the twigs smooth
and shining, of a yellowish brown. The leaves, at first green
on both surfaces, are, before expansion, clothed with long,
brown, loose, parallel hairs, which disappear with the progress
of their growth ; at length they become silvery and glaucous
beneath : they are finely serrulated, acute at both extremities,
with the points very much attenuated. The stipules are semi-
circular and broad, serrulated on the margin. The flowers
come out with the expanding leaves from lateral buds, con-
taining, in the male, also two or three leaves, so that the cat-
kin appears as a pedunculated spike. The stamens are very
long, from five to nine in a scale, with filaments which are
hairy toward the base, and, as well as the hairy, broad, cuneate,
serrated scales, are of a bright, golden yellow.

The female plant, at the time of flowering, appears to have
smaller leaves than the male, and those on the branches which
bear the catkin are green on both surfaces for a considerable
time; they are also but little acuminated; five or six leaves,
with their appropriate stipules, grow out on the same branch,
which terminates in a female spike. The scales of the catkin

76 LONG-LEAVED WILLOW.

or spike are oblong or lance-oblong, and less hairy than in the
staminiferous catkin. The germ is lanceolate, pedicellate, and
smooth, acuminated, and terminated by a short, bifid style, with
two pubescent, bifid stigmas. The capsule is likewise smooth,
and contains seeds with a very long pappus, as abundant almost
as on a seed of cotton.

The wood is whitish and close-grained, and might probably
be employed for the same purposes as that of the White Poplar,
but the nearly uninhabited state of the country in Oregon
prevents the possibility of making any useful experiments. As
an ornamental and hardy tree, however, it stands ]Dre-eminent
among all its fraternity, and well deserves to be introduced into
pleasure-grounds, where it would be perfectly hardy as far
north as New York, or in any part of Great Britain.

PLATE XVII.

A tioig and leaf of the natural size. a. The female catkin, b. Tlie male-
catkin, c. The male flower and scale of the catkin, d. The open cap-
sule.

PLYYm.

S alix: p ent andr a .

LONG-LEAVED BAY WILLOW.

Salix pentandra. Foliis elbpticis aeuminatis serratis glahris, pciioUs
superne glandidosis, amentis seroiinis pentandris, gcrminibus lanceolatls
glahris. — Willd,, Sp. pi. 1. c. Vahl., in Flora Danica, tab. 943.
Host., Sal. Austr. 1, t. 1, f. 2. Eng. Bot., t. 1805.

Salix pentandra. Foliis serratis glahris, florihus pentandris. — Linn.,
Hort. Cliftbrt, p. 454, et Sp. pL, p. 144. Flora Lapponica, p. 370,
t. 8, fig. 3. Gmelin, Flora Sibirica, vol. i., p. 153, t. 34, fig. 1.

Salix foliis glahris, ovato-lanceolatis ; petiolis glandidosis ; florihus hexaste-
monihus. — IIaller, Flora Helvetica, N"o. 1639.

Salix montama major; foliis Laurinis. — Tournefort, Institutes Rei.
Herb., p. 591.

Salix foliis laureo sive lato glahro odorato. — Rail, Hist., p. 1420.

Salix pentandra, /9 caudata. Foliis longissime aeuminatis attenuaiis;
ramulis juniorihus hirsutis; capsulis rugulosis opaci

We met with this species, hitherto wholly European, in the
very centre of the North American Continent, by streams in
the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, toward their western
slope, in Oregon, and also the Blue Mountains of the same
territory. It is true, the present variety is a remarkable one.
The uppermost leaves on the adult branches are about five or
six inches long, one-half of which distance, or about two and a
half to three inches, may be considered as the slope of the
summit and the point of the leaf; the buds and last-developed
branches are also hirsute. This variety, like its prototype,
becomes a tree fifteen to twenty feet high, of a bright, but
not deep, and rich green. The flowers are fragrant, produced
after the appearance of the leaves, and the capsules in our
plant are slightly corrugated, even when ripe and open, and
do not shine as in the common Bay Willow. The leaves have
the same odorous glands, and the bark of the branches is

smooth, shining, and of a brownish-yellow color. This tree is

77

78 WESTERN YELLOW WILLOW.

met with in mountainous situations by streams, in all the ♦
northern parts of Europe, — in Britain, France, Switzerland,
Sweden, Lapland, and throughout Siberia and Russia. Its
branches are too fragile to be employed for any economical
purpose, and the wood decrepitates in the fire. The leaves,
which are fragrant from the resinous glands of their margin,
however, furnish a yellow dye, and the abundant down of its
seeds, in some of the northern countries, is used with success
as a substitute for cotton, mixed with a third part of the true
material.

According to Loudon, it is one of the most desirable species
of the genus for planting in pleasure-grounds, on account of
the fine display made by the blossoms, their abundant fragrance,
the shining, rich, deep green of the leaves, and the compara-
tively slow growth and compact habit of the tree. It is also
one of the latest flowering Willows, the blossoms seldom ex-
panding till the beginning of June.

PLATE XVIIL

A branch of the natural size. a. The capsule.

WESTERN YELLOW WILLOW.

Salix lutea. Fuliis ovato-lanceolatis acutis Icmter serrulatis glabris,
sfijyulis hmatis, amentis frmcocibus brevibus cylmdraceis, germmibus
pcdicellatis glabris, ramis luteis.

This is a smallish arborescent species of Willow, which in-
habits the Rocky Mountain region, and jDroceeds westward to
tlie banks of the Oregon, but is nowhere common. It attains
to the magnitude of a small tree, and at first glance appears

ttesffrn jp/fovr Mllinr

Salix^lut«»a

Saule

Tcume^

WESTERN YELLOW WILLOW. 79

nearly allied to the common yellow-twigged Willow {S. vitel-
lina,) but it never grows so large, and is, after the very first
evolution of the leaf-buds, perfectly smooth, with none of those
tufts of hairs which in that species appear at the interior base
of the bud; it likewise possesses stipules, and bears short, close
catkins, with smooth capsules, and the serrulations of the leaves
are not glandular, indeed scarcely visible, the leaf appearing to
have a thin and often almost entire diaphanous margin.

It is at the same time a very elegant and distinct species,
remarkable for its smooth bright-yellow branches, and pale
green, rather small, lucid leaves. It is well deserving of culti-
vation for the sake of variety, and is undoubtedly hardy from
the climate it inhabits. The leaves are rather narrow, more
lanceolate than ovate, acute, or somewhat acuminate, about an
inch and a quarter long, and less than half an inch wide. The
minute serratures or serrulations are rather crowded, but very
minute and shallow, and not in the least cartilaginous. The
young leaves before evolution are silky and white beneath, but
the pubescence wholly disappears with their expansion.

PLATE XIX.

A branch of the natural size with fertile catkins, a. The capsule.

HOOKER'S WILLOW.

Salix Hookeriana, (Barratt, Mss.) Ramis valde robustis puhescentihus^
junioribus dense tomentosa-tanatis, foliis late obovaiis fere subrotundcdis
rigidiusculis serraiis margine planis supra (adidiis) nudiusculis subtus
iomentoso-lanatis, stipidis [semicordatis,'] amentis cylindraceis crassis,
squamis longe densissime lanatis, ovariis longe stipitatis lanceolatis glaber-
ri77iis, stylo breviuscido, stigmatis lobis integris. — Hook., Flor. Bor. Am.,
vol. ii. p. 145, t. 180.

This small tree, nearly allied to S. cinerea, we found of com-
mon occurrence in the lower part of the territory of Oregon
toward the sea, particularly frequent on the margins of ponds
and in wet places near the outlet of the Wahlamet, where it
attained the height of eight or ten feet. It was also found in
the territory of Hudson's Bay, near the Grand Rapids of the
Saskatchewan, by Douglas. The leaves are remarkably protean
in their form, sometimes wholly soft and villous on both sides,
more commonly so beneath, the nature of the pubescence also
varying till it at times resembles in appearance and to the touch
the most brilliant velvet; the old leaves are generally obovate,
smooth and shining above, often nearly so beneath, and then of
a bluish-green or glaucous hue; they are, moreover, both acute
and obtuse, sometimes even rounded at the extremity, and are
generally among the largest, or at least widest, of Willow leaves.
The stipules on some branches are very conspicuous, circular,
and serrated. The male aments are extremely pilose in an
early stage, as in our S. co7iifera, to which this species makes
some approach; the stamens are two to each scale. The cap-
sule is ovate-lanceolate and very smooth, the style elongated,
and the stigmas two and undivided.

The twigs of this species are flexible, but the wood is too

80

BLUNT-LEAVED WILLOW. 81

small for almost any economical employment. The old wood of
the trunk of /S. caprea or the Sallow, so much like the present
species, is much esteemed by wood-turners.

BLUNT-LEAVED WILLOW.

Salix flavescens. Foliis obovatis suhJanceolatis flavescente iomentosis
integris demum glahris, stijndis parvuUs subsemicordaiis denticulatis,
ameniis prcecocibus, eaijsulis lanceolatis sericeo-pubescentibus, siigmaiibus
villosis.

We met with this shrubby species in the range of the Rocky
Mountains, and we are doubtful if it is not also an inhabitant
of Europe. It agrees very nearly with the Obtuse-leaved
Willow of Willdenow, (S. ohtusifolia,) of which we have seen
no specimens, and which is apparently a very obscure species,
said to be a native of the Lapland Alps. Ours is a large shrub,
with much of the aspect and general character of the Gray
Willow, which is indeed the type of a group of kindred
Willows. For a good while the leaves still remain downy, par-
ticularly on the under surface, which is tinged also with pale
yellow. The leaves, when old, are about one and a half inches
long, three-quarters of an inch wide or more, wedge-shaped at
the base, obovate or oblanceolate, quite smooth, entire ap-
parently, yet the stipules are denticulate. The branches are
brown or dark purple. The catkins are short and cylindric,
the scales blackish, hairy, and obtuse, the capsules white and
silky; the style is distinct, and the four stigmas long and
pubescent.

Vol. IV.— 6

POND WILLOW.

Salix stagnalis. Foliis ohlongo-lanceolatis obtusis integerrimis basi
cuneatis suhtus puhescentihus, stiimlis nullis, amentis coceiajieis, capsuUs
lanceolaiis acuminatis sericeis, squamis suhlanceolatis.

This is another species indigenous to the banks of the Oregon,
related to the same section with the last. The twigs are dark
brown and slender, and the leaves scattered beneath with a
minute brown pubescence, which communicates a somewhat
rusty appearance to the leaves; they are about one and a half
inches long and one-half to three-quarters of an inch wide; in
the bud they are covered with long silky hairs. The cajDsules
are remarkable for their great attenuation and length ; the scales
of the ament are oblong-lanceolate and hairy. We have not
seen the male plant, and our account is therefore imperfect.

YELVET WILLOW.

Salix cuneata. Foliis lanceolaiis ohlongisve ajncc suhserrulatis acuiis^
basi cuneatis glabris subtus holosericeis, sfipulis minutis plerisque miUis,
amentis cocetaneis elongatis, cajjsidis ovatis sericeis, stigmatibus brccihus
glabris.

This beautiful Willow w^e found growing in clumps near the
rocky margin of the Oregon at its confluence w4th the Wahla-
met, attaining the height of six or eight feet. The branches
are slender, and, according to their age, vary much in appear-
ance, at first villous and downy, but at a later period brown,

and sometimes quite blue, with a glaucous bloom. The leaves,
82

WESTERN POND WILLOW. 83

with their short petioles, measure about two inches, and are
about half an inch wide, pubescent above, at length nearly
smooth, and deep green, but always clad beneath with a whitish
close tomentmn, producing all the brilliant display of the finest
velvet. The male flowers we have not seen. The female cat-
kins are rather long, loose, and subcylindric, often accompanied
at the base by two or three leaves, and come out when the
leaves are considerably grow^n. The capsules are silky, short,
ovate, and acute; the style short, and the stigmas four and
smooth. The scales of the catkin are brown and oval, some-
what hairy, and much shorter than the capsules. In the
narrow-leaved varieties, the leaves appear almost wholly entire.
The broader-leaved plants bear some resemblance to the Gray
Willow, but the serrulations are minute and the stipules very
small, or wholly wanting.

WESTERN POND WILLOW.

Salix macrocarpa. Foliis lanceolatis angusiaiis suhintegerrimis utrinque
acutis suhacuminatis demum glahris suhtus glaucis, stijndis obsoletiSy
animt'is cocetcmeis diajidris, cajjsulis ventricosis caudaiis glabriuscuUs
pedicellatis, stigmaiibus subsessilibus quadrifidis.

This species, like our Pond Willow {S. grisea,) to which it is
closely related, is found forming clumps in wet places where
the water is stagnant, — situations which it always seems to
prefer to the banks of running streams. It attains the height
of three or four feet. The branches are smooth and brownish
black, sometimes glaucous or whitish. The leaves (about two
to three inches long and half an inch wide) are at first covered
with a brownish silky down which disappears with age, when

84 SOFT-LEAVED WILLOW.

they become dark green and bluish white, or glaucous be-
neath; they are usually very acute, and mostly entire. The
catkins are small and oblong, with two or three leaves at the
base of the pedicel; the scales of the stamens are small and
blackish, oval and obtuse, somewhat hairy. The female aments
have very short pedicels, and produce at the base about two
leaves ; the scales are narrow and linear ; the capsules pedicel-
lated, somewhat villous, but at length nearly smooth, ventricose-
lanceolate, with long points, and nearly sessile stigmas.

SOFT-LEAVED WILLOW.

Salix sessilifolia. Foliis lanceolatis sessilihus acutissimis ajnce subser-
rulatis villosis mollibus, siipulis 7iuUis, amentis serotinis diandris elon-
gatis ierminaUbus ; germinibus lanatis, cajpsulis lanceolatis demum sub-
glabris, stylo profunde bipartiia stigmatibus bijidis.

This beautiful and very distinct species of Willow formed
dense tufts on the rocky borders of the Oregon, at the con-
fluence of the Wahlamet, attaining to the height of about six
to eight feet, and when in flower appeared as showy as a Ml-
inosa. It is remarkably leafy, and the leaves are hoary, with a
rather long and somewhat copious pubescence, which commu-
nicates a softness to the touch equal to that of velvet ; whether
the leaves afterward become more smooth or not I cannot say,
but think it probable. Diflerent from almost every other Wil-
low I have seen, the catkins each terminate so many small,
leafy branches about two inches long, exclusive of the catkin
or spike, which is itself about one and a half inches, in both
sexes attenuated at the base ; these branchlets, as well as the
leaves, are whitish, with soft hairs, particularly the former, but

PROSTRATE WILLOW. 85

still the green color of the leaf predominates ; the points of the
leaves are somewhat rigid, sharply acute, and, unlike most
other species, they are destitute of petioles or footstalks; the
scales of the ament are oval and unusually conspicuous, more
hairy in the staminiferous flower. The stamens are two to
a scale. The capsule is pubescent and lanceolate, at length
nearly smooth ; the stigmas four, and rather long. No ves-
tiges of stipules appear in any of our numerous specimens ; the
older branches are dark brown.

It is difficult to decide on the affinities of this very distinct
species, which at a little distance resembles a Protea or Leuco-
clendron, the leaves being equally gray and silvery, with soft
hairs, which are so equally distributed on either surface as to
obliterate the presence of the veins and render both surfaces
almost similar. It appears, in some respects, to resemble
S. arenaria, the Sand Willow, but the late appearance of the
aments and their remarkable disproportion are almost without
a parallel.

PROSTEATE WILLOW.

Salix brachycarpa. Foliis ovatis lanceolaiisve acuUs subsessiUbus inte-
gerrimis cinereo-imbescentibus subtiis incanovillosis, strpulis mdlis, amen-
iis cocetaneis brevibus glomeraiis, ccqisulis ovatis abbreviatis tomentosis,
stigmatibus subsessiUbus.

This singular prostrate and dwarf Willow we met with in
the Rocky Mountain range, on the borders of Bear River, a
clear, rapid brook cutting its way through basaltic dikes to the
curious lake of Timpanogos, in New Mexico. This locality is
likewise famous for the numerous seltzer springs, so strongly
impregnated with carbonic acid as to sparkle and effervesce

86 PROSTRATE WILLOW.

like champagne. Our hunters called them the " Beer Springs,"
and, for a day and a half that we spent at this memorable
place, the waters afforded us a most delicious treat during the
warm weather, in those arid plains. In an open, marshy situa-
tion, on the margin of the river-forest, grew an abundance of
this curious, depressed, and hoary shrub, which has somewhat
the aspect of the European Sand Willow, (S. arenaria;) but it
is much more dwarf, with the leaves smaller and always hoary
with pubescence. The stem branches from the base, only rising
four or five inches above the surface of the earth, but with
many diffuse, tough, woody branches, which spread out into a
circle of a foot or more. The root-stock is woody and thick;
the branches full of cicatrices, pubescent, but brown beneath,
thickly covered with small leaves, which in some plants are
elliptic-ovate, in others oblong-lanceolate, all very entire, nearly
sessile, and acute, from half an inch to an inch long, about
three lines wide ; above always gray with pubescence, but
beneath rather whitely villous; some of the lowest small
leaves are smooth on the upper surface. There are no stipules
in any of my specimens. The male flowers I have not seen.
The fertile catkins are short and somewhat clustered, not
cylindric, few-flowered, the capsules oblong-lanceolate, and
short, villous, with appressed hairs, not densely lanuginous,
as in S. arenaria, ternrnated by a short, slender style and four
short stisrmas.

VLXK.

Salix; argophyila .

SihrT-l^avtxi Willow: Sanle a feullie^ aryefi/eiv.

SILVER-LEAVED WILLOW.

Salix aegophylla. Foliis lineari-suhlanceolatis acutis sessilibus integer
rimis utrinquc argenteo-sericeis, siipulis obsoleiis, ameniis seroiinis dian-
dris, capsulis villosis lanceolatis.

In our devious progress to the West, we at length approached
one of the branches of the Oregon, the river Boisee, toward
its junction with the Shoshonee ; its banks were not fringed
with a belt of forest, but so stripped of every character of an
alluvial nature, that when we suddenly approached it there
appeared no break in the plain, and the clear and rapid flood
shot through a deep, perpendicular chasm of columnar basaltic
rocks. We descended toward its brink and pursued our path
along its obstructed banks, climbing over fearful rocks and
along the margins of impending precipices : night approached
without any cessation of our incessant toil. At length we
hailed with satisfaction a small portion of the river-bottom,
almost covered by tall bushes of a remarkable, silvery appear-
ance, which proved to be the subject of our present examina-
tion, a very curious species of Willow, which, with a kind of
Mock Orange, [PTilJadelpJius,) composed nearly all the con-
spicuous vegetation of this sterile chasm. At length our new
Alnus, [A. Oregona,) the Narrow-leaved Balsam Poplar, and
the Long-leaved tree Willow, gave evidence of an ample, allu-
vial plain and the proximity of the Great Shoshonee.

This species becomes a small tree from twelve to fifteen feet
in height, as silvery and white as the Leucodendron argenteum ;
the branches are brown, but the twigs are hoary with villous
hairs. The leaves are very much crowded, soft, with whitish,
shining, silky down, so abundant on either side as wholly to
hide the veins and nearly the midrib; they are also nearly

without footstalks, entire on the margin, of a narrow, linear

87

88 LONG-SPIKED WILLOW.

outline and sharply acute, with a distinct, bristly point, one
and a half to two inches long, and only about three lines wide.
Stipules small and linear, seldom seen. The aments come out
late with the leaves, and the flower-branches produce from four
to seven leaves. The male ament is small and narrow, with
the scales lanceolate and villous ; the female aments are oblong,
the capsules lanceolate and villous.

The wood of this species, though small, is very white, smooth,
and close-grained : the species must also be hardy, well worth
cultivating, and would then probably grow to a considerable
size. We perceive no afhnity that this species bears, except
perhaps to the S. angustifolia of the borders of the Caspian,
from which at the same time it is probably very distinct.

PLATE XX.

A branch of the natural size. a. The male catkin, b. The capsule.

LONG-SPIKED WILLOW.

Salix macrostachya. Foliis lineari-siiblanceolatis elongatis remote scrru-
latis acutis utrinque argento-sericeis, stipulis semiovatis dcciduis, amcntis
lorigissimis prcccocibus, cajjsulis lanceolatis demum glabriusculis.

We met with this species sparingly on the banks of the
Oregon. It bears a strong resemblance to the last, without,
however, being any way intimately allied to it. It forms a
slender bush, remarkable for its white and silvery pubescence,
which appears as soft and glossy as velvet: the twigs are also
pubescent. The leaves are two to three inches long, two or
three lines wide, distinctly serrulated, and nearly sessile, with

RIVER WILLOW. 89

the veins conspicuous through the pubescence. The female
catkins, with their peduncles, are three or four inches in length ;
the capsules are nearly sessile, and at length but slightly pubes-
cent. In this species there are distinct stipules on the young
branches.

RIVER WILLOW.

Salix fluviatilis. Folils linearibus utrinque acuminatis, sublanceolatis
spinuloso-serratis denium glabris concoloribus, stijndis nulUs, amentis
serodnis pcdunculaiis vUlosis dicmdris, squamis obloiicjis, frucUbus lancco-
laUs (jlabris pedicellaiis, stigmatibus sessUibus.

This species lines the immediate border of the Oregon, a little
below its confluence with the Wahlamet, attaining the height
of about six feet or more. We believe this is also the same
Willow that we mistook for the Long-leaved species of Pursh
and Muhlenberg, {Salix longifolia,) which so commonly lines the
banks of the Missouri and Mississippi, and which often forms
the exclusive growth of the small islands and sandbars, prepar-
ing these waters, recovered from the flood, for a superior growth
of trees ; and they are also accompanied and succeeded commonly
by the Cottonwood [Populus Canadensis.) We met with this
species likewise on the banks of Lewis River of the Shoshonee,
accompanying our Long-leaved Willow, both of which continue
almost uninterruptedly to occupy the banks and bars of all the
Western streams to the Oregon, and proceed along that river to
the borders of the Pacific.

In this remarkably fluviatile species, the leaves of the very
young plants are somewhat pinnatifid, and at all times the
serratures, rather distant, are sinuated and very sharp or spinu-
losely acute. The branches are brownish and very full of leaves.
The leaves, two to three inches long, are seldom more than two

IV— G*

90 SLENDER WILLOW.

lines wide, except in the young shoots, when they are twice
that breadth. The branches producing the male flowers are as
short as usual, bearing only three or four small leaves; the cat-
kins are narrow, solitary, and rather short, and come out with
the opening of the leaves. In the female plant the inflorescence
is similar with that of the male; but there is also produced a
later growth of catkins, which terminate proper divided branch-
lets. The scales of the female catkin are oblong and densely
bearded below; the germ is smooth, with four sessile stigmas as
in /S. longifolia. The young leaves are at first somewhat hoary
and pubescent, with minute hairs; the young plants have also
often pubescent foliage.

We have met with the Salix longifolia on the banks of the
Arkansas, and it greatly resembles the present species, but differs
in producing distinct stipules, in the minute serratures, and
above all in the pubescent capsule and elongation of the catkin.
The leaves are also generally broader, and it is said to grow only
about two feet high.

SLENDER WILLOW.

Salix exigua. Foliis lincaribus idrinquc acutis suhintegerrimis scriccis,
stijndis nullis, amcniis serotinis elongatis, capsuUs lanccolatis sessilihiis,
demum nudiusculis.

This species is also a native of the Territory of Oregon, and
grew with the preceding, which it strongly resembles: it is,
however, a smaller species; with still narrower leaves, at all
times more or less gray and silky; the serrulations are mostly
wanting, though very minute ones are sometimes seen : the
capsules are smaller, and not pedicellated. The male plant I
have not seen. The branches are reddish brown and smooth.

ROUND-LEAVED WILLOW.

S^Lix KOTUNDiFOLiA. Fol'ds suhrotundls ovatisve minutissime serrulatls
velintegriusculis uirinque glahris concoloribus, petiolis ramulisque pilosis,
stipulis maximis dilatato-cordatis mcmhraimceis glanduloso-serratis, amcntis
coaianeis diandris lamiginosis, capsidis glabris laiiceolaiis, siglis eloiigcdis.

/3 OVATA. Foliis ovaiis acutis dense serridatis.

This dwarf and remarkable species of Willow, attaining about
two feet in height, was obtained in the gorge of a lofty alpine
ravine, through which we fruitlessly endeavored to pass. It was
in the month of July, and the perpetual snows which still covered
the mountains mingled their outline with the skies. On the skirt
of this gelid region grew our present subject. We named this
scene of toil and disappointment Thornburgh's Pass, (or rather
ravine, as no passage was practicable,) from the man who under-
took to be our guide. It was in the central chain of the Rocky
Mountains, and near to the pass of the Shoshonees, which the
following day we attained.

We know of no species with which we can compare this
Willow. The older branches are brown, smooth, and fidl of
cicatrices left by leaves that have grown near together, giving
the plant a stunted appearance ; the petioles are about half an
inch long, with the younger branches hairy; the younger leaves
are also somewhat so on the midrib. The leaves are nearly
round, from one and a half to three inches wide, and about the
same in length, though some of the later-produced leaves are
ovate and sometimes even acute; both sides are equally green,
the margin in the ovate leaves elegantly and very closely
serrulated, but in the round leaves the serrulations are often
nearly obliterated. The stipules are very large, wide, and heart-
shaped, finely serrated with glandular points; at length they
become membranaceous and deciduous. The male aments are

oblong, large, and sessile, the scales blackish and ovate, produc-

91

92 MINUTE WILLOW.

ing copious white hairs longer than their whole length ; the filar
ments are very long. The female aments grow on thick stalks,
and have the scales also very woolly; the capsules are smooth
and ovate-acuminate; the style is long, terminated by four
stigmas. The ovate-leaved variety was collected by the late Dr.
Gairdner, on the hills of the Wahlamet.

MINUTE WILLOW.

Salix nivalis. FoUis ovallbus subsjjaihidatis intcgerrimis glahris obtusis,
subtus concoloribus reticulatis, amentis seroiinis 2^cdicellatis pauci/ioris,
germinibus ovatis sericeis squamce glabrce reiusce longioribus, stigmaiibus
subsessilibus.

Salix nivalis. — Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii.

This elegant and very diminutive shrub, merely about two
inches high, was obtained in the same alpine ravine as the
former, but on a plain elevated to the very line of perpetual
snow, at the height of about 10,000 feet above the ocean-level.
The stems are smooth, brown, and woody, sending out very few
short branches terminated by scanty tufts of smooth coriaceous
leaves, two or three lines wide and about four lines long. The
male plant we have not seen; the female catkin is produced
upon a pubescent pedicel nearly its length; the flowers are
about six, sessile, and the subtending scales smooth, retuse, and
nerved. The germ is short-ovate and silky, terminated by a
sessile or almost sessile quadrifid stigma.

This species is allied to the /Salix myrtllloldes, but at the same
time perfectly distinct.

PLATE XIX.

A fertile Inlaid of the natural magnitude, a. A leaf. b. The young capsuU

and. its scale.

PL XXI

Diiskr WiUo

Salix Melaiiopsis

Saide nu/rdlve

DUSKY WILLOW.

Salix melanopsis. Foliis lineari-lanceolaiis serrulatis glahris hasi attenu-
aiis vix peiiolaiis, siipuUs nullis, amentis comtaneis diandris, squamis
striatis obiusis, capsulis glahris lanceolaiis subsessilibus.

This species, which I have called Dusky Willow from the
dark appearance it assumes in drying, we met with at our
station called Fort Hall, in the plains of the Rocky Mountains,
on the alluvial lands of Lewis River of the Shoshonee, not
growing in masses, but scattered over the banks of the river in
the more elevated situations, and there attaining the magnitude
of a small tree twelve to fifteen feet high, with a spreading
summit, and when in flower forming a very elegant object. It
is closely related to the Triandrous Willow of Europe, [Salix
triandra,) but still sufficiently distinct. It never, like that
species, becomes a considerable tree, but more resembles in its
magnitude and mode of growth our common Black Willow,
{S. nigra.) The wood is white and close-grained as in that
species: the young branches appear blackish-brown in a dead
state, and the young leaves appear also very dark; they are
about an inch and a half long, and about three lines wide,
attenuated at the base, so as to present no distinct petiole,
acute above, with minute serratures; there are no hairs at the
base of the bud, as in S. triandra. The male flowering branch-
lets are provided with five or six leaves; the catkins linear and
elongated, with dusky pubescent scales, marked each with about,
five striatures. The female catkins are rather short, and the
fruit smooth, with sessile stigmas, as in other species of this
particular group.

PLATE XXL

A branch of the natural size. a. The scale, b. The stamen, c. The germ.

93

94 BLACK WILLOW.

The Salix triandra so nearly allied to the present species,
becomes a tree thirty feet high, and is frequently planted in
osier grounds for the basket-maker; but the best kind planted
for this purpose is the Osier, properly so called, {S. viminalis^
which might be propagated in almost every part of the United
States.

BLACK WILLOW.

Salix nigra, Midi., Arb., vol. ii. plate 125, fig. 1. A variety
of this tree occurs in South Carolina and Florida, in which the
leaves are villous and the scales of the ament densely lanugin-
ous. In the herbarium of Mr. Schweinitz it was marked, on
the authority of Elliott, as a species S. subvlllosa.

This tree, a native of all the States from New England to
Florida, and west nearly to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, is
one of the few native species which becomes a tree, attaining
the height of fifteen to twenty-five feet, with a diameter of ten
to fifteen inches. It affects the banks of rivers and lakes, and
generally grows near to the water, in moist, occasionally over--
flowed, situations. In the warmer parts of the States it puts on
a handsome appearance, particularly when in flower, but has
the defect of branching almost from the base, and leaning in a
posture more wild and picturesque than beautiful. It has a
dark-colored rough bark, and the branches are brittle at the
base; the male catkins coming out with the leaves are very
elegant, and attractive and useful to bees. In the southern
parts of the Union, according to Mr. Elliott, the stems when
found sufficiently large are employed for the timbers of boats,
and are found to be light and durable.

WHITE WILLOW. 95

The White Willow [Sallx alha, Linn.) a^opears almost natu-
ralized in many parts of the United States. It is particularly
abundant in the western interior of New Jersey along the
borders of the Wallkill. It grows rapidly, becoming a stout
tree in a few years, and in Europe it is considered the most
valuable timber tree of the genus ; it produces a white, close-
grained wood, capable of receiving a polish ; it also affords fence-
wood, fuel, and bark for the tanner nearly as good as that of
the Oak.

The uses of Willows and Willow-wood in Europe are very
numerous. It is generally a close, fine-grained, white wood,
capable of taking a smooth and equal polish, and remarkably
light withal. The osiers are very extensively used for all kinds
of basket-work ; and, as Virgil remarks, the shepherd sits beneath
its shade, while it affords fence for his field, browsing for his
Qock, and honey for the bees : —

"Salices, humilesque genistae,
Aut illas pecori frondem, aut pastoribus umbram
SuflBciunt, sepemque satis et pabula melli."

Georgicon, ti.

MAGNOLIA.*

Natural Order, Magnoliace^, (Jussieu.) Linncean Cla^sificationy

POLYANDRIA, POLTGTNIA.

Cabjx of tliree deciduous petaloid sepals. Corolla of from six to
twelve petals. Stamens numerous as well as tlie pistils. Carpels
disposed in an imbricated cone, 1 to 2-seeded, opening by the
dorsal suture. Seeds pulpy, red, suspended, when ripe hanging
out of the carpel by a long umbilical thread composed of spiral
vessels.

Trees and shrubs with large, entire, alternate, deciduous leaves,
and solitary, terminal, large, and usually odoriferous flowers. Chiefly
natives of N^orth America, China, and Japan.

LARGE-FLOWERED MAGNOLIA.

Magnolia grandiflora, Linn. (Micii., Sylva, plate 51.)

In the neighborhood of Savannah, in Georgia, and near New
Orleans, this splendid tree often presents an almost equal,
smooth, columnar shaft of sixty to eighty feet elevation, and

* Named by Linnasus in houor of Pierre Magnol, a botanist of Moutpellier.
96

LARGE-FLOWERED MAGNOLIA. 97

attains the height of one hundred feet or upward, with a grace-
ful, high, and sj)reading summit. On the trunk of this species,
near Savannah, I observed large quantities of the parasitic air-
plant, Epidenchum conopseum, and it appeared there to grow on
no other tree. According to Wm. Bartram, who saw the species
so abundant in his tour in Florida, its summit forms a perfect
cone, rising from a straight clear trunk, resembling a beautiful
column; and, from its dark foliage "silvered over with milk-
white flowers," it is seen at a great distance. The succession
of flowers is also long continued; in favorable situations from
May to August. Though confined very much to the neighbor-
hood of the sea-coast, it extends westward in Georgia as far as
Milledgeville ; and I met with it in Alabama, on the banks of
Utchee Creek, about twelve miles from Columbus in Georgia,
and afterward in other parts of that State down to West
Florida. It is known to the Creeks by the native name of
Toola.

In the new edition of Duhamel, we have the following ac-
count of its introduction into France. There is at Maillardiere,
about five miles from Nantes, a fine Magnolia, which was
brought from the banks of the MississijDpi, in 1732, and planted
in a poor soil. It grew there neglected for more than thirty
years, till M. Bonami, a j^hysician of Nantes and professor of
botany there, recognised this beautiful tree to be the Magnolia
grandifiora ; and at the meeting of the States of Bretagne in
September, 1760, in Nantes, he presented to the Princess of
Rohan-Chabet a fine branch of this Magnolia in flower, which
became a subject of conversation and interest to all assembled.
Louis XV. possessed several small plants of this species in his
garden at the Petit Trianon, but they did not thrive; and,
having heard of a Magnolia thirty-five to forty feet high,
which every year was covered with fine flowers of a delicious
perfume, he sent two of his gardeners to ascertain if it was
possible to transport this tree to Versailles, and, above all.

Vol. IV.— 7

98 LARGE-FLOWERED MAGNOLIA.

should they do so, if it would be certain to grow. They saw
the tree, and, being of opinion that it would not survive re-
moval, it was suffered to remain in its place. It was at that
time from thirty-five to forty feet high ; but, during the troubles
of the civil war of La Vendee, it was mutilated, and lost most
of its branches. Afterward, the burning of the house near
which it was planted having damaged its head, the branches
were cropped down to the trunk, and it again shot out with
vigor, but the young shoots, not having had time to ripen, were
destroyed by the frost; notwithstanding this severe check, it
again recovered, and afterward became a fine tree, between
twenty-five and thirty feet high, with a large, well-proportioned
head, and a trunk of four feet in circumference, the lower
branches sweeping the ground, and the whole tree producing
annually from three hundred and fifty to four hundred large,
elegant, and fragrant flowers. The seeds, however, never arrive
at perfect maturity, although the fruit attains its full size and
remains upon the tree till the following spring. This tree still
exists, and is now upward of thirty feet high and more than
one hundred years of age.

At Caserta, in the neighborhood of Naples, this tree has
attained the height of nearly sixty feet. In this climate they
also ripen seeds freely.

LONG-LEAVED MAGNOLIA.

Magnolia macrophylla. Michaux, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. i. p. 327.

Mich., Sylva, pi. 57.

The principal locality of this fine species has been for many
years confined to the vicinity of Lincolnton, North Carolina, ten
miles southeast of the town, near or on the estate of a man
named Smith. The trees occupy the banks of a small stream,
and are chiefly dispersed over its acclivities, in a rich loamy soil.
In Tennessee, near the Cumberland River, I afterward saw a
few small trees of this species; but in the winter of 1830, in
an extensive tour which I made through the interior of the
Southern States, I met with abundance of the Magnolia macro-
pliylla, seventy miles from Tuscaloosa, on the banks of the
Coosa in Bibb county, Alabama, growing often in the same
bottom-lands as the IlUcium Floridanum. To give me some idea
of the magnitude of the Magnolias growing in this vicinity, a
farmer told me some trunks produced sixteen rails to the mit,
and that the trees were two feet in diameter; but as timber it
was little esteemed, not enduring long in the air. To the town
of Cahawba, I still saw the Magnolia; and afterward, in the
immediate vicinity of Tuscaloosa, on the road down the banks
of the Black Warrior, toward Florida, I observed this species in
the greatest abundance, often as much as sixty feet in height;
but, being the depth of winter, I of course could form no ade-
quate conception of the splendor of its appearance when in
vigorous vegetation.

Ear-Leaved Magnolia, [Magnolia auriculata, Lam. Lo)ig-
leaved Cucumber Tree, Mien., Sylva, pi. 56.) In Bartram's Gar-
den, at Kingsessing, in this vicinity, there is a tree of this

99

100 UMBRELLA AND TULIP TREES.

species seventy or more feet high, and with a trunk of the
diameter of two to three feet.

Umbrella Tree, {Magnolia tyipetala.) According to Professor
Torrey, no person since Michaux has found this tree in any
part of the State of New York.

Tulip Tree, [Liriodendron tulipifera, Linn.) Respecting the
northern limits of this tree, G. B. Emerson, Esq., informs me,
" I have found a single tree of Liriodendron in Norfolk county,
Massachusetts. It is plentiful on Westfield River."

DRIMOPHYLLUM.

Nataral Order, Laurine^, (Ventenat.) Linncean Classificaticxii^
Enneandria, Monogtnia.

Flowers hermaphrodite. — Perigonium 6-cleft, subcampanulate, the
segments spathulate-linear, equal, deciduous, the base persistent.
Stamina nine, in three series, all fertile, filaments short, the three of
the inner series witli a pair of roundish, large, sessile glands, near
the base of each. Anthers elliptic-ovate and similar, all opening on
the inner side, 4-celled, the cells equal and parallel, with all the
valves ascending. Ovarium 1-celled, with one ovule. Style short;
stigma somewhat depressed, capitate. Berry 1-seeded.

A sempervirent, small tree of Upper California, with alternate,
lanceolate, minutely reticulated, pungently aromatic, smooth leaves.
Flowers small, yellow, smooth, in small terminal naked clusters.
(Nearly allied to Ocotea of Aublet, but with hermaphrodite flowers,
similar and uniformly introrse anthers, and a deciduous perianth. The
leaves are also naked, without pennate nerves, and the inflorescence
not in panicles. It is also nearly allied to Aperiphracta of Nees, but
with flowers of a very dififerent habit, and, with those genera, belongs
to the tribe Oreodaphne^.)

* From Apc/wq, acrid to the taste, and fu?.Xov, a leaf.

101

CALIFORNIAN BAY TREE.

Drimophyllum pauciflorum.

OCOTEA SALICIFOLIA? KUNTH, SyNOPS., vol. i. p. 458.

This is a very elegant evergreen tree of Upper California,
growing round Santa Barbara, twenty to twenty-five or thirty feet
high, with erect, terete, and smooth branches. The wood is
white and rather soft. The leaves are alternate, evergreen,
coriaceous, perfectly smooth, three to four inches long and
three-quarters to one and a quarter inches wide, lanceolate-
pointed, but obtuse, entire, with very indistinct slender lateral
nerves, and strongly but minutely reticulated above; the foot-
stalks are about two to three lines long. The odor and taste
of the leaves are very aromatic, the latter so much so as to be
quite pungent, even more so than the leaves of the Bay; and
they are employed as condiments by the inhabitants. The
flowers are in small contracted clusters, at first surrounded with
bud scales, which are caducous, but not in the form of an invo-
lucrum. The flowers are about four or five together, on pedicels
nearly as long as themselves. The perianth is yellowish, fun-
nel-formed, and somewhat spreading, deeply 6-cleft, the segments
linear-spathulate and smooth, a little pubescent within toward
the base. Stamens nine, with short and broad filaments, the
anthers oblong, 4-celled, all opening from within, the cells
parallel and nearly all equal, with the valves ascending, the
three innermost each furnished toward the base of the filament
with two large reniform, sessile glands. The perianth is deci-
duous, the base alone being persistent, and enlarging with the
1-seeded berry. The perfect fruit I have not seen.

PLATE XXII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flower enlarqed.
102

Pl.XXII.

iM'imDfikylliuu paiieitloriun

UMBELLULARIA,

(Nees, ab Esenb.)

Natural Order, LAUEiNEiE. Linncean Classification, Ennean-

DRIA, MONOGTNIA.

Flowers hermaphrodite. — The perianth deeply 6-parted and shortly
campanulate, the segments equal and deciduous. Stamina twelve,
the nine exterior fertile, interior sterile, the three fertile innermost
ones each with a pair of large glands covering the back of the
filament. Anthers 4-celled, those of the third series with the two
upper cells introrsely opening, the lower extrorsely and lateral ; the
sterile filaments thread-shaped. Stigma peltate, subrepand. Berry
1-seeded, seated on the cup-shaped base of the perianth.

A tree of Upper California, with alternate pennately-nerved leaves.
The flowers aggregated in axillary umbellated clusters, enclosed by
the involucrum ; the scales of the involucrum broadish, alternate, and
approximate ; after the opening of the flower, caducous.

103

CALIFORNIA^ UMBELLULARIA.

Umbellularia Californica, Mermaphrodita, foliis iieremiantihus ob-
longo-lanceolatis vix acutis pemiinerviis reticulata-venosis glahris, pedun-
culis axillarihus simplicibus, floribus pluribus, umbella subeapitaia, pedun-
culo folio brevioribus.

Tetranthera ? Californica, Hooker et Arn., in Bot. Beecli. Yoy.,
p. 158. Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 137.

Laurus regia? Douglas, Journal, in Hook. Compan. Bot. Mag.,
vol. ii.

This splendid evergreen tree was discovered, on the northwest
coast, in Upper California, by Mr. Menzies, who first made known
to botanists the vegetable treasures of that interesting and then
unexplored region. Douglas afterward found it in nearly the
same country, south of the Columbia or Oregon, and adds, that
it attains the height of from forty to one hundred and twenty
feet, with a diameter of from two to four feet. It commences
at the southern limit of the prevailing Pine and Fir forests
which line the wastes of Oregon. The foliage gives out, when
bruised, a most powerful camphorated odor, which from its
pungency is capable of exciting sneezing. Flowering sj)ecimens
of this interesting tree were in Douglas's collection from Cali-
fornia. It is to be regretted, however, that no detailed descrip-
tion nor figure is given; and I had not the good fortune to meet
with it myself.

Sassafras, (Laurus sassafras, Linn.) The inhabitants of

North and South Carolina distinguish two kinds of Sassafras,

the Red and the White. The Bed or true L. sassafras I referred

(in the "Genera of North American Plants," vol. i. pp. 259, 260,)

to a sub-genus Euosmus, embracing also the following variety,

which I then considered as a species, by the name of L. (Euos-
104

REMARKS ON THE LAURIN^. 105

mus) alhida. It is distinguishable from the Red by having the
buds and twigs smooth and glaucous; its leaves are also smooth
and thin, and the veins almost obsolete beneath; the petiole is
apparently longer. The root is much more strongly camphor-
ated than that of the Red sort, and is nearly white. It is better
calculated to answer as a substitute for ochra (Hibiscus esculentus)
than the common kind, as the buds and young branches are
much more mucilaginous. It is abundant in North and South
CaroHna, from the Catawba Mountains to the east bank of the
Santee, growing with the common kinds.

From the present order of plants we derive the Cinnamon,
Cassia, and the Camphor. Several species afford the cinnamon
of commerce, and the Laurus Quixos produces that of Peru.
The cinnamon of Santa Fe de Bogota is afforded by Laurus
cinnamomoides. A great deal of the finest camphor of India,
however, is the product of the Dryobalano2:>s camjyJiora. The
volatile oil obtained from some species of Laurus found in the
vast forests between the Orinoco and the Parime is produced
in great abundance by merely making an incision into the bark
with an axe, as deep as the liber or young wood. It gushes out
in such quantities that several quarts may be obtained by a
single incision. It has the reputation of being a powerful dis-
cutient.

IV.— 7*

THE LINDEN, oe LIME TREE.

Natural Order, Tiliaceje, (Jussieu.) Linnasan Classijmatwn,

POLYANDRIA, MONOGYNIA.

V

TILIA.* (Linn.)

Sepals five. Petals five. Stamens numerous, disposed more or less in five
clusters, the central tuft (chiefly in the native species) transformed
into a petal. The ovary globular, villous, and 5-celled, each of the
cells bearing two ovules. Cajjside ligneous, globular, by abortion
only 1-celled, with one or two seeds. Cotyledons sinuate.

Trees of Europe and North America, with alternate dilated or
cordate leaves, oblique at the base, serrated on the margin, and with
a tough and fibrous bark ; stipules caducous. The flowers disposed
in flattish pedunculated clusters, (or cymes,) and with the peduncle
curiously adnate for a great part of its length to a large membra-
naceous, linear bracte. The rest of this family of plants are nearly
all tropical productions.

* An ancient Latin name, probably from the Greek TzreXsa, the Elm.

106

PL XXSIU

Tilia lieteroplivileL.

larqe -leaved Lmdm " Tilhul hctcrojilivlh

LAEGE-LEAVED LINDEN, or LIME.

TiLiA HETEROPHYLLA. FolUs ovatis, cirgute serraiis, basi nunc cordatis,
nunc oblique aui cequaliter iru7icaiis, subtus iomentosis ; nuce pisiformi. —
Yentenat, Mem. de I'lnstitut., torn. 4, p. 16, pi. 5. Pursh, Flor.
Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 363. Nouveau Duhamel, vol. i. p. 229.
Decandolle, Prod., vol. i. p. 513.

TiLiA HETEROPHYLLA. LeavGs glabroiis aud deep green above, very
wliite and velvety-tomentose beneath, the veins dark-colored and
neai'ly glabrous, with coarse mucronate serratures ; petals obtuse,
crenulate; staminodia (inner petals) spatulate, entire, style hairy
at the base. — Torrey and Gray, Flor. ISTorth Amer., vol. i. p. 239.

TiLiA ALBA. — Smith's Insects of Georgia, vol. i. p. 21, t. 11 ?

This is one of the rarest and most ornamental trees of the
whole genus ; and, as far as my own observations go, it is almost
wholly confined to the shady forests of the Ohio and its tributary
streams, to which Pursh also adds the banks of the Mississippi.
Torrey and Gray received it likewise from the neighborhood of
Macon, in Georgia, where it was collected by our late mutual
friend and excellent observer. Dr. Loomis. In descending the
Ohio, late in autumn, (about the year 1816,) I got out of
the boat in which I was descending, to walk round Le Tart's
Rapids above Cincinnati. Here I observed almost an exclusive
forest of this fine Linden, on a rather-elevated alluvial platform,
in a light, rich, calcareous soil. Most of the trees were tall and
rather slender, sixty to eighty feet in height, and the ground
was thickly strewed with their large and singular leaves, almost
as white as snow beneath. According to the herbarium of Mr.
Schweinitz, it exists also in Virginia, probably on the borders of
the streams which flow into the Ohio near Pittsburg; and
according to Dr. Short, of Lexington, Kentucky, it forms in
his vicinity one of the largest forest trees in the rich land a
there. Decandolle speaks of having received a specimen of

1(j7

108 LARGE-LEAVED LINDEN, OR LIME.

some very similar species from Mexico. It does not yet appear
to have been introduced into Europe, though it is properly
described in the New Duhamel, probably from Ventenat's essay,
as the leaves are said to be snow-white beneath.

The young branches are purplish and somewhat glaucous.
The largest leaves I have seen are about six or seven inches
long and three to five broad. In the young state, the white
pubescence beneath is most conspicuous when the leaves are
thinly covered; the hairs are stellate, the serratures are strong
and sharp, with acuminated rigid points; the upper surface is
dark green : the base of the leaf varies considerably ; sometimes
it is sinuated, at other times perfectly flat and truncated; the
leaves are always very oblique at the base. The flowers are
somewhat larger than those of T. Americana, and the fruit is
villous, nearly spherical, and certainly always without any ribs.

The TiLiA ALBA, White Lime of Michaux, plate 132, not
being the T. alba of Kitaibel and Alton, (Hort. Kew. 1. c.,)
which is a native of Hungary, it is necessary to change its
name, and we propose to call it Tilia Michauxii, (Michaux's
Lime,) if his plant should indeed prove to be any thing more
than a smoother variety of our T. heterojjhylla.

PLATE XXIII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fruit, b. Thejiowcr.

General Ohservations. The Lime has long been a favorite
tree for avenues and public walks; it is planted in the streets
of some of the principal towns of France, Holland, and Ger-
many, and it is used for forming avenues both on the continent
<)r Europe and in Great Britain. It has of late years been

LARGE-LEAVED LINDEN, OR LIME. 109

much planted along the streets in several towns and cities of
the United States, but in Philadelphia it is so much attacked
by insects that it probably will not long survive. The species
employed for this purpose appears to be princij)ally the Euro-
pean, while the native kinds, being more hardy and vigorous,
ought to have the preference, particularly the present species,
(2! heteropliyUa,) which in a good soil becomes a large tree, and
is at the same time splendidly ornamental. The insect that
devours the leaves of the Linden appears to be a moth,''' which
suspends its cocoons at the ends of the twigs of the trees it has
stripped; these ought carefully to be removed and destroyed,
by which means the evil, if not wholly cured, would be de-
cidedly mitigated.

The Dutch plant the Lime in towns, along their widest
streets, and by the sides of their canals; and the whole
country is thus perfumed by their flowers during the months
of July and August : they likewise aflbrd an ample repast for
the bees.

The wood of the European Lime Tree is of a pale yellow or
white, close-grained, soft, light, and smooth, and not liable to
be attacked by insects. It is used by pianoforte-makers for
sounding-boards, and by cabinet-makers for a variety of pur-
poses. It is turned into domestic utensils of various kinds,
carved into toys, &c. The most elegant use to which it has
been applied is for carving, for which it is superior to any other
wood. Many of the fine carvings in Windsor Castle, St. Paul's,
Trinity College Library at Cambridge, and in the Duke of
Devonshire's mansion at Chatsworth, from the hand of the
celebrated Gibbons, are of this wood. It makes excellent char-
coal for gunpowder. Baskets and cradles were formerly made
from the twigs. The leaves are also employed as fodder for
cattle m Europe. It is in Russia and some parts of Sweden

* A species of Oiketicus.

no LARGE-LEAVED LINDEN, OR LIME.

that the well-known bass mats are formed from the inner bark
of this tree. The bark stripped from young trees of six inches
to a foot in diameter is selected for this purpose. These strips
are steeped in water till the bark separates freely into layers ;
it is then taken out and separated into strands, which are dried
in the shade, and afterward manufactured into the mats so
much used by gardeners and upholsterers, and for covering
packages. The fishermen of Sweden make fishing-nets of the
fibres of the inner bark, formed into a kind of flax; and the
shepherds of Carniola even weave a coarse cloth of it, which
serves them for their ordinary clothing. The whole plant
abounds with mucilage, the sap, like that of the Maple, affords
a considerable quantity of sugar, and the honey produced by
the flowers is considered superior to all other kinds for its deli-
cacy, selling at three or four times the price of common honey;
in Europe, it is used exclusively in medicine, and for making
some particular kinds of liqtieurs, especially rosolio. This Lime
Tree honey is only to be procured at the little town of Kowno,
on the river Niemen, in Lithuania, which is surrounded by an
extensive forest of Lime Trees. The triturated fruit produces
also a paste very similar to that of cocoa. During the taste
for grotesque decorations, the Lime, like the Yew, was cut into
various imitative forms, and in some of the public gardens of
recreation round Paris and Amsterdam there are very imposing
colonnades, arcades, walls, pyramids, and other architectural-
looking masses formed of this tree.

The European Linden attains a height of upward of one
hundred feet, and grows with vigor for several centuries. In
Switzerland there are some very large and ancient Lime Trees :
one, mentioned by Decandolle the younger, near Morges, has a
trunk of twenty-four feet four inches in circumference ; another,
near the great church at Berne, which was planted before the
year 1410, is thirty-six feet in girth.

MANGLE.

Natural Order, RnizopnoRE^, (R. Brown.) Linncean Classifica-
tion, DODECANDRIA, MoNOGT.

RHIZOPHORA.* (Linn.)

Tube of the calyx obovate, coherent with the ovary, the border
divided into four oblong, persistent segments. Petals four, ob-
long, emarginate, coriaceous, conduplicate, before expansion em-
bracing the alternate stamens, the margins each with a double
row of long, woolly hairs. Stamens twice as many as the petals ;
anthers nearly sessile, large, linear-oblong. Ovary 2-celled, with
two ovules in each cell. Style conical, short, 2-furrowed; stigma
2-toothed or bifid. Fruit ovate or oblong, crowned near the base
with the persistent segments of the calyx, longer than the tube,
at length perforated at the apex by the radicle of the germinating
embryo.

Maritime trees of the tropics, with entire opposite leaves and
axillary flowers.

* The name, from pc^a, a 7'oof, ^epw, to hear, in allusion to the seed ger-
minating before it falls from the branches.

Ill

AMERICAN MANGLE, or MANGROVE.

Rhizophora Americana. Foliis ohovato-ohlongis obiusis; pedunculis
tricJiotomis peiiolo longioribus, siylis subulatis bifidis, fruciibus subidato-
clavatis obiusis.

Rhizophora mangle. — Jacquin, Amer., p. 141, t. 89. Brown, Jam.,
p. 211. Decand., Prod., vol. iii. p. 32. Kutt., Florid., pi. Sill. 5,
p. 295. Tor. and Gray, vol. i. p. 484, (not of Linn.)

Gandela Americana foliis laurinis. — Catesby's Carol., vol. ii. p. 63,
t. 63.

Mangle aquatica, foliis subroiundis ei pundaiis. — Plumier, Gen., p. 13.
Sloane, Jam., p. 155, Hist., vol. ii. p. 63.

Margue Guapariba. — Piso's Brazil, 1. 4, c. 87, E,.

This tree is found in the maritime swamps of Louisiana and
East Florida, and along the coast of Texas is not uncommon.
The Mangrove, like the famous Banyan Fig, sends out innu-
merable roots into the surrounding marshes from the fusi-
form fruits which terminate its branches, so that after a while
a single tree becomes, as it were, the parent of a whole forest
of several miles in extent; and, growing well even into the
salt water, it is not unfrequent to see their branches loaded
with oysters (the Ostrea folium) of an exquisite flavor. Those
thickets likewise afford a resort for various kinds of sea-fowl,
and, fringing the margin of the ocean and the salt-pools with
their spreading summits, they give a peculiar feature to the
tropical landscape, but at the same time afford shelter to clouds
of mosquitos. The bark and fruit are useful for tanning : the
flower, according to Loureiro, dyes a very durable black, and,
according to Sloane, affords a material for ink.

The Mangrove of the West Lidies and Tropical America

becomes a tree about forty to fifty feet high and two to three

feet in diameter, with a ferruginous bark and white wood of no

great value except for fuel ; yet, according to Sloane, the wood
112

P!.:^.^'

C'^T^ *^HL *

k M

Ju

""^'^Bil \ ''

V\

m^k

^^^

-X'

JWovIm (hi

BJuzopliora AiiierteaiLa

AMERICAN MANGLE. 113

is good for building and for shingles. The wood of that of India,
as described by Roxburgh in his " Flora Indica," is of a dark-
reddish color, hard, and durable.

The Mangrove is not very tall, but very branching; the
branches, almost always opposite, elongated and pendant.
When touching the soil, they strike root and become new
trees, which remultiply themselves in the same manner, thus
forming an almost impenetrable barrier on the borders of the
sea.

The leaves are opposite, entire, coriaceous, at first folded in-
ward, with caducous stipules between the petioles. The flowers
are pale yellow, the segments of the calyx lanceolate. The
anthers are subulate; the margin of the petals pilose; the
style bifid, with the divisions rather long and subulate. The
verdure of the Mangrove is dark and gloomy, and the whole
tree, inhabiting a region of desolation, presents an aspect of
sadness.

The most extraordinary plant of this, or rather a nearly-allied
genus, is the Rliizo^phora gymnorJiiza of Linnaeus, (now Brugiera.)
This tree grows commonly in the maritime marshes of India;
and the branches of its numerous roots, ascending into the air,
produce the appearance of a large umbrageous tree, as it were,
on stilts, or, as Roxburgh says, supported in the air on a circle
of converging hop-poles. The fruit, the leaves, and the bark ol
this species are also said to afford food to the native inhabitants.
A figure of it is given by Rumphius, vol. iii. t. 68, and by Rheede,
in the "Flora Malabarica," vol. vi. tab. 31, 32.

PLATE XXIV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fruit.

Vol. TV.— 8

GUAYA.

Natural Order, Myrtace^. Linnwan Classificatmi, Icosandria,

MONOGYNIA.

PSIDIUM.* (Linn.)

Calyx-ivihQ (or external germ) ellipsoid or obovate, often contracted
at the summit ; tlie border at first undivided and ovate while in
flower, afterward 1 to 5-cleft. Petals, five. Stamens very numerous,
distinct. Style filiform ; stigma capitate. The ovary with from five
to twenty cells, some of them abortive, each cell subdivided by the
interposition of a placenta resembling a dissepiment. Ovules nume-
rous, horizontal. Fruit a many-seeded berry, coated with the
adhering tube of the calyx and crowned by its persisting lobes.
The seeds scattered through the pulp in the ripe berry, having a
bony or hard shell. The embryo curved in a half-circle round the
protruded base of the testa. Cotyledons minute ; the radicle rather
long.

Trees or shrubs chiefly indigenous to the intertropical regions of
America, with opposite, entire, impunctate, feather-nerved leaves.
Peduncles axillary, 1 to 3-flowered, each flower with a pair of bractes.
The flowers white.

* One of the Greek names for the Pomegranate. Gvava is a corruption of
the American aboriginal name of Gnnijahn.

114

PLXX^",

Tlorida Crizara

Pisidiuia bunfoliiuiL

Oi/rarier- de^7xi Floruie

FLORIDA GUAVA.

PsiDiUM BUXIFOLIUM. Glabrum, ramulis terciibus, folils ijarvulis coriaceis
cimeaio-obovatis obtusis subsessilibus margine revolutiSy peduncuUs solitariis
brevissimis unijioris, fructu pyriformi.

For a knowledge of this interesting tree or shrub we are
indebted to the late indefatigable Dr. Baldwin, who met with it
in some part of East Florida near the river St. Johns. To
show how very unlike this species is to all the others known, it
was hastily marked by Mr. Schweinitz, in his herbarium, (of
which the specimen forms a part,) " Qmrmts virem" and at the
first hasty glance some resemblance may be traced with the
Live Oak in the leaf and twig; but, of course, the presence of
the fruit at once dispels the illusion.

I have seen but the single specimen now figured, and would

recommend its examination to some future traveller. The twig

is round, covered with a gray bark, and at near distances marked

with the cicatrices of opposite fallen leaves. The leaves on the

upper branchlets are crowded together in opposite pairs, of a

very thick, opaque, rigid consistence, and appear to be semper-

virent; they are perfectly smooth on both sides, paler beneath,

dark-green above, cuneate-obovate, obtuse, sometimes with an

attempt at a very short and blunt acumination, with the margin

reflected, and beneath marked with numerous approximating

feathered nerves; they are from one inch to one and a half

inches long by one-half to three-quarters of an inch wide. The

peduncles are axillary and solitary, very thick in the fruit-stalk,

and scarcely two lines long. The flowers I have not seen. The

berry is blackish-purple, pear-shaped, about the size of a cherry,

and appears to have been succulent, as usual; internally it is

filled with horizontal rows of flat, subreniform, pale-brownish,

bony seeds, with a narrow embryo curved into the form of a

115

116 FLORIDA GUAV A.

horseshoe. The cotyledons are very small, and in the seed are of
a bright waxy yellow. This species is very nearly allied to the
Purple-fruited Guava, (P. Cattleianum,) scarcely differing in any
thing but the smallness of the leaves and the pyriform fruit,
though the leaves of the Purple Guava, besides being much
larger, are also pubescent when young. Most of the species of
this genus are cultivated in the tropics for their fruit. The P.
pyriferum, or Common Guava, bears a fruit about the size of
a hen's egg, yellowish, with a peculiar odor; the pulp is rather
firm, flesh-colored, sweet, agreeable, and aromatic. In the West
Indies it is highly esteemed by all classes, being eaten raw, as a
dessert, or formed into an excellent sweetmeat and jelly.

Of the fruit of the Purple Guava, to which ours is so closely
related, Lindley remarks, "The excellent flavor of its fruit,
which is very like that of strawberries and cream, is far supe-
rior to either P. 'pyriferum, jpomiferum, or polycarpon." Mr.
Sabine remarks of the fruit of this species, "that it is juicy, of
a consistence much like that of a strawberry, to which it bears
some resemblance in flavor."

What the present species may become, when cultivated, re-
mains to be proved; but in a genus so generally interesting for
their fruit, the experiment is worth making when an opj)or-
tunity may offer. Probably Dr. Baldwin found it growing near
or above New Smyrna, as he did not go much farther into the
Ulterior of East Florida.

PLATE XXV.

A branch of the natural size in fruit.

PiXXVl

('aly|»lvaiitlies clixti-aeiiiia

CALYPTRANTHES.

(SWARTZ.)

Natural Order ^ Myrtace^. Linncean Classijication, Icosajstdria,

MONOGYNIA.

Tube of tlie cali/x obovate, witb the border entire; when flowering,
bursting circularly in the form of a lateral, and at length deci-
duous, lid. Petals none, or two or three and minute. Stamens many.
Style one ; stigma simple. Ovary 2 or 3-celled, the cells 2-seeded.
The berry by abortion 1-celled, 1 to 4-seeded.

Small trees of the West India Islands and of Brazil, the leaves
with pinnated veins. Flowers small and numerous, usually in axillary
or terminal panicles.

FORKED CALYPTEANTHES.

Calyptranthes chytraculia. Arborea, foliis ovaiis apice attenuatis
rigidiusculis demwn glabris, pedunculis axillari-terminalibus irichotomis
paniculatis floribusqiie rufo-velutinis. — Decand., Prod., vol. iii. p. 257.

C. CHYTRACULIA. Avborea, peduneulis terminalibus irichotomis iomentosis,
foliis ovatis ajnce attenuatis. — Swartz, Prod., p. 79; Flor. Ind. Occid.,
vol. ii. p. 921.

* The name from xaXunrpa, a veil, and avdoq, a /tower, in allusion to the oper-
culid form of the calyx.

117

118 FORKED CALYPTRANTHES.

Myrtus chytraculia. PeduncuUs dichoiomis panicuUdis tomcntosis,
foliis geminis subovatis terminalibiis. — ^Linn., Amoen. Acaclem., vol. v.
p. 398. SwARTz, Observ., p. 202.

Chyiracidia arborea, foliis ovatis glabris opposiiis^ racemis ierminalibus.
— ^Brown, Jamaic, p. 239, t. 37, fig. 2.

Eugenia pallens? Poiret, Suppl., vol. iii. p. 122.

This plant forms an elegant and curious small tree, with hard
wood, and in Jamaica is accounted an excellent timber; but the
trunks seldom exceed fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter.
In Jamaica it is found in the dry mountain-lands ; it is also
indigenous to the islands of St. Thomas and Guadaloupe, and it
has now also been found on Key West by Dr. Blodgett.

The branches appear to be covered with a gray and smooth
bark. The leaves, when in bud, as well as the young branches,
flower-stalks, and calyx, are clad with a short, soft, ferruginous
down, which wholly disappears from the leaves as they advance
in their development; they are of a lanceolate-ovate form,
narrowed into a short petiole below; above, acuminate but
obtuse ; beneath they are distinctly pennate-nerved, and too
opaque to admit the light through the resinous glands with
which they are nevertheless provided : they are about two
inches long by an inch in width. The flowering panicles are
trichotomous, usually terminal, and considerably ramified. The
flowers are small and whitish, from the color of the stamens.
The calyx is ferruginous and tomentose, formed of a small
obovate even cup; the whole border, separating in a circular
manner, flies over to one side, in the form of a rounded petal,
from whence issue the numerous filiform stamens with small
whitish anthers. The germinal fruit appears small, dry, and
tomentose; but I am unacquainted with it in a ripe state.

PLATE XXVI.

A branch of the natural size. a. A floioer magnified^ shoiving the lateral
adherence of the lid of the calyx.

EUGENIA.*

(MicHELi, Linn.)

Natural Order, Myrtaceje. Linncean Classification, Icosandria,

MONOGYNIA.

The tube of the calyx roundish, with the border deeply 4-parted.
Petals four. Stamens many, free. Ovary 2 to S-celled, the cells
containing several ovules. Berry sub-globose, crowned with the
persisting calyx ; when mature, 1 or rarely 2-celled. Seeds one or
two, roundish and large. The embryo pseudo-monocotyledonous,
the cotyledons very thick and wholly blended together, the radicle
more or less distinct and very short.

These are trees or shrubs mostly indigenous to the Caribbean Is-
lands, or the warmer parts of America. The leaves and inflores-
cence are very similar to those of the Myrtles.

* So named in honor of Prince Eugene of Savoy, who was a protecter and
encourager of botany, and possessed a botanic garden.

119

SMALL-LEAVED EUGENIA.

Eugenia dichotoma. Pedimculis axillaribus oppositis et subterminalibus
folio longioribus bifidis aut bis bijidis, Jioribus in dichotomiis sessilibus
cceteris pedicellatis, foliis elliptico-lanceolatis basi atteimatis pellucido-
punctaiis, adultis glabris, junioribus utrinque ramidis calycibusque pubes-
centibus. — Decand., Prod., vol. iii. p. 278.

Mtrtus dichotoma. — Vahl ! MSS., Poiret, Supplem., vol. iv. p. 53?
^ fragrans, foliis ovatis glabris. Eugenia fragrans. Willd., Sp.
PL, vol. ii. p. 964. Bot. Magaz., t. 1242. E. montana, Aubl.,
Guian., vol. i. p. 495, t. 195 ?

Eugenia divaricata, Lam., Encyc, p. 202.

This elegant and fragrant species of Eugenia, resembling a
Myrtle, becomes, at Key West, according to Dr. Blodgett, a
tree. It is also indigenous to the islands of St. Domingo and
Cuba, where specimens have been collected by Poiteau and La
Sagra. The variety fragrans (for such I must consider it) is a
native of the high mountains in the southern part of Jamaica
and Martinique, and, if the same with Aublet's E. montana,
is also a native of Guiana. The E. fragrans has many years
since been collected by Dr. Baldwin, in the vicinity of New
Smyrna, in East Florida.

The wood of E. divaricata, according to Lamarck, is hard,
close-grained, and reddish, and is much esteemed for articles of
furniture. The wood of the Florida Tree is exactly similar;
while that of E. montana, according to Aublet, is hard, com-
pact, and white.

The branches of the plant now figured are covered with a

smooth, light-gray or silvery bark, and at the summits are

crowded with small, shining, almost opaque, leaves, but yet

interspersed with the usual resinous vesicles of the genus ; they

are from an inch to an inch and a half in length, and about

three-quarters of an inch in breadth, mostly elliptic or elliptic-
120

PlXSYIt

Eii^eiiia dielioiottia .

SMALL-LEAVED EUGENIA. 121

oblong, and always narrowed below ; sometimes they are nearly
lanceolate and obtuse at the point ; scarcely any veins are visi-
ble on either side, but the midrib is prominent beneath. The
young leaves, buds, peduncles, and calyx are clothed with a
close, short, hoary pubescence, which in the variety fragrans
is much less distinct or almost wanting. The peduncles are
axillary, coming out toward the summits of the branches, and
are of various lengths, sometimes only a little longer than the
leaves, at other times crowded into trichotomous branchlets
two or three times longer than the leaves ; in their most simple
form, except by the abortion of the lateral buds, they terminate
in three flowers, the central one sessile in the fork, and the
lateral ones on longish, diverging pedicels ; at other times the
peduncles are twice trifid, or even more ramified, and lengthened
out very much in the progressive ripening of the fruit. The
segments of the calyx are always four, broad and rounded,
covered with resinous cists or vesicles, and pubescent or ciliate
on the margins. The petals are likewise rounded or concave,
whitish, with a tinge of red. The stamens are numerous.
Style simple and subulate. The berry at length only 1-seeded.
There are a pair of minute, subulate bractes under the base of
each flower-bud, but so deciduous that they are seldom to be
seen.

One of the specimens of the variety fragrans, from New
Smyrna, has very slender twigs ; and on the same specimen
there are obtuse and very si tar ply-acute leaves. In this also
the peduncles are chiefly axillary. This plant is nearly as
fragrant as the common Myrtle.

PLATE XXVII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flower a little enlarged, b. The berry,

of the natural size.

IV.— 8^

TALL EUGENIA.

Eugenia procera. PedicelUs unifioris axillaribus 2-4:-eo7iferiis folio
brevioribus sub flore bibracieolatls, foliis ovatis obtuse acumiyiatis ra-
misque glabris. — Poiret, Suppl. Encyc, vol. ii. p. 129. Decand.,
Prod., vol. iii. p. 268.

Myrtus procera. Pechmculis confertis axillaribus unifloris, foliis ovatis
acuminatis planis glabris, ramis virgatis, caule arboreo. — Swartz, Prod.,
p. 7T. Flor. Ind. Occident, vol. ii. p. 887. Willd., Sp. pi.,
vol. iv. p. 968.

This is another plant with the aspect of a Myrtle, which
becomes a tree and attains an elevation of twenty to thirty
feet. It was discovered by Swartz in the forests of the interior
of Hispaniola. It is likewise indigenous to the islands of Mar-
tinique and Santa Cruz, and has now been found common on
Key West by the same gentleman who met with the pre-
ceding species.

The wood appears to be white and close-grained. The twigs
are clothed with a light gray, almost white and silvery, bark,
and are spreading and sometimes zigzag. The leaves are on
short petioles one and a half to two and a half inches long by
an inch to an inch and a half wide, ovate-acuminate, and ob-
tuse, rather opaque, nearly scentless, though provided with the
usual resinous vesicles, and from the bud they are perfectly
smooth. The flowers are said to be fragrant, and come out on
separate axillary peduncles, from two to four together; the
peduncles at first are not more than three or four lines long,
but grow out at length to the extent of half an inch. The seg-
ments of the calyx are four, rounded and broad, rough, with
aromatic vesicles, but smooth. The petals, four, are rounded
and concave, slightly ciliated, and appear to have been reddish
white. Stamens numerous, the anthers whitish. The berry

spherical, brownish yellow, about the size of a grain of black
122

pj.yxvnL

IJl.,r/er dO

u/7 h

f<(/eni(i'.

F,iit>t'iiia prooera.

/innJwsii'r ff^re

PIXXBT.

Kiiijeuia biixiLolia

BOX-LEAVED EUGENIA. 123

pepper, studded over with numerous glands or aromatic cists,
and crowned with the broad, persisting border of the calyx ; at
first 2-celled, with several ovules ; at length the berry is only
1-seeded; the seed large, with no distinct cotyledons. It
flowers in April. The size of the leaves appears to vary, so
that in some specimens they are uniformly only about half the
dimensions we have given.

PLATE XXVIII.

A branch of the natural size and of the large-leaved kind. a. A cluster of

the berries.

BOX-LEAVED EUGENIA.

Eugenia buxifolia. Pedunculis axillaribus ramosis multifloris brevissimis,

jjedicellis sub flore bibracteolatis, foliis obovato-oblongis obtusis basi atte-

nuatis opaeis subtus jnmctatis margine subrevolutis. — Decand., Prod.,

vol. iii. p. 275. Willd., Sp. pi., vol. ii. p. 960.
Myrtus buxifolia. Racemulis brevissimis confertis axillaribus, foliis

cuneatis oblongis obtusis convexiusculis. — Swartz, Prod., p, 78. Flor.

Ind. Occid., vol ii. p. 899. M. monticola? Swartz, Flor. lud. Occid.,

vol. ii. p. 898.
Myrtus axillaris. Poiret, Diet, vol. iv. p. 412, (non Swartz.) M.

Poireti, Spreng. Syst., vol. ii. p. 483.

This plant, also a native of Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica,
has been observed at Key West by Dr. Blodgett, where it is very
common in sterile places, affecting the vicinity of the sea, and
becoming a tree of about twenty feet in height, with a hard,
white, close-grained wood. The bark is whitish-gray and even ;
the twigs are slender, and chiefly clothed with leaves toward

124 BOX-LEAVED EUGENIA.

their summits; they are wedge-oblong, sometimes almost lanceo-
late, obtuse, and always narrowed below into a minute petiole,
so that they appear to be nearly sessile, above of a darkish
green and somewhat shining, beneath dull and paler, slenderly
nerved beneath, somewhat opaque, punctate, and slightly revo-
lute on the margin ; they are about one and a half inches long by
one-half to three-quarters of an inch wide. The flowers are very
small, in axillary branching clusters of three to seven together
on the minute and very short bracteate raceme ; there are two
minute bracteoles under each flower; the calyx as well as the
petals are studded with resinous glands, and the latter are more
than twice the length of the calyx. The calyx, racemes, and
minute branchlets are covered with a close brownish pubescence.
The flowers are polygamous, on many specimens sterile, though
furnished with the pistillum; and many of the flowering clusters
are produced on the naked branches where they have been pre-
ceded by the former leaves. The berry is dark brown, covered
with resinous glands or cists, about the size of a grain of black
pepper, and when mature contains one or more (rarely two)
large seeds in one or two cells, with blended, inseparable coty-
ledons.

PLATE XXIX.

A branch of the natural size. a. A fioiDer enlarged, b. The berry, e. A

berry with two cells.

Tjuf^an ^/jT,

TemiuuilJa cnl-appn

Jiudaifucr de -JYa/aicir.

INDIAN ALMOND.

Natural Order, Combretace^, (R. Brown.) Linnoean Classificcv-
tion, Decandria, Monogynia.

TERMINALIA. (Linn. Decand.)

Flowers often polygamous from abortion. — Border of the cali/x deci-
duous, campanulate, 5-cleft, tlie divisions acute. Petals none.
Stamens ten, in a double row, longer than the calyx. Ovary with
two or three ovules. Style filiform, somewhat acute. Drvjje not
crowned by the calyx, often dry, indehisceut, 1-seeded. The seed
resembling an almond. Cotyledons spirally convolute.

Trees of the largest size or shrubs, with alternate or rarely opposite
leaves, crowded toward the extremities of the branches, and hence
the generic name. Flowers in spikes ; the spikes in racemes or
panicles, bisexual in the lower part, and male in the upper.

§ I. Catappa, (Gsertner.) The drupe corn])ressed, with the margin
winged or much attenuated.

CATAPPA, OR INDIAN ALMOND.

Terminalia catappa. Foliis ohovaiis basi attenuatis subtiis molliter ptibes-
centibus, glandidis minimis subtus in basi folii ad latus nervi medii.—
Decand., Prod., vol. iii. p. 11. Linn., Mantis., p. 519.

Terminalia catappa. Leaves about the extremities of the branch-
lets on short petioles, obovate, cuneate, and attenuated, at the same

time slightly cordate at the base, a little repand, with a large

125

126 CATAPPA, OR INDIAN ALMOND.

depressed gland beneath on each side the midrib near the base;
racemes axillary, solitary, simple, shorter than the leaves; drupe
oval, compressed, glabrous, with elevated navicular margins, convex
on both sides. — Arnot, Prod. Ind. Orient., vol. i. p. 313. Jacquin's
Ic. Ear., vol. i. tab. 197. Lam., lUust. tab. 848, fig. 1. Adamarum,
Rheed, Flora Malabarica, vol. iv. tabs. 3 and 4. Torrey and Gray,
Flor. N. Amer., vol. i. p. 485.

According to Torrey and Gray, Dr. Hasler has discovered this
splendid tree in Southern Florida. A variety of it is known to
exist in the Caribbean Islands, which Humboldt and Kunth
imagined to be introduced; but for this supposition there is pro-
bably no sufficient ground, as Poiteau collected it in the forests
of St. Domingo, of which I have a specimen now before me. A
near congener, if not the same thing, was found in Guiana by
Aublet, — his Tanihouca; yet the favorite region of its existence is
in the trojoical forests of India, on the sandy and gravelly coasts
of Malabar, and in the island of Java; it there becomes, accord-
ing to Rheed, a very large and splendid tree of a pyramidal
form, like that of a lofty Spruce, the leafy summit being com-
posed of almost-horizontal branches disposed in circular stages.
Its wood is white, very hard, covered with a smooth gray bark
which is red within. The leaves, situated near to the extremi-
ties of the branchlets, six or seven together, at intervals, form
circular clusters of great regularity; they are about six to nine
inches long by three to five wide, of an inversely-ovoid or
cuneate-oval figure, widening toward the summit, where they
become almost round, with a short, abrupt, slanting point in the
centre, narrowed and somewhat cordate at the base, nearly
entire, or obscurely though sometimes very distinctly crenulated
on the border, green and smooth above, slightly pubescent
beneath; the young leaves and shoots, as well as the petioles,
clothed with a brown and close tomentum. The flowers are
small, without scent, of a whitish green, and disposed in great
numbers in several almost terminal axillary slender spikes ; they

CATAPPA, OR INDIAN ALMOND. 127

are nearly sessile, with caducous, concave, oval, pointed bractes.
The calyx contains a small, very hairy, 5-toothed cup. The spikes
are not as long as the leaves. The fruit is an elliptic shell, a
little compressed, glabrous, surrounded with an elevated margin,
convex on both sides, and reddish brown when mature. This
dry drupe includes an oblong, Yery hard nut, of one cell, con-
taining a white kernel, of a taste approaching to that of the
filbert-nut, but more oily and soluble.

In India it is also cultivated in gardens. The large almond-
like kernels of its nuts are eaten and served at the best tables.
An oil is obtained from the kernels by expression, similar to that
of the olive, which is said never to become rancid. It is made
also into emulsions like almonds. The Indians employ the
leaves medicinally for indigestion, bilious affections, and other
maladies.

PLATE XXXII.

A small branch of the natural size. a. Thcfloioer. h. The nut.

Terminalia Benzoin has a milky sap, and was believed to pro-
duce the Benzoic acid, which, however, is now doubted.

Another of the species, Terminalia vernix, is said to afford the
celebrated Chinese and Japanese varnish used in their lacquer-
ware. This tree grows on the mountains of several of the
southern provinces of China, and in the Moluccas. It possesses
a lactescent juice, which, as well as its exhalations even, are said
to be deleterious; but the kernels of its fruits, like those of the
Catappa, are perfectly harmless and agreeable. At Batavia,
regular plantations are made of the Terminalia Moluccana, in the
gardens and places of public resort, for the sake of its agreeable
shade.

CONOCARPUS.

(GARTNER.)

Natural Order, Combretace^. LinncBan Classificati(yn, Pentan-

DRIA, MONOGYNIA.

The flowers densely aggregated in globular or oblong spike-like
aments. — Tube of the calyx about the length of the ovarj^, per-
sistent; the border 5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens five to ten, ex-
serted; the anthers heart-shaped. Ovary compressed, containing
two ovules. The fruits coriaceous, corky, and scale-like, closely
imbricated, and indehisceut. Cotyledons spirally convolute.

Small maritime trees or shrubs, with alternate, entire, somewhat
coriaceous leaves. Heads of flowers pedunculated, axillary, or termi-
nal, solitary or in panicles.

BUTTON TREE.

CoNOCARPUS ERECTA. Folus oUougis utrinque aevminatis scepius hasi
biglandulosis, capituUs paniculaiis. — Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 16.
Jacq., Amer., p. 78, t. 52. Catesby's Carolina, t. 38.

a arborea. — Decand., 1. c.

Conocarpus erecia. Fruits retrorsely imbricated in a subglobose head,
somewhat boat-shaped, scarcely winged ; tube of the calyx not
produced beyond the ovary; leaves oval-lanceolate, mostly acute
or acuminate at each end, usually with two glands at the base;
heads panicled. — Torrey and Gray, Flor. N. Amer., vol. i. p. 485.

* From xwvoq, a com, and xapr.uq, a fruit, its fruit resembling the cone of an

Alder.

128

PI XKXHL

ronut'iirpns er<nUi.

Jhiihni tref

(h/unYirpc dri'iJ.

B U T T 0 N T R E E. 129

Manghala arbor Curassavica foUis salignis. — Herm., Parad. Bat. Com-

MELiN, Hort. Amst., p. 115, cum. ic.
Alnus mariiima myriifolia coriariorum. — Pluk., Almag., 18, t. 240, f. 8.
Alni fructu laurifolia arbor mariiima. — Sloane, Jam. Hist., ii. p. 18, t.

161, f. 2.
Innominata. — Plum., ic. 135, t. 144, f. 2.

This is another tropical West Indian tree which the southern
extremity of East Florida has afforded. It has been observed
on the shore of Key West, Southern Florida, and around Tampa
Bay. In the West Indies, like the Mangrove, with which it
grows, and for a kind of which it is taken by the Spaniards,
who call it Mangle Saragoza, it affects the low sandy and muddy
shores near the sea, where it becomes an erect tree about thirty
feet high, with the trunk a foot in diameter, having a smooth,
whitish-gray bark and angular branchlets. In South America
it also exists on the coast of Guayaquil, and in Chili, near Val-
paraiso. In a country where the finest kinds of wood are so
common, that of the Button Tree is little esteemed, and it is,
therefore, only used for fuel; it is, however, fine and close-
grained, in the branches brownish white, capable of a high
polish, with scarcely any visible annual layers, and made up
almost wholly of dotted medullary rays. The general aspect of
its inflorescence, and, indeed, its closely-imbricated inelegant
heads of flowers, lead us almost to compare it with some of the
Amentacece, particularly the Alder, while its real relations are to
the present family, which includes in the Comhretum itself, and
the singularly-splendid Cacoucia of Aublet, some of the most
elegant and beautiful of plants.

The bark is gray, bitterish, and astringent, and no doubt
medicinal. The leaves, of a yellowish green, are from two to
three inches long, three-quarters to an inch broad, acute at each
end, very smooth, and on short petioles, which have frequently
two glands at the base. The flowers, for which butterflies have
a great predilection, are very inconspicuous, greenish yellow,

Vol. IV.— 9

130 BUTTON TREE.

small, and collected into globose heads, in axillary and terminal
few-flowered panicles on pedicels about the length of the capi-
tuli. The heads at length become reddish; the capsules are
small and scale-like, corky, dilated elliptic, internally concave,
with broad, thin, carinated margins, and are very often abortive,
never more than 1-seeded, and pubescent at the summit.

The island of Cuba affords another allied but very distinct
species, which may be the C. iDrocumheTis of Jacquin, put down
as a variety of the present by Decandolle; the calyx, however,
is almost entirely smooth, with very acute segments, and the
leaves are sharply apiculated, and sometimes obtuse with a
short point. In this the wood appears to be very hard, and as
close-grained as mahogany, of a dull white, inclining to gray,
with a delicate feathered appearance, and a thick bark, gray
externally and blackish within.

According to Prince Maximilian, the bark of the Conocarpus
racemosa (one of the plants called Mangrove in Brazil) is much
used at Rio Janeiro for tanning.

PLATE XXXIII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flower, h. The frvit, of the,
natural size. c. The same rnagmfied.

SILKY BUTTON TREE.

CoNOCARPUS ERECTA. y SERiCEA, (Forster, ill herb, rilerit.) Foliis
oblongis utrinque acuminatis ad uiramgue paginam etiam aduliis ad-
presse viUoso-sericeis. — Decand., Prod., vol. iii. p. 16.

Mangle foliis oblongis iniegris utrinque molli laimgine holosericea obduciis. —
Sloane, Hist. Jam., vol. ii. p. 67, tab. 187, fig. 2.

According to Sloane, this tree is known in Jamaica by the
name of the White Mangrove, and attains the height of twenty
feet, having white wood with a very small pith; the bark is
also smooth and whitish. This variety, or species, has also
been found, with the above, at Key West, in East Florida, by
Dr. Blodgett. We do not see any thing to distinguish it as a
separate species from the erecta except the peculiar silky,
shining pubescence with which the leaves continue to be clothed
even in the adult state.

131

♦

LAGUNCULARIA.*

(GARTNER.)

Natural Order, CoMBRETACEiE. LinncBan Classification, Decan-

DEIA, MONOGTNIA.

Calyx border persisting, subcampanulate, 5-lobed. Petals five, mi-
nute, spreading, and caducous. Stamens five or ten, in two series,
included. Style subulate ; stigma capitate. Nut margined, coria-
ceous, valveless, 1 or 2-seeded, crowned with the calyx. Cotyle-
dons convolute ; the radicle very long.

A tree of the Caribbean Islands, w^ith opposite, elliptic, smooth
leaves. Racemes opposite, many-flowered, the flowers sessile, fur-
nished with deciduous bractes ; the calyx bibracteolate at the sum-
mit. The seed germinating within the nut. A genus nearly allied
to LuMNiTZERA of India.

WHITE MANGROVE.

Laguncularia racemosa. Gartner, fil. Carpol., vol. iii. p. 209, t. 217.

Decand., Prod,, vol. iii. p. 17.
CoNOCARPUS RACEMOSA. FolUs lanccolafo-ovcitis obiusiuscuUs, fructibiis

seyrdgatis.—Lmis., Sp. pi. Willd., vol. ii. p. 095. Swartz, Obs.,

p. 79. Jacq., Amcr., p. 80, t. 53.

* From laguncula, a little bottle, iu allusion to the form of the nut.
132

pi.xxxrv.

La^imcularia racemosa

WHITE MANGROVE. 183

ConocarjMS, foliis ellipiico-ovatis, pctioUs higlandulosis, racemis laxis, fruc-

tibus sejimciis. — Browne, Jam., p. 159.
Mangle juUfera, foliis ellijyticis ex adverso nasceniihus. — Sloane, Jam.,

p. 156. Hist., vol. ii. p. m, tab. 187, f. 1. Eaii, Deudr., p. 115.
Sphenocarpus. — EiCHARD, Aual. Fr., p. 92.
ScHOUSBOA commutata. — Sprengel, Syst. Yeget., vol. ii. p. 332.

This plant is a native of the sandy and muddy shores of the
Caribbean Islands and the neighboring continent, where it be-
comes a lofty, branching tree, sometimes dividing into three or
four trunks close to the ground : it is called White Mangrove
by the English inhabitants of these islands. Dr. Blodgett has
sent specimens of this tree also from Key West, in East
Florida.

The branches are cylindric and brownish, the twigs ferru-
ginous; the leaves are opposite and smooth, about three inches
long and an inch and a half wide, upon short petioles, quite
entire, thick, and somewhat coriaceous, elliptic or ovate, obtuse,
and sometimes emarginate, with a pair of glands near the sum-
mit of the petiole, and, in most of the leaves, toward the edge
appear a number of raised glandular points, which are closed
or open. The flowers are disposed in axillary and terminal
elongated racemes, the racemes sometimes trifid. Flowers
small, sessile, greenish white ; the germ pyriform, and, as well
as the short border of the calyx, covered with a short, whitish,
silky pubescence. Petals five, very small and caducous. Sta-
mens five, not exserted. The germ at its summit with two
small, dentiform bracteoles, the bractes themselves short, broad-
ovate, and caducous. Style, at length somewhat exserted,
with a small, capitate stigma. Nut 1-seeded.

PLATE XXXIV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The nut in an early stage.

RABBIT BERRY.

Natural Order, El^eagne^, (Jussieu.) Linnoian Classification,

DlCECIA, OCTANDRIA.

■■J

SHEPHERDIA,* (Nuttall.) HIPPOPHAE (Pursh.)

Flowers dkecious. — Male calyx 4-cleft, mucli larger tlian that of the
female. Corolla, none. Stamina eight, alternating with a torus of
eight glands. Eemale flower with a small 4-cleft, superior, campa-
nulate calyx, and eight glands. Style one ; stigma oblique, snbcapi-
tate. Berry juicy, 1-seeded, globose, invested with the fleshy calyx.

Small trees, spinescent or unarmed, with the general aspect of
JElmagnus. Leaves entire, opposite, clothed with silvery and ferru-
ginous scales. Flowers small, in axillary clusters, or in sj)ikes.
Berries pulpy, diaphanous, scarlet, subacid.

RABBIT BERRY,

OR

WESTERN SHEPHERDIA.

Shepherdia argentea. Foliis oblongo-ovatis, obtusis, glabris, utrinque
argenteo-lepidotis, floribus glomeratis. — Nutt., Gen. Amer., vol. ii.
p. 240. Loudon's Encyc. Plants, p. 836, Arboretum et Frutic,
p. 1321, fig. 1208. Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 138,
tab. 178, (well illustrated.)

Hippophae argentea. — ^Pursh, Flor. Bor. Am., p. 115.

* Named in honor of the late Mr. Wm. Shepherd, then curator of the Liver-
pool Botanic Garden. A most scientific gardener and skik'nl cultivator.
134

PI.XXXV.

Slifjilu-rtlia aroejilea.

RABBITBERRY. 135

This very useful, hardy, and ornamental tree is wholly a
native of the northern and western regions of North America.
Dr. Richardson observed it on the banks of the Saskatchawan,
between Carlton and Edmonton House Forts, in the latitude
of 54°, and Major Long's party found it growing on the borders
of Rainy Lake, about latitude 49°. On the banks of the Mis-
souri, the limit of its southern range is the borders of the Platte,
but it appeared to be most abundant and fertile around Fort
Mandan, or the Great Northern Bend of the Missouri, in about
the latitude of 48°; here it becomes a small tree twelve to
eighteen feet in height, and when adorned with its brilliant
scarlet berries, produced in thick clusters so as almost to conceal
the branches, few objects are more ornamental, contrasted also
with the silvery hue of the leaves, which reminds one of the
useful Olive: it presents at once an appearance both striking
and novel.

Among the natives and Canadian voyageurs it has several
different names. According to Lewis and Clarke, it w^as known
on the Missouri, to the natives, by the name of the Rabbit Berry,
from being fed on, probably, by those animals, and it was met
with by their party in the gorges of the Rocky Mountains.
Richardson says the Creek Indians give it a name which signi-
fies Bloody Berry, (Metheoo-meeva,) from the singular redness
and transparency of its fruit. The Canadian voyageurs called
it Graisse de hceuf, or Buffalo-fat, from the imaginary relish of
the berries, or from the practice of mixing them with their fat
pounded meat or pemmican.

In 1815 I introduced a plant into the Liverpool Botanic
Garden; but, being kept in the greenhouse, it was, I joresume,
killed with kindness, and was soon lost. About twelve or
fifteen years ago, my friends Messrs. Windships, of Brighton, in
Massachusetts, in the vicinity of Boston, obtained a few seeds
of the STiepIierdia from the banks of the Missouri, which, grow-
ing, gave origin to all the plants now in the United States and

136 R A B B I T B E R R Y.

in Europe. A standard tree at this time growing in their
nursery is quite as large as an ordinary Apple Tree of the same
age, and it is yet very vigorous and increasing in size. It is, I
believe, about twenty feet high, with a handsome, erect trunk,
clothed with a somewhat smooth bark, and presents an appear-
ance of the most vigorous health. Its resemblance to the Olive
is very striking ; it has a rounded, uniform, elegant summit, and
when in fruit, which is at the close of summer, scarcely any
thing can be more brilliant, from the load of berries with which
it is everywhere clad; these are about the size of small red
currants, juicy, but not watery, of a pleasant subacid taste,
mixed with a sweetness which renders them generally agree-
able. Made into sweet jelly, in the manner of currants, they
are thought preferable by most who have tasted them. But
the great use of the Shepherdia will be for constructing hedges
or live fences, at least in the Northern States where it thrives
well. Kept down by cutting, it becomes sufficiently close, and
has also the advantage of being thorny, green, or rather silvery,
till late in autumn, and it is attacked by no insect, nor subject
to any disease or blight.

The berries are greedily devoured by all the autumnal birds,
particularly robins and bluebirds, who flock round the tree in
throngs while any thing remains to be had.

In its native state it is a small, rather narrow-topped tree,
with the branches ending in stout spines. The leaves are
oblong-ovate, obtuse, shortly petiolate, on both sides free from
hairs, but covered with peltate or rounded scales, which
(through a lens) appear to be ciliated. The flowers, which
come out as early as in March, are in clusters. The calyx
of the male flower is considerably larger than that of the
female, and divided down to the base into four subovate,
obtuse divisions, internally yellowish, but outside scaly like
the leaves. The stamens are eight, with oftentimes rather
short, pubescent filaments : the anthers are oblong and 2-celled.

CANADIAN SIIEPHERDIA. 137

The female flowers are smaller and shortly pedunculate, with-
out any vestiges of stamens. There is one style, and a thick-
ish, oblique, subelliptic stigma. The germ appears inferior,
but is, in fact, only invested by the tube of the calyx. The
berries are collected into clusters, and are sparingly scattered
with scales, but bright and pellucid. The seed, or rather nut,
with a cartilaginous shell, is subovate and shining, much like
that of Hippopliae : it is also scored externally, as if partly
2-lobed, with a small projection at the base. The embryo is
straight and flat, without albumen, and the radicle inferior.
The cotyledons are large, thick, and oval. Mr. Wyeth, in the
Kocky Mountains, observed a variety of this species with
yellow berries.

PLATE XXXV.

A branch of the natural size.

A second species of this genus is the

Shepherdia Canadensis, or Canadian Siiepiierdia, with
elliptic-ovate leaves, nearly smooth above and naked beneath,
clothed with stellate hairs and ferruginous scales : the flowers
are also in axillary spikes. This species, it appears from
Hooker, ranges far to the north, throughout Canada to Fort
Franklin, on Mackenzie River, and from Newfoundland and
Hudson's Bay to the Rocky Mountains. In the State of New
York I have met with it on the borders of the smaller inland
lakes, as well as on the shores of Lake Erie ; but this sjDCcies
scarcely becomes a tree, is without thorns, and the berries,
though equally brilliant with the preceding, are rather un-
pleasant to the taste. On the authority of Menzies, it is said
also to exist on the northwest coast; but I have not seen it
there.

IV.— f)*

XIMENIA.

(Plumier.)

Natural Order, Olacine^. Linncean Classification, Octandria,

MONOGYNIA.

Calyx 4-toothed, minute, persistent, not enlarging. Petals four,
densely pilose within, connivent, above revolute. Stamens eight,
the filaments capillary, anthers adnate, long, and linear, not
exserted. Ovary 4-celled, 4-seeded. Style one. Drupe ovate,
1-seeded. — Decand., vol. i. p. 533.

Tropical trees or shrubs, with smooth, alternate, entire, ellip-
tical or ovate, exstipulate leaves; flowers mostly in small, axillary
umbels.

MOUNTAIN PLUM.

XiMENiA Americana. Sjnnosa, foliis oblovgis, peduncuUs multijioris. —

Linn., Sp. pi. Hort. Cliff"., 1193. Swartz, Obs., p. 149. Decand.,

Prod., vol. i. p. 533.
a ovaia, foliis ovatis. JT. multiflora. — Jacquin, Amer., p. 106, t. 277,

fig. 31. Lamarck, Illnst., tab. 297, fig. 1.
XiMENiA moniana. — Macfadyen, Flora of Jamaica, p. 121 ; a variety,

however, without thorns.
XiMENiA aculeata, florc villoso, fructu luteo. — Plumier, Gener., p. 6.

Ic. 261, fig. 1.

* Named in honor of Francis Ximcnes, a Spanish naturalist and missionary.
138

JWbrli-T-rtel.

StnueTiia Araeric ana .

MOUNTAIN PLUM. 189

This plant forms a small tree, with an erect stem and spread-
ing, gray, verrucose, and somewhat angular branches. It is in-
digenous to the mountains of Jamaica, Key West in Florida,
where it was found by Dr. Blodgett, and is also met with in
the neighborhood of Carthagena, in Hispaniola, and many
years ago it was collected in the interior of East Florida by
John Bartram, as Mr. A. Gray saw specimens of it in his col-
lection still extant. According to Drs. Wight, and Roxburgh,
it is also indigenous to the coast of India.

It bears a drupe the size of the plum of Europe, or of a
pigeon's egg, yellow, smooth, and shining, 1-seeded, with a thin
rind and watery pulp of a pleasant sweet subacid taste. The
seed is large and white. This plum is of an agreeable flavor,
and not inferior to the common varieties of that of Europe; it
has a slight degree of astringency, with a pleasant acidity. The
flowers have a fragrant odor said to be like that of frankincense.
The wood is as yellow as that of the Sandal, and, in India, its
powder is often substituted for it by the Brahmins in their
religious ceremonies.

The leaves grow two or three together, on short, lateral,
tuberculoid branchlets; they are petiolate, oblong-lanceolate,
obtuse, and narrowed below, smooth, obscurely veined, about
two or two and a half inches long, and less than an inch broad.
The flowers are disposed in small pedunculated axillary and
subterminal umbels, the umbels three or 4-flowered. The calyx
is minute and 4-toothed. Petals four, linear-oblong, conniving
into a tube below, recurved at the apex, and covered with rather
long and dense brownish-yellow hairs within. Stamens eight,
as long as the petals, the filaments like the most delicate threads,
the anthers long and linear, ovary 8-angled at the base, conical
and subulate, with the style as long as the stamens.

PLATE XXXVI.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fruit.

MACLURA.

(NUTTALL.)

Natural Order, Artocarpe^, (R. Brown.) Linnwan Classifwor
tion, DicECiA, Tetrandria.

Flowers dkecious. — Male flowers with the calyx 4-cleft. Stamens
four, exserted. Female flowers in globular aments ; the calyx
fleshy, 4-parted, with the bases ingrafted together. Corolla none.
Style one, filiform, villous. Germs numerous, each 1-seeded, coal-
escing into a compound globular berry" of many cells, the cells
1-seeded. Seed obovate.

A lactescent tree, related to the Fustic and with nearly similar
yellow wood. Leaves alternate, entire, without stipules, producing
superaxillary simple spines. Male flowers in pedunculated umbels.
Aments axillary. Berry verrucose and large, resembling an orange,
at first lactescent, greenish-yellow or yellow. Nearly allied to Brous-
soneiia, but distinguished by the coalescence of the germs, and a
peculiar habit.

OSAGE ORANGE, or YELLOW WOOD.

Maclura aurantiaca. — IsTuTT., Gen. Amer., vol. ii. p. 234. Loudon's
Encycl. of Plants, p. 784, fig. 13256. Arboretum et Frutic, vol. iii.
pp. 1342, 1362, figs. 1226, 1227, 1228. Lambert's Supplement to
Pinus, 1. c. Eaton's Manual, (Ed. 8,) p. 311.

* In honor of the celebrated geologist, philosopher, and patron of natural

science, Wm. Maclure.
1-10

piixwn.

J%:P,iT M

^Macliira AuraJitiaca.

(^sai^e Ovaru^e

Jioi's d ./tc:

OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD. 141

This remarkable tree, though perfectly thriving and hardy in
the climate of Philadelphia, raised from seeds, does not naturally
extend to the north of the Arkansas River ; it is even there of
rare occurrence, and generally destitute of fruit. We saw a few
old ill-grown trees on the banks of the Pottoe, a few miles from
Fort Smith. It was only on the rich low bottom-lands of Red
River, near the confluence of the Kiamesha, that we beheld the
Madura in perfection, forming a great part of the prevailing
umbrageous forest, and attaining an elevation of fifty or sixty
feet by a diameter of between two and three feet. It is, how-
ever, much inclined, when full-grown, to throw out irregular
spreading limbs of considerable extent, though at first it presents
a very elegant roundish spreading summit. But at all times it
strikes the beholder as something remarkable in the Northern
forest by the beauty and splendor of its dark and shining foliage,
which in appearance strongly resembles that of the Orange ; and
the numerous spines which the branches present seem to confirm
the comparison. The fruit is alike singular, resembling full-
grown yellowish-green oranges, but filled with a milky juice,
and, as they ripen at intervals, or become abortive, the ground
beneath, like an orchard, is strewn with this curious fruit, which,
when first discovered lying neglected beneath the tree, led the
voyagers to fear and report it as a poison; but the family to
which it appertains, and its relation to the Mulberry, afford a
presumptive sanction for its harmless qualities.

The Madura was first noticed by Hunter and Dunbar in their
voyage up Red River, on the banks of the Little Missouri, of
the Washita River; also near Natchitoches, and upon the banks
of the Arkansas. It was likewise observed by Dr. James, in
Major Long's expedition, along the banks of the Arkansas and
the Canadian. I first saw living plants, bearing fruit, about the
year 1810, in the garden of Mr. Chouteau, at St. Louis, which
were raised from seeds collected in the country of the Osages.
It was afterward introduced into the garden of the late Mr.

142 OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD.

McMalion, of Philadelphia, from seeds collected by Governor
Lewis. The largest tree I have seen in cultivation is in the
garden of Mr. Thomas (now David) Landreth, in Federal Street,
Philadelphia. It is about twenty feet high and five and a half
in circumference. This tree has for many years borne fruit j but
the seeds have only of late been perfected, in consequence of
the absence of the staminiferous individual, on the accession of
which, however, it produced abundance of seeds nearly as large
as those of the Orange, and much of the same form : these were
indicated in the fruit by an unusual projection of the external
tubercles.

The wood of the Madura is solid, heavy, and elastic, of a fine
yellow color, which, like the Fustic, it readily communicates to
water, and it might consequently be used as a dye. It is also
capable of receiving a fine polish, and resembles satin-wood by
its brilliant gloss. The elasticity and durability of its wood have
long been celebrated by the Indians, who, from its use, have
bestowed upon it the name of Bow-wood, and the Canadians,
who traversed these regions in quest of furs, knew it long by
the name of the Bois cVarc. The bark, as in Broussonetla, affords
a fine white flax. Another important use of the Madura, in
this climate, is that of forming live fences or hedges, for which
purpose it is well adapted, as it bears cutting, grows close, and
is very thorny, as well as free from the attacks of blight and
insects: it has all the advantage of keeping for a long time
green, and appears, in all respects, as elegant a fence as that of
the Wild Orange in the South. It has besides an additional
recommendation in its use for feeding silk-worms, for which
purpose it is scarcely inferior to the famous Morus multl-
cauliej^

* Different opinions are now entertained of the value of the leaves of the
Maclura as a food for silk-worms, some approving and others discouraging
their use.

PI. XXXVill

- ^ "IVf'^ I

mm^m

JVIacliira AiiraLLiiacaL.

Osage Orange.

Jiou d'Arc

Svndazr-s litJu

OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD. 143

The branches are flexuous and round, clothed with a smooth
gray bark. The leaves are alternate, upon long fooi^stalks, and
are usually oval and acuminated; on the bearing branches they
are, however, often considerably larger, and heart-shaped at the
base, very entire, with the point mucronated and a little pun-
gent; the upper surface is smooth and shining, but the petiole
and nerves on the under side of the leaf are somewhat hirsutely
pubescent. The petiole is often an inch or more long; the leaf
itself two to four inches, and one and a half to three inches
wide. The staminifercms plant appears uniformly weaker, more
delicate, and smaller-leaved, than the fertile plant. The flowers
in it are axillary, in pedunculated small umbels, each umbel
containing about fifteen to twenty flowers, consisting merely of
a small 4-cleft calyx, with oval hairy segments, and four sta-
mens, on lengthened and exserted filaments. The anthers are
2-celled, large and oval, opening lengthwise. In both plants,
single, undivided thorns come out in the upper axils of the
leaves. The female capitulum consists of a congeries of flowers
united into a globular form, about the size of a cherry; these
consist also in a calyx of four divisions, but less regular than
in the male. The styles and stigmas, one to each germ, are
three-fourths of an inch long, giving to the ament the appear-
ance of a tuft of long pubescent threads. The berry, filled with
a milky juice, becomes about the size of a moderate but not
large orange, having an irregular tessellated appearance, almost
like that of the Bread-fruit : these tessellations are the unduly-
enlarged fleshy summits of the segments of the calyx. The
whole of the calyces, at a short distance below the immediate
surface, become partly ingrafted together into one mass; and a
transverse section of the fruit, therefore, presents a series of
radiating and woody fibres, among which are immersed the
1-seeded germs. The seeds are obovate, compressed, and nearly
as large as those of the orange. The testa is yellowish white

144 OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD.

and cartiLaginous ; there is no albumen, and the seed is of a
yellowish brown, pendulous, with the radicle inverted from the
axis of the fruit, and curved partly over the margin of the thick
and fleshy cotyledons toward the point occupied by the hylum.
The fruit, when ripe, is succulent, has a sweetish but insipid
taste, and is somewhat acrid. As far as we know, it is not
eaten by any animal.

It is readily propagated by sowing the seeds, and also by
cuttings of the root, which grow much more readily than cut-
tings of the branches. Although several male plants were
raised in this vicinity, it is singular to remark, that while the
fertile plant is in its utmost vigor, very few of the former sur-
vive ; and, as their presence is necessary for fertility, it probably
would be the best way to ingraft the male on some one of the
branches of the bearing plant.

PLATE XXXVIL

A branch of the male plant of the natural size. a. The makfloiocr a Utile
enlarged, b. The female cajyiiulum.

PLATE XXXVIII.

The fruit of the natural size. a. A transverse section of the same. b. The

appearance of the abortive germs in the section, c. The seed with the

testa, d. The same divested of the testa, e. The embryo, f. The
back vieiD of the same.

Besides the Fig, we have, in this interesting family of plants,
the famous Bread-fruit of India and the islands of the Pacific;
the Cow Tree, or Palo de Vaca of South America, which is
tapped like a fountain, and yields a copious supply of rich
and wholesome milk. The nuts of the Brosimum ahicastrvm,
when roasted, are used in the place of bread, in the West Indies,

OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD. 145

and have a taste similar to that of hazel-nuts : the juice of all
the plants of this family also contains more or less of caout-
chouc. Amidst this generally harmless group of plants, it is
singular to find the deadly Upas of Java, [Anttaris toxicaria,)
whose inspissated juice is found to contain that most virulent
of all poisonous principles, strychnia. It is, however, some-
what doubtful what the real affinities of this plant are, as it is
acknowledged to be an anomaly in the family.

Vol IV— 10

NETTLE TREE.

Natural Order, Ulmace^, (Mirbel.) Linncean Classificatinny

POLYGAMIA, DlCEClA.

CELTIS.* (Linn.)

Flowers polygamous. — Staminate flower with the calyx 5 or 6-partecl.
Corolla none. Stamens four to seven. Perfect flower with the calyx
deeply 5-parted. No corolla. Ovarium 1-celled ; the ovules solitary
and pendulous. Style very short; stigmas two, thickish, subulate, and
spreading. Drupe globular, 1-seeded, thinly coated with a sweetish
pulp. Embryo inverted. Cotyledons folded.

The genus within its proper bounds includes deciduous-leaved
trees of South Europe, the Levant, the mountains of Nepaul and
Cuba, and the forests of the United States. The true Celtides have
alternate, entire, deciduous, and mostly cordate leaves, generally
oblique at the base, 3-nerved, entire, but mostly serrated on the
margin. The stipules are membranaceous and deciduous. The
flowers are precocious, or appear before the expansion of the leaves,
with a film-like irregularly-torn membranous perianth, the staminifer-
ous ones near the base of the branchlet pedicellate, and three or four
together. The fertile flowers are solitary and axillary, on short
peduncles. The drupes brownish yellow, rather sweet, insipid, and
nearly juiceless.

For the tropical species with axillary cymes coeval with the leaves,
two distinct styles, and an ovary with two ovules, I propose the name
of Trachydendron, (in allusion to their rough pubescent leaves and
twigs.) Most of these species have a tough fibrous bark of the nature
of hemp.

* The ancient nunic of the Lnftis, applied to tins genus by Linnaeus.
140

PI

(Vltts retk'iQata .

^via/l /fawf? 2/W/:fe free ■ ^ifoeouher rift'cu^e '.

SMALL-LEAVED NETTLE TREE.

Celtis reticulata. Foliis brevibus, lato-cordatis, subcoriaceis, vix ci
irreyulariter serratis acviis basi obliqids scabris, subius subglabris vmis
elevatis reticulalis, 2)edimcuUs fruciiferis imijioris.

Celtis reticulata. — Torrey, in Annals of Lyceum, N. Y., vol. ii.
p. 247.

This low-growing species of Nettle Tree was discovered by
Dr. James near the base of the Rocky Mountains; I likewise met
with it in the same mountain range, by small streams, and also
along the borders of the Oregon, toward the Blue Mountains,
particularly along the banks of the Brulee, a small stream falling
into that river. It does not, in the situations where we observed
it, become a timber tree, but rather a tall shrub, full of slender,
and at length smooth, branches. The leaves become thick and
rigid, and are about an inch and a half long by less than an incli
wide, acute, but scarcely acuminate, with a few irregular serra-
tures toward the point of the leaf, though a number of the leaves
may be observed ]30ssessing no serratures at all; the upper sur-
face is shining and scabrous; beneath the leaves are pubescent
along the nerves, though at length nearly quite smooth; the
petioles are one or two lines long and pubescent; the base of the
leaf is very oblique, rounded, and slightly sinuated. The drupe
is globose, solitary, brownish yellow, on a short peduncle. Of
the wood of this species nothing is yet known.

PLATE XXXIX.

A branch of the natural size.

LONG-LEAVED NETTLE TKEE.

Celtis longifolia. FoUis ovato-lanceolatis jpromisse acuminatis iniegerri-
mis Icevigatis demum glahris hasi rotundatis obliquis suhcuneatis, pedun-
cuUs fruciiferis unifloris, cortice sublcevi.

Celtis OccidcntaUs, /3 integrifolia. — Nutt., Gen. Am., vol. i. p. 202, (not
of Lamarck.)

This tree, growing to the height of sixty or seventy feet,

inhabits the deep shady forests which border the Mississippi

from St. Louis to the vicinity of the sea. Its even and not

deeply cleft bark, in the absence of its aspiring summit, at once

distinguishes this species from the Common Hack Berry. Like

all the rest of the genus, (confined within its proper limits,) the

insignificant filmy flowers appear early in the spring, before the

expansion of the leaves. The small branches are smooth and

yellowish brown. The leaves are smooth, of a thin consistence,

and remarkable for the great length of their acuminated points,

of an ovate or ovate-lanceolate form, subtended by deciduous

stipules, and at first pubescent beneath, particularly along the

large vessels or veins; at length almost absolutely smooth, at no

time scabrous either above or beneath, and wholly entire on the

margin. The length is about from three to three and a half

inches by one to one and a half wide. The obliquity of the base

varies according to the position of the leaf on the branch: those

first developed are nearly equal at base, and of a lanceolate form ;

the later ones are larger, wider, and more oblique. The flowers

are as usual; the males about three together toward the base of

the branch, the females solitary and axillary, coming out with

the opening leaves. The stamens are from five to seven. The

margin of the calyx-segments is pubescent, but smooth, narrower,

and more deeply divided in C. OccidentaUs, to which this species
148

PLU.

Loryf UaredJfM^le'tree . Mu-vculier a Jotuiuea feiuZlef.

THIN-LEAVED NETTLE TREE. 149

bears a close affinity. The berry is of a brownish yellow, on a
short peduncle.

PLATE XL.

A branch of the natural size.

THIN-LEAVED NETTLE TREE.

Celtis tenuifolia. Foliis lato-ovatis acuminatis subcequaliier serratls
hasi incequalibus subcordatis utrinque glabriusculis junioribus jnibescenti-
bus, calycibus laciniis cucullaiis erosis ciliatis, fructibus solitariis. — Nutt.,
Gen. Am., i. p. 202.

Celtis Occidentalis, /9? tenuifolia. — Lam., Encyc. Bot., pp. 137, 138.
Persoon, Synops., i. p. 292.

Celtis Occidentalis. — Darlington, Flora Cestrica, p. 180.

Celtis j^umila. — Pursii, Flor. Bor. Am., i. p. 200 and 201.

This species, nearly allied to C. Occidentalis, is often rather a
shrub than a tree. Near Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, on the
summits of the neighboring mountains of the Blue Ridge, it
flowers at the height of two feet, with low spreading branches.
In other situations it becomes a tree, as in the vicinity of Bethle-
hem, in Pennsylvania, and other places in that State. It is best
distinguished by its broad, rather short, and smooth leaves when
adult, and which are not scabrous on the upper surface : the mar-
gin is now and then without serratures; their form is cordate-
ovate, very little acuminated. The berries are solitary, brown,
and glaucous. It is, perhaps, little more than a variety of C.
Occidentalis.

The American Nettle Tree (^'CeUis Occidentalis) occurs in
almost every part of Massachusetts, and I know a tree of it, east

150 THICK-LEAVED NETTLE TREE.

of the Connecticut River, nearly five feet in diameter." — G. B.
Emerson, Esq.

Thick-leaved Nettle Tree or Hack Berry, ( Celtis crcmsifolia.)
This species is readily distinguished by the large size, thickness,
and roughness of the leaves; they are often full six inches long
by more than three inches wide. The flowers, which are very
numerous, (in the trees of the forests of Kentucky,) appear long
before the development of the leaves, and are subtended by broad
caducous bractes. The divisions of the calyx are sjDathulate,
cucuUate, scarcely torn, and not ciliate. The fruit, as well as
the flowers, from the falling of the small leaves which accom-
pany it, often appears disposed in racemes. The drupes are dark
brown, nearly black. This species also admits of some variety.
In some the leaves are larger and more pubescent or even hirsute,
while others are nearly smooth when adult.

The wood of the Nettle Tree of Europe is blackish, hard, and
compact, heavy and without sap-wood. It is so pliable and
tenacious, that it will bend much without breaking; it therefore
makes a good wood for the shafts of carriages and other uses of
the wheelwright. It forms hoops which are very durable; and
it is said that, after ebony and box, it surpasses all others in
durability, strength, and beauty. It is likewise unattacked by
worms ; and is esteemed for works of sculpture, as it neither con-
tracts nor cracks. The roots serve as a dye for linen stufis; and
an oil has been obtained from the seeds very similar to that of
sweet almonds.

Pl.XLI.

Ficns pe duiiculaia .

('/i€rry fig-tree . Fiqider pediiTiciilf .

FIG TREES.

Natural Order, Artocarpe^, (R. Brown.) LinncBan Classijuio-

ti<m, POLYGAMIA, DkECIA.

FICUS.* (TouRN. Linn.)

DiCECious. — The common receptacle spherical or pyriform, resemhling
a berry, fleshy and closed, including numerous distinct and minute
flowers. Mahj calyx 3-parted. Corolla none. Stamens one to
three. Female with the calyx 3 to 5-parted, and no corolla. Pis-
tillum one ; style one, subulate ; the stigma simple or bifid and un-
equal. Seed one, covered by the persistent subcarnose calyx.

Lactescent trees or shrubs, chiefly of Tropical America, Africa, and
India; leaves alternate, stipulate, stipules terminal, conical, convolute.
Receptacles mostly axillaiy, solitary, or crowded, rarely disposed in
terminal racemes, often bracteolate at base.

CHERRY FIG TREE.

Ficus PEDUNCULATA. FoUis ovato-oblovgis integerrimis acuminatis obtusis,
basi obsolete cordatis, recejAaculis globosis subgeminatis calgcidatis jJedun-
culatis. — WiLLD., Sp. pi., AiTON., Hort. Keweu., vol. iii. p. 450.

Ficus arbor Americana, arbuti foliis non serrata, fruciii ]}isi magniiudine,

* A Latin word of uncertain derivation.

151

152 .CHERRY FIG TREE.

funiculis e ramis ad terram dimissis prolifera. — Pluken., Almag., p.
144, tab. 178, fig. 4.?

This species of Fig Tree was discovered by Jacquin in the
island of Martinique ; it is also indigenous to some other of the
West India Islands, as well as to the neighboring continent of
Tropical America. At Key West, according to Dr. Blodgett, it
becomes a large spreading tree fifty feet in height, and, like some
other species, particularly the famous Banyan Tree, {F. Indica,)
it sends down roots from its lofty branches resembling ropes,
which, on reaching the soil, at length become so many indepen-
dent trunks, in turn producing others; and, spreading themselves
on all sides without interruption, they present a united summit
of prodigious extent, which, reposing on a multitude of trunks
of different dimensions, seems like the airy vault of some vast
edifice sustained by innumerable columns.

The bark of the branches appears to be gray and even; the
leaves are very smooth on both sides, but covered with innumer-
able minute dots on the upper surface. They are three to four
inches long, one and a half to two inches wide, with a peduncle
about one and a half inches long. They have a few distant
pennated nerves inosculating toward the margin of the leaf,
with innumerable intermediate slender reticulations of vessels;
they are generally of an ovate form, rounded or almost cordate
at the base, with a short and blunt acumination; from their
axils arise one or two peduncles about three-quarters of an inch
long, each terminated by a bifid involucel, improperly called a
calyx. The figs themselves are nearly globose, but sensibly
wider at the summit, about the magnitude of small cherries,
greenish-yellow and purple at the summit, (as they appear in a
withered state,) with a few purplish pale spots.

Of this species there appears to be a distinct variety, if not a
species, which I shall for the present call ^ acuta; the leaf is

Fl.XLH.

Slurrt leaifd Fuf-tret.

Ficus ^Drevifolia

Fiqurier dfeuillcf cfiirtes.

SHORT-LEAVED F I G T R E E. 153

elliptic, shortly acuminate, acute at base, and faintly nerved
beneath. It also becomes a large tree, producing a fig about the
size of a cherry, which is yellow when ripe.

PLATE XLI.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fruit.

SHORT-LEAVED FIG TREE.

Ficus BREViFOLiA. FolOs cordato-ovatis integerrimis, ohtusis abbrematis
brevi jyetiolatis glabi'is, venis irnmersis, receptaculis globosis depressis um-
bilicatis solitariis brevi pedu7iculatis, involucellis bijidis.

This is also a species of arborescent Fig, indigenous to Key
West, in East Florida, but by no means common, and, accord-
ing to Dr. Blodgett, its discoverer, it forms a tree with a slender,
almost horizontal, stem, which in its progress throws off funicu-
lar roots, that serve as props to prevent the main trunk from
becoming entirely prostrate.

The branches are covered with a light gray bark. The
leaves are about two inches long by one and a half inches
wide, perfectly smooth on both surfaces, on petioles from one-
half to three-fourths of an inch long. The veins on the under
surface are so far immersed as to be scarcely visible. The figs,
about the size of small cherries, are of a flattened, spheroidal
form, at first, as well as the bifid involucrum, slenderly villous ;
tliey grow out chiefly at the extremities of the twigs, on thick
pedicels, about two or three lines long, and when ripe are of a
brightish purple red. We do not find any species with which
the present agrees. From the description and specific name,

IV.— 10*

154 SMALL-FRUITED FIG TREE.

we should suppose the present species allied to the F. imdifolia
of Humboldt and Bonpland, but it differs too much to be re-
ferred to that species.

PLATE XLII.

A branch of the natural size.

SMALL-FRUITED FIG TREE.

Ficus AUREA. Glabra, foUis intcgerrimis ellipticis subacuminatis acutiiis-
culis basi j^lerisque angustatis jJenninerviis brevi-petiolaiis, frudibus glo-
bosis geminatis sessilibus involucratis, involucris subtrijidis majusculis.

/9 LATIFOLIA. Foliis kito-ovatis sub ellipticis.

This species, according to its discoverer, Dr. Blodgett, be-
comes, at Key West, in East Florida, a large tree, at first
parasitical on other trees, but, destroying its supporter, it at
length reaches the ground and forms an independent trunk of
large dimensions. It bears, however, a very insignificant fruit,
only about the size of a pea, and orange-yellow when ripe.

The branches are covered with a whitish bark. The leaves,
three to four and a half inches long, are from one and a half
to two and a half broad ; the peduncles are about an inch in
length. The form of the leaves is almost similar with those
of the Orange, elliptic and narrower below, with a rounded
summit, and a very short, rather acute, projecting point or
acumination; they are dark green above, paler beneath, with
conspicuous feathered nerves which run together within the
margin. The figs are sessile, clustered by pairs, with a small,
valvular orifice, and are nearly half embraced by the sheathing,
bifid or trifid, one-sided involucrum.

PL XLTH.

Small Fruited Fig-tree .

FicTis AiiTea

Ficjfttier dore .

BANYAN TREE. 155

This species appears to be very nearly allied to the F. Mar-
tlnicensis of Willdenow, (the F. laurifolia of Lamarck ;) but we
can by no means reconcile it to Sloane's figure, (Hist. Jam.,
t. 223,) for in that species the leaves are lanceolate, and eight
or nine inches long by two wide, on petioles two inches or more
in length ; the fruit is also said to be scarlet, of the size of a
hazel-nut, and sweetish and not unpleasant. In our variety /3
the leaves are wholly oval and not narrowed at the base.

PLATE XLIIL

A branch of the natural size.

The milky juice of the Fig Tree is more or less acrid and
fetid, however sweet and wholesome the fruit may be, and
that of the Flcus toxicaria of Sumatra is accounted poisonous.
The sap of several of the South American and Mexican species,
inspissated, affords caoutchouc.

The cultivated Fig, (Flcus carica,) in its wild state, is an
humble and distorted shrub, affecting rocks and ruins, bearing
a fruit of inferior flavor, but with the parts of fructification
very perfect. Such figs as seem to drop off before maturity
are commonly those in which the stamens are most numerous
or effective. These are carefully collected in the Levant to fer-
tilize the female blossoms of the cultivated Fig, which will ex-
plain the mystery of caprification. In these countries the fruit,
fresh, or dried in the sun, forms an important part of the food
of the inhabitants.

The Banyan Tree, (Flcus Indica,) nearly allied to our
F. aurea, becomes in India an immense tree, spreading very
wide, and throwing down rope-like roots into the soil. Mars-

156 BANYAN TREE.

den mentions one of these growing near Memgee, twenty miles
west of Patna, in Bengal, which gave the enormous diameter
of 370 feet; the circumference of the shadow, at noon, was
1116 feet, and there were fifty or sixty stems. It is called the
Priests' Tree, and is held in such veneration by the Gentoos,
that if any one cuts off a branch, he is looked upon as sacrile-
gious, and held in the greatest abhorrence.

PLXLK

CristifUIIS SJiilUtii'.HMls.

HAWTHORN.

Natural Order, RosACEiE, {suborder, Pome^, Jussieu.) Lin-
ncean Classification, IcosANDRiA, Di — Pentagynia.

CRAT^GUS. (Linn., excluding some species.)

Adnate m/y:c-tube urceolate, with a 5-cleft border. Tdals five, or-
bicular. Stamens fifteen or more. Styles tbree to five, (rarely one.)
Pome or apple fleshy, ovate or globose, closed and crowned with
the persisting teeth of the calyx, and containing two to five hard
1-seeded nuts.

These are spiny shrubs or small trees, almost exclusively indige-
nous to Europe and the United States of America, with simple, angu
larly-lobed, incised, or toothed leaves, furnished with stipules ot
somewhat different forms on the fertile or infertile branches. Flowers
white, in terminal corymbs, sometimes solitary. Bractes subulate,
deciduous. The fruit rather small, sweet, or agreeably acidulous.

RED THORN, or SIBERIAN HAWTHORN.

Crataegus sanguinea. Spinosa, foliis septangulis serraiis basi productis
petiolis submarginatis. — Pallas, Flora Rossica, vol. i. p. 25, tab. 11,
(very good.)

Crat^gus sanguinea. Leaves broadly obovate, somewhat cuneate at

the base, incised and serrate, often slightly 5 to 7-lobed, a little

pubescent when young, on short petioles, at length coriaceous and

shining; corymbs glabrous or somewhat pubescent; segments of

157

158 RED THORN, OR SIBERIAN HAWTHORN.

the calyx entire, and, as well as the pedicels, not glandular; styles

3-4; fruit globose. — Torrey and Gray, Flora N. Am., vol. i.

p. 464.
/9 Douglasii. Spines short and stout, (long in cultivation, Loudon;)

fruit small, dark purple.
Crat^gus punctata, /3 brevisjnna. — ^Dougl., in Hook. Flor. Bor. Am.,

vol i. p. 201.
Cr^tagus glandulosa. — Purse, vol. i. p. 337, (as it regards the plant

collected by Capt. Lewis in the Kocky Mountains.)
Cr^tagus Douglasii. — Lindl., Bot. Regist., tab. 1810. Loudon, Arbor.

Brit., vol. iii. p. 823.

This species of Hawthorn, which becomes a tree eighteen to
twenty-five feet in height, is first met with to the West, on the
borders of rivulets, in the range of the Rocky Mountains, par-
ticularly on their western declivity, from whence it continues
along the banks of the Oregon, and particularly its tributaries,
down to the shores of the Pacific. We found it also, in great
perfection, loaded with its sweet, nearly black, and pleasant fruit,
on the banks of the Wahlamet. The stem attains to about the
diameter of three to six inches, with a whitish, compact, close-
grained wood, of which, in common with the Crab Apple of that
country, the natives make their wedges for splitting trees.

The Siberian plant, according to Pallas, begins to be found to
the south of the Uralian Mountains, and continues beyond the
Obi through all the southern tract of Siberia, in dry mountainous
situations, and in the thickets which border the higher rivulets;
exactly the sort of situations affected by the American plant
in the alpine region where it commences. It also, like ours,
becomes a tree twelve to eighteen feet in height.

Lewis and Clarke speak of finding haws, probably of this or
the following species, on Flat Head River, which heads against
the sources of the Missouri.

Almost entirely deprived of vegetable food, every accession of
fruit, however meagre, was hailed with delight by our famished

RED THORN, OR SIBERIAN HAWTHORN.159

party, and the ripe berries of this fine Hawthorn were collected
with avidity. The bushes, or rather trees, were, however, so high
that we could only come at the fruit on horseback, or after ascend-
ing the trunk, which often appeared equal to that of an ordinary
Apple Tree.

The summit of the tree is round and spreading, and the thorns
vary in size, though they are often short, and in no case nume-
rous. The leaves are broad and somewhat rounded above,
cuneate at the base, smooth on the upper surface, and always
more or less pubescent beneath; the margin is incise and serrate,
and divided often into five to seven shallow lobes. The flowers
are white, rather large, and numerous, disposed in a corymb,
with the peduncles and base of the calyx more or less pilose
and glandular. The styles, three or four, are occasionally as
many as five. The segments of the calyx are rather long and
acuminated, membranaceous on the margin, and appressed to the
flower. The berries are shortly elhptic or oval, and nearly black
or dark purple when ripe. In the Siberian plant, described by
Pallas, they are scarlet; but he remarks that, according to Steller,
the haws of Kamtschatka are both red and black, and that there
they are not only used as agreeable fruits, but are also collected
for the purpose of distillation into spirits. A good spirit is like-
wise obtained by the fermentation and distillation of the fruit of
the common Hawthorn, ((7. oxyacayitha.)

This species is very nearly allied to C. coccinea, with which
indeed Pallas compares it; but in C. coccinea the leaves have
longer petioles, it bears much larger flowers, with larger segments
to the calyx. The fruit is also (in our plant) smaller, and the
plant more decidedly arborescent.

PLATE XLIV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The fnat.

RIVER HAWTHORN.

Crat^gus rivularis. Foliis ovatis vet obovatis, obiusis acutisve inciso-
serratis basi attenuatis brevi-petiolatis ; corymbis muliifloris glabris, flori-
bus parvulis, calycis laciniis obtusis brevissimis eglandulosis ; fructlbus
nigris. — ^Nutt., in Torrey and Gray, Flor. N". Am., vol. i. p. 364.

^ cuneata. Spirds breinbus, foliis cuneatis obiusis, incisis.

Along the shady borders of the rivulets of the Rocky Moun-
tains we observed tliis species blended with the former, becoming
equally a tree and producing the same kind of pleasant dark
fruit. It was also observed by Douglas in the interior of Oregon,
where we likewise met with it. It is, in all probability, the
smoother, supposed variety of C. imnctata, mentioned by Hooker
in his Flora.

The branches are reddish brown, the leaves nearly as entire as
those of the Apple Tree, except in /3, where they are slightly
lobed; beneath very smooth, slightly pubescent above, acute and
rather sharply serrate, with long spines. The peduncles and calyx
perfectly smooth, the segments of the latter mere broad, obtuse
dentures. The flowers are white and smaller than in the pre-
ceding. The berries are also black, and jDossess nearly the same
sweet and rather insipid taste of the Common Haw, ( G. oxyacantha.)

LANCE-LEAVED HAWTHORN.

Crat^gus arborescens. Inermis, foliis lanceolaiis inciso-scrratis utrin-
que acuiis rariter sublobaiis glabris subtus ad vcnis jmbendis, corymbis
imdtifioris, calicibus pilosis laciniis subtdatis integris, fioribus pcniagynis.

CRATiEGUS arborescens. — Elliott, Sketch., vol. i. p. 550. Torr. and

Gray, Flor. K Am., vol. i. p. 4GG.
IGO

Pi.av.

Crataegus ArboreseeiLs

Lance letured- kcwifwriv. -d-H-xier arh orescent

LANCE-LEAVED HAWTHORN. 161

According to Elliott, this species becomes a tree of twenty to
thirty feet in height, with spreading branches. The fruit is
globose, quite small, and red. Of the quahty of the wood nothing
is yet known ; but nearly all the arborescent species are of slow
growth, and have whitish, close-grained, very hard, and durable
wood; that of the Common Hawthorn [G. oxyacantJia) is tough,
and in England is used occasionally for axle-trees and handles
of tools.

The Lance-leaved Thorn of Mr. Elliott was found on the
borders of the Ogeechee Kiver, in Georgia, near Fort Argyle, and
near New Orleans, and in Texas by Drummond and Berlandier.
It is without armature. The leaves are lanceolate, acute at each
end, deeply serrated, smooth both above and beneath, except
some small tufts of hairs at the divisions of the veins, sometimes
slightly lobed toward the summit, (though not at all in our speci-
men.) The flowers are small, the calyx hairy at the base, with
the segments small and subulate.

To show the great age to which the Common Hawthorn
attains. Withering states of the variety called the Glastonbury
Thorn, existing in his time, in a lane by the churchyard of the
abbey, (1801,) "It appears to be a very old tree. An old woman
of ninety never remembers it otherwise than as it now appears.
It blossoms twice a year : the winter blossoms, which are almost
the size of a sixpence, appear about Christmas, and sooner, if the
winter be severe. These produce no fruit." The summer flowers
bore berries containing only a single seed, which, when sown, pro-
duced plants nowise differing from the common kind.

The Common Hawthorn, though so humble in the hedgerow
beneath the cropping of the shears, when suffered to grow up
and stand alone attains the ordinary size of an Apple Tree;
and, occupying the village green for a long series of years, it
becomes connected with our earliest recollections of the joyful
arrival of spring. The old Hawtlioim, again white with its fra-
grant blossoms, and their falling on the ground like a shower of

Vol. IV.— 11

162 NAKED-FLOWERED HAWTHORN.

snow, marks a delightful era in the distant reminiscences of the
writer, when yet the simplest boon of nature gave delight.
With these pleasing recollections of the past, how touching and
graphic are those beautiful lines of Goldsmith descriptive of the
" Deserted Village :" —

"The Hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and youthful converse made !
How often have I bless'd the coming day,
When toil remitting lent its turn to play,
And all the village train, from labor free.
Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree."

PLATE XLV.

A branch of the natural size. • a. The germ and styles.

NAKED-FLOWERED HAWTHORN,

OR

APPLE HAW.

CRATiEGUS .aiSTiVALis. Suhspinosa, jiorihus prcecocibus, foliis oblongo-
cuneiformibus vel elUpticis brevi-petiolaiis apice subsinuato-dentatis angu-
latis vel inciso-crenatis rarius irilobatis, junioribus iomentosis, demum
glabris, subius ad venis pubescentibus ; coryrnbis 3 ad b-floris glabris,
eglandtdosis ; siylis 4:-3, fructibus maximis globosis rubris.

Crat^gus cesiivalis. — Torrey and Gray, Flor., i. p. 468.

Crat^gus dliptica. — Elliott, Sketch., i. p. 549.

Crataegus opaca. — Hook and Arnott, Compan. Botan. Magaz., vol, i.
p. 25.

3Iespilus (Bstivalis. — "Walter, Flor. Caroliniana, p. 148.

This is another arborescent sjDCcies of Hawthorn confined to
the Southern States of the Union, growing along the low, wet

NAKED-FLOWERED HAWTHORN. 163

banks of rivers and ponds, from South Carolina and Georgia to
Florida : it grows also in Louisiana and Arkansas. In Florida,
it is already in flower in the early part of the month of March,
and presents a very unusual appearance, as yet nearly destitute
of leaves, or presenting only their unfolding silky buds. The
flowers are nearly as large as apple-blossoms, and pure white.
It becomes at length a tree of twenty or thirty feet in height,
branching from the base. The leaves are elliptical or oblong
wedge-shaped, on the infertile branches often obovate, on short
petioles, toward the summit sinuately toothed, angled, or irregu-
larly crenate, rarely three-lobed or cleft, quite whitely tomentose
when young before expansion, at length glabrous, but clothed
along the veins beneath with a brownish pubescence. The
corymbs are 3 to 5-flowered, and smooth. The divisions of
the calyx are short, triangular, smooth, and without glands;
the styles are four or five. The fruit, which becomes red, is
very large and round, ripening in May or June, and is one-half
or three-fourths of an inch in diameter, juicy, fragrant, of an
agreeable subacid taste, and is much esteemed for tarts, jellies,
and other articles of the dessert.

Other species of Hawthorn, indigenous to the United States,
might be adduced as attaining the size of trees from ten to
twenty-five feet in height; but, as we have little or no notice of
their use and economy, we shall at present omit them.

CHERRY TREE.

Natural Order, Rosacea, {suborder, Amygdale^, Jussieu.) Llit-
noean Glassificatio7i, Icosandria, Monogtnia.

CERASUS. (Jussieu.)

Cklyx urceolate-hemispherical ; the border five-cleft, deciduous.
Petals spreading. Stamens fifteen to thirty. Ovary glabrous, with
two collateral pendulous ovules. Dnq^e globose, fleshy, destitute
of bloom ; the nut hard and bony, mostly globose and even.

Trees or shrubs chiefly of the temperate parts of Europe and
North America, forming several natural sections. Leaves serrated,
deciduous or sempervirent.

§ I. Floiuers corymbose or clustered. Leaves deciduous. True
Cherries.

SOFT-LEAVED CHERRY.

Cerasus mollis. Foliis oblongis ovaiisve plerisque obiusis serrulatis suhtus
iomentoso-pubescentibus, corymbis racemosis 5 ad Q-fioris tornentosis,
laciiiiis calydnis obtusis reflexis tubo pubescejite brevioribus, drupa ovoidea.

(~!erasus mollis. — Douglas, in Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. i. p. 169.
ToRREY and Gray, Flor. N. Amer., i. p. 410.

This species of Cherry, growing twelve to twenty-five feet

high, is confined to the Oregon Territory, and particularly to

the borders of the Oregon River and its tributaries as far
1G4

Pl.XLTI

C eras us luoEis

Sofh leaded/ Oterry.

(enfieray/etiiSeg nwUeg.

PI .XLYR.

JToI/y leaved Cherry.

Cexasus Ilicifolia

Cer/j-ier afiuill&i' del&u^v ■

HOLLY-LEAVED CHERRY. 165

as its sources. We met with it in thickets on hills, near the
Wahlamet, flowering about the month of May. The young
branches are dark gray and somewhat downy. The leaves are
softly downy beneath, on short petioles, oblong, or oblong-ovate,
mostly obtuse, sometimes acute, minutely serrulate, two to two
and a half inches long by about an inch in width; stipules
small and deeply ciliate, as well as the bractes. Flowers small
and white, the petals rounded and concave. Segments of the
calyx ovate, short, and obtuse. Stigma clavate, petioles and
calyx tomentose. Fruit ovate, astringent, and unpleasant.

PLATE XLYI.

A branch of the natural size, with young fruit, a. The flower.

Red or NoRTHERisr Cherry. ( Cerasus Pennsylvanica, Tor. and
Gray. G. horealis, Mich, and Mich., Sylva, p. 152.) According to
Macmin, of West Chester, this tree in the Beech woods of Tioga
county, Pennsylvania, attains the height of sixty feet, with a

diameter of eighteen inches.

§ II. FJmcers in racemes, axillary. Leaves scwperrirent or
persistent. — Lauro-Cerasus, Tourn., Decand., Laurel Cherries.

HOLLY-LEAVED CHERRY.

Cerasus ilicifolia. Foliis lato-ovalibus subcordatis brevi-petiolatis spinosa-
sinuato-dentaiis reticulatis coriaceis nitidis, racemis eredis foliis subcequan-
tibus, drupa nigra ovoidea acuminata.

Cerasus ilicifolia. — Kutt., in Torr. and Gray, Flora N". Amer., vol. i.
p. 411. Hook and Arnott, Bot. Beechy, Suppl., p. 340, t. 83.

1G6 HOLLY- LEAVED CHERRY.

This is a small tree of Upper California, round Santa Barbara
attaining the height of twelve to twenty feet, and chiefly affect-
ing dry and elevated hill-sides within the mountain range. The
bark is gray and somewhat rough ; the wood is reddish, tough,
and close-grained. The leaves, which are rigid, shining, and
evergreen, look entirely like those of the Holly; they are broadly
oval, pointed, somewhat heart-shaped at the base, very smooth
and shining above and elegantly reticulated, often undulated,
• and with sharp pungent serratures. The racemes of flowers are
erect, somewhat crowded; the flowers white and small, on short
petioles; the petals rounded and short; the calyx hemispherical,
with short triangular teeth. The stamens seated near to the
summit of the calyx; the stigma simple and obtuse.

This tree, from its remarkable and elegant appearance, is well
worth cultivating as an ornament, and in its qualities ranks with
the true Laurels. The fruit is rather large, dark purple, bitter,
and astringent.

PLATE XLYII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The cherry, b. Thejioiver.

The Laurel, [Prunus Lauro-Cerasus,) now so generally culti-
vated in Europe, was brought from Asia Minor. Lucullus, after
conquering the King of Pontus, with whom the Romans had
warred for forty years, among his other trophies, brought the
Cherry from the fields of Cerasonte, and, in transplanting it into
Italy, secured a monument of his triumph far more durable than
that which the senate and the people decreed him. The Laui-el,
transplanted at first from Trebizond to Constantinople, had not
so brilliant a destiny; an envoy from the Emperor of Germany,
David Ungnad, whose name is now scarcely known, two hundred
and sixty-two years ago brought a living plant to Clusius, at
Vienna. The name of Lauro-Cerasus was given to it by Belon,

ALMONDCHERRY. 167

who had seen it in its native country, from its leaves being like
those of the Bay and its fruit similar to cherries.

The leaves afford by distillation a liquor which proves a
violent poison to men and animals. According to Duhamel,
a spoonful of this water given to a dog killed him instanta-
neously. Various experiments and accidents tend to confirm
the fact of the powerfully-poisonous nature of Laurel water.
Fontana found that a single drop of the essential oil of this
plant, applied to a wound on a dog, proved equally as fatal as tlie
venom of the viper, and was attended with the same symptoms.

The emanations from the Laurel being, in fact, the diluted
but volatile prussic or hydrocyanic acid, are not without their
inconveniences; for, after reposing beneath its shade on a warm
day, a headache and tendency to vomit are said sometimes to
occur. Considerable use was formerly made of Laurel-water for
the sake of the Bitter Almond flavor which it communicates to
various articles of the dessert, but from its dangerous effects it
is now but little used.

The effect of this poison is so extremely rapid and violent,
attacking the very seat of vitality, the nervous system, that no
remedies have any time to operate. Li the hand of the skilful
physician, however, this volatile poison proves sometimes a
powerful remedy.

Almond cherry, [Cerasus CaroUniana, Mich., Flor., vol. i.
p. 285. Wild Orange Tree, Mich., Sylva, vol. ii. pi. 89.) This
elegant tree, nearly allied to G. Lusitanica, appears to be common
along the banks of the Mississippi from New Orleans to Natchez.
It is also indigenous to South Carolina, Florida, and Arkansas.
It forms a fine evergreen tree forty to fifty feet high, flowering
in March and April. The leaves, according to Elliott, are very
poisonous, frequently destroying cattle that are tempted to
browse on them early in the spring. It is known to the French

1G8 A L M 0 N D C n E R R Y.

inhabitants of Louisiana by the same name as the Laurel of
Europe, Laurier-Amand.

The fruit of this species is a small, black, bitter cherry, with
very little pulp and a shell so thin as to crack between the
fingers. A second {C. Occidentalis) and probably a third spe-
cies of this section from St. Domingo, in the collections of Poi-
teau, has the same thin, fragile shell. These seem to form a
separate genus from the true Cherries, no less than from the
Laurels, and may be called Leptocarya, in consideration of the
thin and fragile, merely cartilaginous, shell of the drupe. In
this respect the drupe affords a much more important distinc-
tion than that which exists between Prunus and Cerasim.

Pi.^vm.

Ptquus Americana..

PLUM TREE.

Natural Order, RoSACE^; {suborder, Amygdale^, Juss.) Lln-
ncean Classification, Icosandria, Monogynia.

PEUNUS. (TOURNEFORT.)

Calyx urceolate-liemispherical, the border 5-cleft, deciduous. Petals
spreading. Stamens fifteen to thirty. Ovary ghabrous, with two
collateral, pendulous ovules. Drupe ovate or oval, fleshy, glabrous,
usually covered with a bloom; nut hard and bony, more or less
compressed, acute and even, the margins partly grooved.

Trees or shrubs of temperate climates in the Northern hemisphere,
with the leaves serrated, convolute in vernation, (or before expansion.)
The fl-owers earlier than the leaves, with the pedicels in umbellate
clusters.

WILD PLUM.

Prunus Americana. Arborescens, ramis spinesccntiJms, foliis ovato-
obloiiyis vel obovatis argute serratis acumhwiis basi cuneatis, subtiis veno-
sis demum glabris, petiolis sub-biglandulosis, umbellis sessilibus pauci-
Jtoris, (2-5,) fructibus ovalibus.

P. Americana. — Marshall, Arbust., p. 111. Darlington, Flora Cest.,
p. 287, and in Annal. Lyceum, IST. York, vol. iii. p. 87, t. 1. Tor-
REY and Gray, Flor. IST. Amer., vol. i. p. 407.

P. NIGRA. — AiTON, Kew., (cd. 1,) vol. ii. p. 165. Bot. Mag., t. 1117.

PuRSH, Flor. Am., vol. i. p. 331. Willd., Sp. pL, vol. iv. p. 993.

P. niEMALis. — Elliott, Sk., vol. i. p. 542.
IV.— 11* 169

170 WILD PLUM.

Cerasus nigra, [Loisel.) — Seringe, in Decand., Prod., voL ii. p. 538.
Hook., Flor. Bor. Am., voL i. p. 167.

Few plants in North America have a more extensive range
than this species of Plum: it is met with from the Saskatcha-
wan toward Hudson's Bay, and through all the intermediate
country to Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In the western part
of the State of New York it is very common, and, in some
instances, (as it appeared to me in 1810,) it has been cultivated
by the aborigines around their dwellings in the same manner as
the Chickasaw Plum. When truly wild, it seems to affect the
banks of streams and rich bottom-lands. In New Jersey, near
Franklin Furnace, (Sussex county,) I have observed trees twenty
to thirty feet high, and with trunks from six to fourteen inches
in diameter. The ordinary height, however, is from fifteen to
twenty feet. The wood is hard and of a reddish color, like that
of the Wild Cherry, {Prunus serotina.) The fruit, when mature,
which is in the month of August, is from half an inch to an
inch in diameter, in some instances almost wholly yellow, but
commonly vermilion-red on one side, wholly red, or a mixture
of both colors, and in all the varieties covered more or less with
a very evident bloom. When ripe, it contains a very sweet,
thin pulp, with the disadvantage however of having a thick,
bitterish, acerb skin; but by cultivation it is considerably im-
proved, and the fruit is sometimes, as Dr. Darlington remarks,
as large as a common ajDricot. In Upper Canada, where it was
formerly cultivated, I have seen as many as twelve distinct
varieties in the same orchard. It is also free from the attacks
of the insects which have proved so fatal to nearly all the
cultivated Plums.

The stem spreads out into a roundish head, with many rigid
and somewhat thorny branches. The leaves are oblong-ovate
and sometimes obovate, almost always narrowed below, with a

W I L D P L U M. 171

distinct abrupt point or acumination, sharply serrated, strongly
veined, and more or less pubescent beneath. The pedicels are
smooth, two to five together, in clusters. Calyx pubescent, the
segments lance-linear, serrulated at the apex; the petals oval
or obovate, and rounded.

PLATE XLVIII.

A branch of the natural size in fruit, a. A cluster of flowers.

CRAB APPLE.

Natural Order, Rosacea, {suborder, Pome^, Juss.) Linncean
Classification, Icosandria, Pentagynia.

PYRUS. (Linn.)

Cahjx-tubQ urceolate, adnate to tlie flesliy ovaiy, from which it is
inseparable, with the border 5-lobed. Petals five, roundish,
concave, on short claws. Styles usually five or less, distinct or
conjoined at the base. Pome (or apple) fleshy, closed, internally
5-celled, the cells cartilaginous and 2-seeded. The seeds with a
chartaceous coat.

Trees or shrubs (in the present section) with entire or palmately-
lobed, serrated leaves. Flowers in terminal flattish clusters or
corymbs. Fruit edible when not too acerb or astringent.

RIVEE CRAB APPLE.

Pyrus mvularis. Foliis ovatis acutis indidsis junioribus trilohatis incisis
argute serraiis suhtus pubescentibus, stylis (3-4) basi coalitis ylabris,
fruciibus perparvis subglobosis vix iimbilicaiis, lobis calicinis dcmum
deciduis.

Pyrus rivularis. — Douglas, in Hook. Flor. Bor. Am., vol, i. p. 303, t. G8.
ToRREY and Gray, Flor. IST. Am., vol. i. p. 471.

Pyrus diversifolia. — Bonqard, Veget. Sitka., 1. c. p. 133.

This elegant species of Pyrus is common throughout all the

lower or maritime portion of the Oregon Territory, and it uni-
17:2

PI. xux.

Svu-laxTs Iith

P VTii 3 rrvuLa! -is .

Jtirrr' Crab.

loiyner rividaire

RIVER CRAB APPLE. 173

formly affects the shade of rich, alluvial forests near the lesser
streams and ponds. It becomes a tree about the size of the
Siberian Crab, to which it has a close affinity, and grows from
fifteen to twenty-five feet in height, producing a hard wood,
capable of receiving a high polish, and is employed by the
natives for making wedges. The fruit grows in clusters, and is
small and purple, scarcely the size of a cherry, of an agreeable
flavor, like that of some of our Haws : it has nothing of the
acerbity or acidity of the Common Crab, but is sweetish and
subacid when ripe. The natives near the sea employ it, as they
do many more berries of the country, for food, being all too
indolent to cultivate the earth for any purpose whatever.

It extends, in all probability, from Upper California to the
Russian possessions in the North, as far as latitude 57°. Men-
zies appears to have been its first discoverer, on what was then
vaguely termed the northwest coast.

The leaves, which appear with the flowers, are ovate, obtuse
or acute, entire, and more or less serrated, pubescent beneath,
villous in the bud, at length nearly smooth ; the later-produced
leaves are more or less incisely lobed, sometimes distinctly
three-lobed, the middle lobe incise and sharply serrated. The
flowers conspicuous, white or tinged with red, in terminal
corymbs, with the calyx and peduncles villous, or tomentose,
at other times with the exterior of the calyx smooth. The
petals oval. The germ is pear-shaped, with three or four styles.
Apples very small, dark purple, almost black when ripe, and
somewhat translucent, globose-ovoid, scarcely umbilicate at
base, and with the summit naked, the calyx, as in the Siberian
Crab, being deciduous. Seeds like those of the apple, and two
in a cell, as usual.

I think it probable that the plants with "smooth pedicels
and with the calyx externally smooth" ought to constitute a
distinct variety, which may be termed Pyrus rivularis /3 levipes.
In these the pedicels are also glandular.

174 NARROW-LEAVED CRAB APPLE.

What this plant may become by cultivation cannot yet be
determined. The Siberian Crab, (now so ornamental and gene-
rally cultivated,) which also aifects the alluvial borders of
streams and rivers round Lake Baikal, and in Daouria, accord-
ing to Pallas, in its native soil only attains the height of three
or four feet, with a trunk about as thick as a man's arm, and
full of tortuous branches. The berries, also, in Pallas's figure,
(Flora Rossica, vol. i. tab. 10,) are not so large as ordinary
peas, and pyriform or attenuate at the base like a pear. All
this tribe of plants, so eminently serviceable both for ornament
and use, deserve cultivation in a pre-eminent degree; and the
present species has also the advantage of being perfectly hardy
in all temperate and even cold climates, as it stretches along
the coast nearly to the vicinity of Eastern Siberia.

All the plants of this section of Pyrus are natives of Tem-
perate Europe and Northern Asia.

PLATE XLIX.

A branch of the natural size. a. The ajiple.

Nareow-Leaved Crab Apple, {Pyrus angustifolia, Aiton.)
This appears to be scarcely more than a variety of the Pyrus
coronaria; distinguishable, indeed, by its narrower leaves,
usually entire, which are often acute below; but, as the styles
are neither perfectly distinct nor constantly glabrous, and that
the young leaves are also pubescent, no sufficient distinction
remains. The fruit is likewise wholly similar.

PI L.

'doir'^ ht^

^Jneric<iTi2rountmJi ^7i.

Pjrus AmericaiiaL.

Sorijer d' ^jneriifuf .

MOUNTAIN ASH.

§ III. Leaves innnate or pinnatijid; styles two to Jive, distinct .
pome globose or turhinate; pidpy. — SoRBUS, Linn.

AMERICAN MOUNTAIN ASH.

Pyrus Americana. Foliis pinnatis glabris, foliolis ohlongo-lanceolatis
acuminatis indso-serratis, serraturis seiaceo-mucronatis, cyniis compositis
miiUifloris, frudibus glohosis. — ^Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 637. Tor-
REY aud Gray, Flor. K Am., vol. i. p. 472.

SoRBus Americana. — Willd., Enum., vol. i. p. 520. Pursh, Flor.,
vol. i. p. 341.

SoRBUs aucuparia. — /9 Mich., Flor. Bor. Am., vol. i. p. 290.

The Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree, of North America, is
met with sparingly in shady, moist woods in mountainous situa-
tions, from Labrador and even Greenland, throughout the New
England States, New York, Pennsylvania ; and the variety mi-
crocarjpa, with smaller berries, extends to the high mountains
of Virginia and North Carolina.

It forms a small tree of great beauty, remarkable for its
elegant feathered foliage, in May and June clad with its white
and fragrant blossoms, and to the close of the year, even into
winter, decorated with its large clusters of bright berries, which
afford a favorite repast for thrushes and other frugivorous birds,
on their annual round to more genial climates, or during their
hibernal residence : —

" Sanguineisque inculta rubent aviaria baccis." — Virgil.

The European species, which differs very little from the pre-

175

176 AMERICAN MOUNTAIN ASH.

sent, becomes, in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales,
a tree of considerable size, so as occasionally to be sawn into
planks and boards. It attains the height of twenty-five to
thirty feet, with a diameter of two feet ; and a tree in Scotland,
in Forfarshire, at Old Montrose, sixty-five years old, is fifty feet
high, with a diameter of two feet ten inches. The wood is said
to be hard and durable, fit for economical purposes, such as
mill-work, screws for presses, spokes for wheels, &c. In ancient
times it was also esteemed for bows next to the Yew. The
berries, dried and reduced to powder, have even been made into
bread ; and an ardent spirit may be distilled from them of a fine
flavor, but in small quantity. Though acid and somewhat
astringent, they are accounted wholesome, and, in the High-
lands of Scotland, are often eaten when perfectly ripe ; in the
cold and sterile climate of Kamtschatka, according to Gmelin,
they are used for the same purposes.

This tree was formerly held sacred, and in the North of Eng-
land it is called the Witch-Hazel. In Wales, it was formerly
planted in the churchyard as commonly as the Yew, and, on a
certain day of the year, everybody religiously wore a cross made
of the wood, as a charm against fascinations and evil spirits !

The American species scarcely forms so large a tree as that
of Europe, attaining only the height of fifteen to twenty feet,
and the leaves are very smooth, except before their complete
expansion ; the leaflets are about from thirteen to fifteen, ob-
long-lanceolate, acuminated, with sharp and deep mucronate
serratures. The cymes or flower-clusters are large and com-
pound, and the fruit, like that of the European species, is of a
bright light scarlet. The berries of the variety mlcrocarpa are
also of the same color, but smaller. The seeds, two in a cell,
appear to have the same cartilaginous coat as in the apple.

PLATE L.

A branch of the natural sUc. a. A cluster offioiocrs. b. A flower cnhrged.

CERCOCARPUS.

(HuMB., BoNPL., and Kunth.)

Nataral Order, KosACE^, (Juss.) (Sub-tribe, Cercocarpew,) Lin-
ncean Classification, Icosandria, Monogtnia.

Tube of the calyx cylindrical, elongated, the lower part persistent, the
border hemispherical, 5-lobed, deciduous. Petals none. Stamens
many, seated on the border of the calyx. Ovary solitary; style
terminal, filiform, and villous. Achenium narrow, coriaceous, cau-
date, with the long persistent and enlarging plumose style. Seed
linear.

Shrubs or small trees, with alternate straight-veined, coriaceous,
serrate or entire leaves on short petioles. Stipules small, adnate to
the base of the petiole. Flowers small, white, axillary or terminating
short branchlets, mostly clustered.

* The name derived from xepxoq, a tail, and -/.apizo^, a fruit, in reference to the
character of the fruit.

Vol. IV.— 12 177

FEATHER BUSH.

Cercocarpus ledifolius. Foliis crehris perennaniibus Icmceolatis integris
demum glabris subtus iomentosis ynargine revohUis ; jiorihus sessilihus
paucis fasciculaiis ; cauda carpelorum longissimum ioriuosiim. — I^Tuttall,
in ToRREY and Gray, Flor., Am., i. p. 427. Hooker, Ic. pL, tab. 324,
(ined.)

We first observed this curious small tree in tlie Rocky Moun-
tain range, on the lofty hills of Bear River of Timpanogos, near
the celebrated "Beer Springs," which abound with carbonic acid.
We saw it afterward in the central chain, on either side Thornberg's
Ravine, toward the summits of the highest ridges, to which, by
its enduring and dark verdure, it contributed to give a wild and
gloomy robing, contrasted by the glittering white of the impend-
ing cliffs of gneiss near which it grew. On the summits of the
Beer Spring hills it formed extensive thickets, each tree spread-
ing out many branches at a few feet from the ground with con-
siderable regularity, almost in the manner of a Peach Tree. The
stem was in some trees about a foot in diameter, and the greatest
height of the j^lant did not exceed fifteen feet. It had much the
appearance of a stunted Olive Tree, and was bitterish to the taste.

The wood is hard, tough, whitish, and very close-grained,
somewhat resembling that of the Birch. It appeared to be of
slow growth and sempervirent ; the bark smooth and whitish,
the branchlets full of circular cicatrices, and the leaves clustered
at the extremities of the twigs. The leaves are at length nearly
smooth, at first hairy, with a short pubescence, beneath always
softly villous, with brownish curled hairs; their form is lanceo-
late, about one and a quarter inches long and three or four lines
wide, the border entire and revolut-e; beneath the hairs on the
under side we see the usual straight nerves. The older leaves

and other parts of the plant exude in small quantities an aro-

178

PI. LI.

Sincidnrs Izth

Cercocarpas leditolius

leatJur 3ush 3ia^sc a plianes.

FEATHER BUSH. 179

matic resin, having the scent of that found on some species of
Birch, (or Betula.) The flowers are small and white, produced at
the extremities of the twigs, and are succeeded by the fruit,
which forms one of the most remarkable and singular characters
of the genus; these have a strong resemblance to the seeds of
the Geranium, each small cylindric carpel sending out a long,
plumose, tortuous tail, nearly two inches in length, covered with
yellowish-white silky hairs, which, appearing simultaneously all
over the bush, give it a most remarkable and uncommon appear-
ance. It seemed to prefer poor dry soils, and would bear the cli-
mate of Europe or the northern parts of the United States very
well, from the alpine situations in which we uniformly saw it. It
is somewhat astringent to the taste, and agreeably though not
powerfully aromatic.

PLATE LI.

A branch of the natural size, loith its fruit a. The flower, b. The fruit.

WEST INDIA DOGWOOD.

Natural Order, Legumtnos^. LinncEan Classification, DiA-

DELPHIA, DeCANDRIA.

"-?

PISCIDIA.* (Linn.)

Calyx campanulate, 5-tootlied. Corolla papilionaceous, with the keel
obtuse. Stamens monadelplious, with the tenth free at the base.
Style filiform, glabrous. Legume pedicellated, linear, with four
broad longitudinal wings, the seeds separated by interruptions in
the pod. The seeds oval and compressed, with a lateral hylum ;
embryo curved; cotyledons thick and elliptic; the radicle in-
flected.— West India trees, with deciduous, unequally-pinnated
leaves, produced after the development of the flowers.

JAMAICA DOGWOOD.

PisciDiA Erythrina. FoUoUs ovutis, leguminis stipite calyce 7mdio lon-

gioix, alls inierrujptis.
PisciDiA Erythrina. — Linn., Sp. pi. Jacq., Amer., p. 206. Swartz,

Obs., p. 277. Macfadyen, Flora of Jamaica, vol. i. p. 258.
Ichihyomethia foliis jpimiatis ovaiis, racemis termimillhus, sillquis qiiadri-

alatis. — Browne, Jamaica, p. 296.
Coral arbor polyj^hylla nan spinosa, fraxird folio, siliqva alis foliaccis

exstaniihus rotoe. molcmiinarice fiiwiatilis acuta. — Sloane, Jam., vol. ii.

p. 32, tab. 176, figs. 4, 5. Lamarck, Illust., tab. 605, fig. A.
Pseudo-acacia, siliqids alatis. — Plumier, Icon., 229, tab. 233, fig. 2.

* The name from jnscis, a fish, in allusion to its employment as a fish-poison.
ISO

PL LIL

Jamaica. JJti If wood.

Piscidia erythriiia.

Boisivrant de la Jamaique.

JAMAICA DOGWOOD. 181

The Jamaica Dogwood is a native of the Antilles as well as
of the neighboring continent of America, having been observed
by Humboldt and Bonpland in the mountainous places in New
Spain, between Acapulco and Mazatlan, and we have now to
record it as a native of Key West, in East Florida, where it was
collected by Dr. Blodgett. It becomes a tree of about twenty to
twenty-five feet in height, not remarkable for the elegance of its
form, the branches being straggling, but yet beautiful in the
season of flowering, which is about April, when, with blossoms
similar to our favorite White Locust, {Rohinia pseudo-acacia,)
the whole summit of the tree is profusely loaded; they come
out some time before the leaves, in numerous panicles or spread-
ing clusters, of a whitish color, mixed with purple; the upper-
most petal or vexillum in the centre tinged with green. The
vexillum, externally, as well as the calyx, is covered with a
silky pubescence. The leaves are unequally pinnate, with
about five leaflets, which are either broad-ovate or obovate, and
slightly acuminate, entire, and beneath, as well as the foot-
stalk, more or less pubescent, particularly when young. The
pod is large, stipitate, and villous, with four broad undulated
longitudinal wings.

In Jamaica, this is esteemed one of the best timber trees in
the island; the wood is heavy, hard, and resinous, coarse, cross-
grained, and of a light brown color; it is very durable either in
or out of water. It makes excellent piles for wharves ; and the
stakes soon form, in the tropical countries it inhabits, a good
live fence. The bark of the trunk is very astringent: it cures
the mange in dogs, and would probably answer well for the tan-
ning of leather: it is best known, however, for its efiect^ as a
fish-poison, for which purpose it is pounded and mixed with the
water in some deep part of a river or creek, when the water
soon acquires a reddish shade, and in a few minutes the fish
begin to rise to the surface, where they float, as if they were
dead; the larger ones, however, recover, but the smaller fry are

182 J A M A I C A D 0 G W 0 0 D.

destroyed. The tincture of the bark, indeed, is found to be an
intense narcotic, and has been employed beneficially to relieve
the pain produced by carious teeth. Jacquin observes that this
quality of intoxicating fish is found in many other American
plants. Tephrosia (oxicaria of South America and T. piscatoria
of India and the South Sea Islands, both plants of the same
family with the present, likewise possess the faculty of intoxi-
cating fish.

PLATE LII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flovjcrs and young jwds. b. Tic

more j^erfeci j^od.

?i. Lm.

Acacia latisiliqiia

Broad j>oddfA,4ca£iay' .^^mvul alajye silifu^^.

ACACIA.

(Necker, Willd.)

Natural Order, Leguminos^. Linnaian Classification, Poly-

GAMIA, MONCECIA.

Flowers polygamous, perfect and staminlferous. — Calyx 4 to 5-
toothed. Petals four to five, distinct, or united into a monopetalous,
4 to 5-cleft corolla. Stamens, from eight or ten to two hundred.
Legume without interruptions between the seeds, drj, (without
pulp,) and 1-valved.

These are trees and shrubs principally of warm or mild climates, with
or without stipular or scattered spines. The leaves are usually small
and variously pinnated: sometimes (particularly in the l^ew Holland
species) the true leaves in the adult are abortive, and the simple leafy
petioles, called phyllodes, alone supply their place. Flowers often
yellow, more rarely white or red, disposed in spherical heads or in
spikes.

BROAD-PODDED ACACIA.

Acacia latisiliqua. Iiiermis glabra, jyi'^nis 5-jugis, foliolis 10-15-ji(gis
ellipticis obtusis, siipuUs bracteiformibiis dimidiato-cordaiis, cajntidis
pedunculaiis aggregaiis in panicuknn terminalem subdispositis, legumine
longe stipiiaia, plana, uirinque acuta. — Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 467.

Acacia latisiliqua. Inermis, foUis bipinnaiis pariialibus qidnquejugis,
ramis jlexuosis, gemmis globosis. — Linn., Sp. pi. Persoon, Synops.,

* An ancient Greek name, from axa^co, to j^omt, or sharpen, many of tlie spr
cies being thorny.

183

184 B K 0 A D- P 0 D D E D ACACIA.

vol. ii. p. 2G5. WiLLD., Sp., vol. iv. p. 1067. Macfadyen, Flor.
Jam., vol. i. p. 318.
Acacia non spinosa, siliquis laiis compressis, florc albo. — Plumier, (Ed.
Burm.,) t. 6.

This species, like many others of the genus, remarkable by its
light, waving, feather-like foliage, is, according to Dr. Blodgett,
rare at Key West, where it becomes a very large and spreading
tree, flowering in the month of May. It is also a native of the
West Indies and the warmer parts of the neighboring continent,
where it was found by Plumier and Aublet. According to
Macfadyen, it is a cultivated plant in Jamaica. It bears a great
resemblance to the Acacia figured by Catesby, tab. 42, which is
quoted as A. glauca, though by no means the same plant as
Plate 36 of Trew, which latter is the species most commonly
cultivated under that name.

The wood of this Acacia is said to be white, hard, and close-
grained. The trunk, as described by Catesby, attains a diameter
of three feet, and is accounted an excellent wood, next to the
mahogany of Jamaica, and is the best to be found in the Bahama
Islands. For curious cabinet-work it excels mahogany in its
variable shining tints, which appear like watered satin. Several
species of the genus afford very hard and durable wood.

The small branches in this species are gray, slender, and
somewhat zigzag. The leaves are bipinnate, on main petioles, a
little more than an inch long; between the first pair of pinnules
is usually seen on the petiole a projecting though sometimes
merely a depressed gland; the next pairs are without glands to
the summit of the leaf-stalk, where there is then another
depressed gland. The pinnules vary in our plant from two to
four pair; (we have not seen five.) The leaflets of the pinnule
are oblong-elliptic, nearly smooth, obtuse, somewhat oblique,
and rounded at base, in from eight to fifteen or sixteen pairs.
From the axils of the two or three uppermost leaves come out
simple or aggregated peduncles, usually by threes, above,

BROAD-PODDED ACACIA. 185

running together so as to form a small, sparse-flowered panicle,
with each of the clusters subtended by rather large, deciduous,
amplexicaule, semicordate and acuminate smooth bractes, which
resemble stipules. The flowers are disposed in spherical, rather
small heads, on peduncles about three-quarters of an inch long :
they appear white from the color of the long, tortuous, hair-like
stamens. The calyx is canescent, with a close pubescence, and
five-cleft at the summit. The corolla is deeply five-parted, and of
a purplish brown, with oblong-lanceolate divisions. The stamens
are ten or more, with very long filaments, and very small whitish
rounded anthers. The legume (according to Dr. Blodgett) is
four or five inches long, flat, thin, many-seeded, and an inch or
more in breadth.

PLATE LIII.

A small branch of the natural size, a. Thejlower somewhat ejilarged.

IV.— 12*

I N G a;

(Plumier, Willd.)

Natural Order, Leguminosjs. Linncean Classification, Polt-

GAMIA, MONCECIA.

■-?

Flowers polygamous, perfect, and male. — Calyx 5-tootlied. Corolla
monopetalous, tubular-funnel-formed, exceeding tlie calyx in length,
with the border regular and 4 or 5-cleft. Stamina numerous, ex-
serted, (10 to 200,) with the capillary filaments more or less united
into a tube. Legume broadly linear, compressed, 1-celled. Seeds
usually covered with pulp, more rarely with a pellicle or with fari-
naceous matter.

Shrubs or trees of warm or tropical climates, chiefly indigenous to
India and America, usually unarmed. Flowers in spikes or globular
heads, red or white, rarely yellow.

BLUNT-LEAVED INGA.

Inga UNGuis-CATi.f SpMs sUpularibus redis, foUis conjugaio-gemiruiiis,
foliolis subroiundo-ellipiicis suhdimidiatis membranaceis glabris, glandula

* An American name adopted by Plumier.

f The specific name of unguis-cati alludes to the short and rather concealed
thorns with which this tree is provided. Browne calls it the hiack-head shrub,
and from others in Jamaica, according to Macfadyen, it receives the names of
Barharij Thorn and Nephritic Tree.
IHO

PI. LIV

Z SmdcoTs lukTTnl.

J.Mage^del'

Id ^ a Unguis Cati.

Mimt Uaxed Inga Jr^a omjle de chat .

BLUNT-LEAVED INGA. 187

in dicliotomia pctioli glahri et inter foliola, fiorum ccqntuUs globosis in race-
mum terminaleni dispositis, legumine torto. — Decand., Prod., vol. ii.
p. 436.

Mimosa unguis-cati. — Linn., Spec, 499. Willd., Sp. pi., vol. iv. p.
1006. Jacquin, Hort. Schoenbrunn, vol. ii. tab. 34. Descourt.,
•Flor. Antil., vol. i. tab. 11. Swartz., Obs., p. 389. Macfadyen,
Flor. Jam., vol. i. p. 306.

Acacia quadrifolia, siliquis circinaiis — Plumier, (Ed. Burman,) Icon. 4.
Pluken., tab. 1, fig. 6. ,

Acacia arhorea major spinosa, pinnis quatuor, siliquis varie intortis. —
Sloane, Hist. Jam., vol. ii. p. 56.

Mimosa fridicosa, foliis ovatis binato-binatis, seminihus atro-niteniibus. —
Browne, Jamaic, p. 252.

This very singular-leaved tree, attaining about the height of
from ten to twenty feet, is indigenous to many of the West India
Islands, as well as to Cumana and Cayenne on the neighboring
continent, where it was observed by Humboldt and BonjDland,
and in the latter place by Aublet. This is also another of the
Caribbean productions which extends to the limits of the United
States, having been recently found in Key West by our friend
Dr. Blodgett.

The wood is said to be yellow, the summit of the tree irregular,
and the branches straggling. The smaller twigs are round and
gray, inclining to brown, and covered with minute warts. The
thorns are stipular, or come out at the junction of the leaf with
the stem; they vary in size, but are always short, and in some
of the twigs wholly absent. The leaves are bipinnate, only four
in number, the leaflets on each pinule being only a single pair,
sessile, obovate, very obtuse or subemarginate and rounded above,
glabrous and of a thin texture, with widely-reticulated nerves;
the petiole channelled above, with a hollow circular gland at the
junction of the secondary petioles. Racemes termmal, thyrsoid,
the pedicels long and fastigiate, almost like a corymb. Flowers
greenish yellow and smooth, in globose heads. Calyx small,

188 GUADALOUPE INGA.

five-toothed. CorolLa more than twice the length of the calyx,
five-cleft toward the summit, the segments acute. Filaments
numerous, slender, and capillary, yellow, three times the length
of the corolla. Legume torulose, spirally twisted, of a reddish-
purple colour; seeds five or six, black, shining, roundish, com-
pressed, half covered with a white, fleshy, arillus-like pellicle.

This plant has the credit of being a sovereign remedy for
nephritic complaints, for the stone and gravel, and also for ob-
structions of the liver. The bark is the part employed; and
Barham states (in his account of Jamaica, where this tree grows)
that in his time it was in such general use that it was rare to
meet with a tree that had not been barked. The decoction, of
a red color, is very astringent, and acts as a diuretic. It has also
been employed externally as a lotion and injection, to remove the
relaxation of the parts. Upon the whole, it would seem to be
entitled to the notice of physicians, and deserves a further
examination.

PLATE LIV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flower somewhat enlarged.

GUADALOUPE INGA.

Inga GuADALurENSis. Inemus, fol'ds conjugato-geminatis, foliolis obovatis
subrhombeis obtusis venosis glaberrimis, glandula in dichotomia j^ctioli
glabri et inter foliola, capituUs globosis pedicellatis racemosis, legumine
torto glabra. — Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 436.

Mimosa Guadalupensis. FoUis bijugis foliolis ovalibus, obliquis sub-
coriaccis, capitulis corgmbosis. — Persoon, Synops., vol. ii. p. 262.

This species also becomes a tree of twelve to twenty feet ele-
vation at Key West, according to the observation of the same

PL IV

tafa. GiiadalTipenis
G-uadxilaupf Inga Jn^a aelxh Griuideloupe.

GUADALOUPE INGA. 189

gentleman who discovered the preceding. The specimen de-
scribed by Persoon came from the island of Guadaloupe. Decan-
doUe suspects that it may be a mere thornless variety of the pre-
ceding species, (Z unguis-cati ;) but, from numerous specimens
which we have inspected from Florida, there can remain very
little doubt of its distinction as a peculiar species.

The spines appear to be wholly wanting; the bark of the
branches is gray and rough with minute warts. The petioles are
about three lines long, and of the same length with the partial
ones; both are strongly grooved and distinctly articulated. The
leaves are smooth and coriaceous, shining above, dull and paler
beneath, delicately and reticulately veined, quite opaque from
their thickness, cuneate-oblong or lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, and
sometimes rounded at the apex, at other times rather acute and
apiculated. A depressed gland at the summit of the petiole
between the stalks, and also one less distinct between the pairs
of leaflets. The flowers are axillary and long-pedunculate ; they
likewise terminate the branches in corymbose racemes. The
heads of flowers are hemispherical, and appear to have been
yellowish green. The calyx is campanulate, with acute and
very distinct teeth; the corolla is monopetalous, more widely
campanulate at the summit, twice as long as the calyx, with
acute segments. The pods are dark purplish brown, much
curved, three to four inches long, about half an inch wide,
attenuated at the base, torulose and irregularly narrowed between
the seeds, but not intercepted within. The seeds are deep black,
somewhat compressed, and at one extremity half covered by a
bright rose-red fleshy and lobed arillus.

PLATE LV.

A branch of the natural size. a. The ripe pod. b. The seed.

SCH^FFERA.

(Jacquin.)

Natural Order, Celastrine^? Linncean Classification, Dicecia,

Tetrandria.

Dkecious. — Calyx small, 4-parted, persistent. Petals four, alternating
with the sepals. Stamina four, opposite to the petals. Ovarium
2-celled. Stigmas two. Berry dry, bipartite, cells 1- seeded. Seed
erect, plano-convex ; albumen fleshy ; embryo central, straight, and
flat.

Trees of Tropical America, with alternate, entire, coriaceous leaves ;
stipules none ; flowers several, axillary, small and pedicellated, white
or erreen.

JAMAICA BOXWOOD.

ScH^FFERA BuxiFOLiA. FolUs lanceolato-ovatis hasi attcmiatis j^lcrisque

acKtis ramulisque glabris, petalis viridis obiusis.
ScH^FFERiA FRUTESCENS, huxifoUa. Foliis latins ovatis mucronatis.

— ^Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 41. Lam., Illust., t. 809.
JBuxi folio majore acuminato, arbor baccifera^ fructu minore croceo dipyreno.

— Sloane, Hist. Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 102, tab. 209, fig. 1.

According to Dr. Blodgett, this plant, common at Key West
and on the adjoining keys of East Florida, becomes a tree of

* Named in honor of James Christian SchaeflFer, of Ratisbon, author of several

butauical works.
190

PI. in

J.Mai^fi'diL*

JamtiuxL Box-H-ood .

Schoeffera budfolia

Schatfera. a fruiUes ile, hms

J A M A I C A B 0 X W 0 0 D. 191

thirty feet in height, and is an article of export from the Ba-
hama Islands, where it is valued at about forty dollars the ton.
From Poiteau's " Herbarium," it appears to grow in the island
of St. Domingo; it is also apparently identical with the Jamaica
plant of Sloane. The wood is pale yellow, very close and fine-
grained, and might easily be mistaken for that of the true Box,
which name it bears in the Bahamas.

The twigs are slender and covered with a light gray bark.
The leaves are very smooth and shining on the upper surface,
with slender branching veins, lanceolate and very acute, yet on
the lower part of the same specimen blunt or even emarginate ;
but they are always narrowed below. The male flowers (the
only ones I have seen) are small, on very short peduncles, three
or four together, with a rather minute calyx, and four broadish,
green, oblong, obtuse petals. The stamens are usually four,
shorter than the petals, sometimes more by the ingraftment of
two peduncles. The stigmas are two, and short. The berries
rather flattened and two-lobed, about the size of a grain of cubebs,
dry, but with a thick integument, two-celled, two-seeded, and of
a pale orange-yellow when ripe. Appearances of resin are visible
on some of the buds, and the berries have rather an acrid bitter
taste, something like that of tobacco; yet, notwithstanding
their disagreeable taste, they are greedily devoured by birds.

The white flowers of S. frutescens, the S. completa of Swartz,
and its humble stature, appear to distinguish it from our plant.

PLATE LVI.

A branch of the natural size. a. The male flower, b. The fruit.

CEANOTHUS.

(Linn., in part.)

Natural Order, Rhamne^, (Decand.) Linncean Classificatkm;
Pentandria, Monogtnia.

Calyx campanulate, shortly 5-cleft, with the border deciduous. Petals
five, cucullate, and arched, exserted, with long claws. Stamens ex-
serted. Disk thickened at the margin surrounding the ovary.
Styles three, united to the middle. Fruit dry and rigid, mostly
3-celled, obtusely triangular, seated on the persistent tube of the
calyx, tricoccous, dehiscing by the inner sutures. Seeds obovate,
even.

Shrubs or undershrubs, rarely small trees, of the temperate parts of
America. Roots large and ligneous. Leaves alternate, ovate or
elliptical, mostly serrate, sometimes entire, persistent or deciduous.
Flowers white or blue, in umbel-like clusters, aggregated at the
extremities of the branches into thyrsoid corymbs. The taste of the
root and most other parts of the plant more or less astringent. One
of the species was formerly employed as a succedaneum for tea, and
hence the name of '■^New Jersey Tea.''

* An ancient Greek name employed by Thcoplirastus for a plant now unknown.

192

Ti*ee Ceaaiothus

Ceojiothus tTw-rsiflorits . CexxjioULe thjrs^^re..

TREE CEANOTHUS.

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus. Arborea, erecta ; ramis angulatis, foUis ocato-
oblongis, suhellipUcis, obiusis crassiusculis, glanduloso-serrulaiis sub-
glabris, subtus subvillosis; thyrsis oblong o-ovalibus densifioris corgm-
bidis axillaribus iermmalibusque, ramis jloriferis foliosis ; floribus azureis.

Ceanothus thyrsijiorus. — Escholts, in Mem. Acad. St. Petersb., (1826.)
Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. i. p. 125. Hooker and Arnott, in
Bot. Beechy, p. 136. Torrey and Gray, vol. i. p. 266.

Though several species of this elegant genus in California,
Oregon, and along the northwest coast, become considerable
shrubs, this is the only one which can be classed among trees.
It was somewhat abundant on dry, gravelly hills in the vicinity
of Monterey, where I arrived in the month of March, about
the time that it was bursting into flower. My attention was
called to it in the wood-pile, where considerable stems, at least
as thick as a man's leg, lay consigned to the ignoble but still
important use of firewood. The wood appeared hard, tough,
of a reddish color, and it afforded a durable fuel. The branches
were tortuous, spreading, and covered with a rough bark; the
branchlets green and angular. Leaves nearly elliptic, the
uppermost ovate-oblong, all glandularly serrulate ; above smooth,
beneath pubescent, particularly along the three strong nerves
which traverse the leaf to the summit ; the petioles very short ;
the upper branchlets terminating in thyrsoid panicles of deep
blue and very elegant flowers, made up of numerous round,
dense clusters, in small corymbs ; the terminal mass oval, about
three inches long by about an inch in width ; the clusters are
subtended by ovate, acuminate, broad, villous, and deciduous
bractes. The calyx, petals, and peduncles, are of a deep sky-
blue ; the segments of the calyx ovate ; the petals, as usual,
unguiculate and exserted, as well as the stamens; the anthers
are yellow. With the fruit I am wholly unacquainted.

Vol. IV.— 13 193

194 TREE CEANOTHUS.

As this is a hardy and very ornamental plant, it well deserves
cultivation. The flowers appear early in the spring, and the
whole summit of the tree appears of an intense blue.

The bark of the Ceanotlius azureus, a plant allied to the pre-
sent species, is esteemed in Mexico as a febrifuge.

PLATE LVII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The flower.

Ceanothus macrocar'pus. — I^utt., in Torrey and Gray. As this is
not the plant of "Willdenow, I take this opportunity of correcting
the error, and propose to call it Ccanothus megacarpus.

Persimmon, [Diospyrus Virginiana.) /3 pubescens. Foliis subtiis mol-
liter pilosis.

Of this remarkable variety, with the leaves softly pilose
beneath, I have seen specimens from Louisiana, collected by
Mr. Teinturier ; and a very similar but less pubescent variety
was found in Georgia by the late Dr. Baldwin, (according to
specimens in the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences
in this place.)

PILTTE

SiiakeWood,

*»

COLUBRINA.

(Richard.)

Natural Order, Rhamne^. LiniiGean Classifkation, Pentandria,

MONOGYNIA.

Calyx spreading, 5-cleft; the tube hemispherical. Petals five, oh-
ovate, convolute. Stamens five, with ovate, 2-celled anthers. Bisk
fleshy, rather flat, slightly 5-angled. Ovary immersed in and ad-
hering to the disk, 3-celled. Style trifid. Stigmas three. Fruit
capsular, dehiscent, tricoccous, girt at the base by the adnate, per-
manent, entire tube of the calyx. Seeds furnished with a short
stalk, the testa coriaceous, very smooth.

Trees or shrubs of Tropical America and Asia. Leaves alternate,
with pinnate nerves, and reticulated with transverse veins. Flowers
in short, axillary cymes.

SNAKE-WOOD.

CoLUBRiNA Americana. Foliis ovatis suhacuminatis integris, suhtus

ramulis fiorihusque ferrugineo-villosis, floribus axillarihus corymboso

adgregatis.
Ceanothus coluhrinus. — ^Lamarck. Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 31.

Persoon, Synops., vol. i. p. 244.
Rhamnus coluhrinus. — Jacquin, Amer., 74, No. 2, Hort. Vindobon.,

vol. iii. tab. 50. Vogel, Icon, rar., tab. 105. Linn., Syst., vol. i.

p. 195.

195

196 SNAKE-WOOD.

Rhamnus arhoreus, foliis obovatis venosis, capsulis sphcericis, inferne ad
medietatem calyptratis. — Browne, Jamaic, p. 172, IsTo. 2.

Rhamnus ferrugmeus. — Nutt., in Torrey and Gray, Flora N. Am.,
vol. i. p. 263, and Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc, Philad., vol. vii. p. 90.

Arbor baccifera indica, foliis majoribus splendentibus Jlorc pentapetalo. —
CoMM., Hort, p. 475, tab. 90.

A FLOWERING Specimen of this tree was collected at Key
West, in East Florida, by Mr. Titian Peale. From this im-
perfect relic I conceived it to belong to a new species, which I
hence called the ferruginous Buckthorn ; but on comparing it
more attentively with a fine sjDCcimen of Rhamnus colubrlnus,
collected in St. Domingo by Poiteau, I felt satisfied of their
identity. It is indigenous to the islands of St. Martin, the
Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba, where, on the high
mountains, it becomes a tree of twenty feet in height ; but on
the borders of the sea, among the brushwood, it seldom attains
a greater height than that of six or seven feet. The branches
spread out horizontally and are thickly covered with leaves.
It is remarkable for the ferruginous down spread over the
petioles and young leaves, as well as upon the peduncles and
calyx of the flowers. The bark is smooth and blackish, but
the younger branches are gray and downy. The leaves are
alternate, oval, somewhat acuminately and abrujDtly pointed,
entire, smooth and shining above, tomentose beneath when
young, afterward only so on the nerves, three to four inches
long by about two inches wide ; the petioles from a quarter to
half an inch long. The flowers are small, disposed in short,
axillary corymbs, containing in each cluster about seven to ten.
The calyx is villous and ferruginous, five-parted, the divisions
ovate and somewhat acute ; the petals, five in number, are nar-
row, linear-oblong, about the length of the divisions of the
calyx, unguiculate, concave, and partly embracing the stamens,
which are about the same length. Fleshy disk of the germ
conspicuous, broadly five-lobed. The style is simple, terminating

SNAKE-WOOD. 197

in three simple, obtuse stigmas. The fruit, nearly half-way
embraced by the persistent base of the calyx, is a capsule of
three lobes, with three valves and three elastic cells. The
seeds are solitary, nearly round, and somewhat compressed,
shining and black, remaining, often after the lapse of the cap-
sule, attached to the base of the cells. With the wood of this
tree or its economy I am unacquainted.

Another species of this genus, with smooth, elliptic, and some-
what acuminated leaves on longish petioles, occurs, according to
La Sagra, in Cuba. In this also the small axillary umbels are
very few-flowered, smooth, and pedicellated : this might be called
Coluhrina glabra.

PLATE LVIII.

A branch of the natural size. a. The umbel of flowers, b. The flower a
little enlarged, c. The seed remaming attached to the receptacle.

BUCKTHORN.

Natural Order, Rhamne^. Llnncean Classification, Pentandkia,

MONOGTNIA.

RHAMmJS.* (Linn.)

Calyx urceolate, with tlie border 4 or 5-cleft. Petals four or five,
alternating with the calyx, entire, emarginate or 2-lobed, more
or less convolute, sometimes wanting. Torus thin, lining the tube
of the calyx. Stamina situated before the petals. Ovary free, and
not immersed in the torus or disk, 2 to 4-celled. Styles two to
four, distinct, or combined. Fruit drupaceous, containing two to
four cartilaginous nuts.

The Buckthorns are all shrubs or small trees, with alternate and
rarely opposite leaves, on short petioles, often pennately uei'ved.
The flowers are small and greenish, usually in short axillary clusters
or small corymbs.

CAROLINA BUCKTHORN.

TiiiAMNUS Carolinianus, CWalter, Flor. Carol., p. 101.) Ercetus,
foliis ovall-oblongis integriusculis ylabris, umhclUs jjeduucidatis, Jloribus
hermaphrodites, fructibus globosis. — Miciiaux, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. i.
p. 153. Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 26.

IliiAMNus Carolinianus. Ercct, unarmed; leaves oval-oblong, ob-
scurely serrate, nearly glabrous, (or rarely pubescent beneath;)

* From the Celtic r<tm, branehiiii;; ; niid hence tlie Creek iKiiivot;.
198

J^l.LIZ.

< ' i\ r< )Jj lui E iLc ktliMtiL.

a/ldfn I tug f '///;. '7 tW.' fTjl.-i

^er/jruU' tie la farcyltfve .

CAROLINA BUCKTHORN. 199

umbels axillary,* on peduncles mucli shorter than the petioles;
flowers perfect, pentandrous, (sometimes tetrandrous ;) petals mi-
nute, embracing the very short stamens; styles united to the sum-
mit; stigmas three; fruit globose, rather dry, 3 to 4-seeded. —
ToRREY and Gray, Flora N. Amer., i. p. 262.

This fine Buckthorn, though usually a shrub in our Southern
and Southwestern forests, on the borders of Palmetto Creek,
Laurens county, in Georgia, the late Mr. Croom observed trees
of this species thirty to forty feet high. In the forests of
Arkansas, they attain the height of ordinary Peach or Apple
Trees, and, congregated together, produce shady groves of con-
siderable extent. The quality or uses of its wood remain a
desideratum. The stems are, however, slender for their height,
being not more than four to six inches in diameter.

The leaves are three to six inches long and one to two inches
wide, oval-oblong and widening toward the summit, the ex-
tremity more or less briefly acuminate, the border slenderly
serrulate, and sometimes irregularly waved; the lateral pennate
veins are ten to twelve, and rather distant; the very young
leaves before expansion are somewhat ferruginously villous.
Umbels on stout pedicels, from 10 to 15-flowered. The calyx
pubescent but not ferruginous, the segments lanceolate; petals
two-lobed at the extremity. The fruit, black, as large as a
small pea, is mostly three-seeded. Seeds black, plano-convex,
without a groove.

This species begins to appear in North Carolina, and extends
through Georgia to Florida. West of the Mississippi, it is
abundant on the banks of the Arkansas, and Mr. Say collected
it within the range of the Rocky Mountains.

In Bartram's Botanic Garden, at Kingsessing, where this
species is perfectly hardy, it forms an elegant tree, and has
attained the height of nearly twenty-five feet in twenty years.
Colonel Carr, the late worthy proprietor of this interesting garden,
tells me that for a considerable time the berries remain red, and

200 PURSH'S BUCKTHORN.

are very ornamental; at length toward winter they turn black,
and remain so for a long time, until some famished flock of
robins falls upon and strips them nearly at once.

PLATE LIX.

A branch of the natural size. a. The jioioer enlarged, b. The berries.

PURSH'S BUCKTHORN.

Rhamnus Purshianus, (Decand.) Inermis, erectus, foliis lato-ellipticis
minute denticulato-serratis subtus piibescentibiis nervis lateralibus obliquis
lineatis, peduncuUs axillaribus umbdlatis fiorihusque pubescentibiis, calyce
5-Jido, fetalis minutis cucullatis. — Hook., Flor. Bor. Am., vol. ii. p. 128,
t. 43. Decand., Prod., vol. ii. p. 25.

Rhamnus alnifolius. — Pursh, Plor. Am. Sept., vol. i. p. 166, (non
L' Heritier.)

This is another species of Buckthorn which becomes a tree of
ten to twenty feet elevation, with a trunk of nine inches in
diameter. It was discovered within the Rocky Mountain range,
on the banks of Salmon River, by Caj^tain Lewis; and it is
of common occurrence on the borders of the Oregon, in the
upland shady woods near the skirts of the prevailing Pine
forests. Menzies also met with this tree near Nootka, on the
northwest coast of America. It bears a strong resemblance to
the R. Carolinianus ; but the leaves are broader, shorter, and
more decidedly serrated, and the berry is strongly three-lobed.

The branches are round, dark brown, and pubescent. The
leaves are three to five inches long, petiolate, deciduous, but at
length somewhat coriaceous, broadly elliptic, rounded or rarely
somewhat acute at the base, obtuse or sometimes very shortly

CATHARTIC BUCKTHORN. 201

acuminate, the margin minutely serrulate, the young leaves
pubescent at length, only so on the nerves beneath, the nerves
in oblique lines ; petioles pubescent. Stipules quickly deciduous,
peduncles solitary, an inch or more long, umbellated; pedicels
pubescent, elongated in the fruit. Calyx externally pubescent,
six-cleft; the segments acute, internally carinate. Petals minute,
cucullate, bifid at the apex, shorter than the calyx, very concave,
and cucullate. Stamens opposite the petals and involved in
them. Germ small, ovate. Style shorter than the germ; the
stigma obtuse and three-lobed. Berry wider above, three-celled,
three-seeded. The seed obovate, black, very shining, convex
externally, internally with a central, elevated line at the base,
at the hylum yellow.

The Cathartic Buckthorn {RJiamnus catharticus) appears to
be a native of the Northern States of the Union, as it occurs in
the wildest situations. The berries and syrup of this species
have long been employed in medicine. The juice of the berries,
in a dose of five or six drachms, proves a strong cathartic; but
it is generally made into a syrup. The bark has also an emetic
quality. The juice of the unripe berries with alum gives a
yellow dye ; that of the ripe fruit, concentrated by evaporation,
and treated in the same manner with a solution of alum, gives
a green paste, — the sap-green employed by painters, — and, from
the manner in which it is prepared for sale, is called, in France,
vert de vessie.

In New England, particularly in the vicinity of Boston, this
species is much employed for useful and ornamental hedges, and,
bearing well to be cut, growing thick, and remaining green till
winter, it is strongly recommended for this useful purpose.

IV.— 13*

MANCHINEEL.

Natural Order, Euphorbiace^ ? Linncean Classification, Monce-

CIA, MONADELPHIA.

HIPPOMAKE.* (Linn.)

MoNCECious. — Male flowers with a subcampanulate, emarginate calyx
and no corolla. A single columnar filament terminating in four
anthers. — In the fertile flower there is a 3-leaved calyx and no
corolla. Style very short. Stigma 6 or 7-cleft. Fruit, a drupe con-
taining a six to seven or more celled nut ; each cell with one seed ;
the cells indehiscent.

A large poisonous tree of Tropical America, with alternate, entire
leaves; the male flowers clustered in interrupted, terminal spikes.
The fi^uit solitary and sessile, resembling an apple.

MANCHINEEL.

IIiPPOMANE MANCiNELLA. FolUs ovatis serratis. — Linn., Willd., Sp.pl.

Lamarck, Illust., t. 793. Jacq., Am., edit, pict, t. 288. Aublet,

Guian., vol. ii. p. 885.
Malus Americana, laurocerasi folio, venenata. Mancincllo arbor scu Mas-

sinilia dicta. — Commel., Hort., vol. i. p. 131, t. 68.
Juglandi affinis arbor juUfcra, lactescens, venenata, pyrifolia, Mancanillo

Ilispanis dicta. — Sloane, Jamaic. Ilist., vol. ii. p. 3, t. 159.

* From iTtizoz, a Jiorse, and p.avia, madness. Tlic name, however, was applied
by the Greeks to a very different plant which grew in Arcadia, said to render
horses furious.
202

PI LX

Man clime el

M A N C H I N E E L. 203

Mancanilla jpyrifade. — Plumier, Gen., p. 49, t. 3. MSS. vol. vi. t.

109. Catesby's Carol., vol. ii. p. 95, t. 95.
Arbor Americana Mancinello dicta, fructu pomi venenato, nucleis sc]:>tems

et pluribus, in ossiculo muricato, ioiidem loculis disperiito, inclusis. — Pm-

KEN, Almag., p. 44. Phytog., tab. 142, fig. 4.
Mippomane arboreum laciescens, ramulis ternatis; peiiolis glanduld noiatis;
jioribus spicaiis, mixtis. — Browne, Jam., p. 351.

The Manchineel Tree attains a great size on the sea-coast in
various parts of the West India Islands and the neighboring
continent. It has also been found growling very common at
Key West, in low places, where it attains the height of thirty
to forty feet. It has much the aspect of a Pear Tree at a dis-
tance, while the fruit resembles in appearance and scent a small
apple, and is produced in such abundance that the ground, when
they fall, appears as if it were paved with them; they possess,
however, very little pulp, being internally occupied by a deeply-
grooved nut as large as a chestnut. No animal, except goats
and macaws, chooses to feed on them ; and they become dry,
brown, and spongy, and as useless as they are deleterious. The
wood, on the contrary, is in great esteem for tables, cabinets,
and other articles of furniture, being close-grained, heavy,
durable, finely variegated with brown, white, and shades of
yellow, and susceptible of a high polish. Tables made of it
almost resemble marble, and are equally smooth and shining.
Great caution, however, is necessary in felling the tree; and,
before they begin, it is the usual practice of the workmen,
first to kindle a fire round the stem, by which means the
milky sap becomes so much inspissated as not to follow the
blows of the axe. They also take the further precaution to
cover the face with a net of gauze, to prevent the access both
of the juice and the particles of sap-wood, which might be dele-
terious.

All parts of the Manchineel Tree abound with a white, milky
sap, which is very poisonous, and so caustic that a single drop

204 M A N C H I N E E L.

received upon the back of the hand immediately produces the
sensation of the touch of a coal of fire, and soon raises a watery
blister. The Indians, according to Hawkins, used to poison
their arrows vnth this juice, which retained its venom for a
long time. Another and much more deadly poison was com-
monly used for this purpose, however, by the American savages
of the warmer parts of America, — namely, the warari, chiefly
obtained from the juice of the Stryclinos; and this was distin-
guishable by producing the effect of tetanus or lockjaw, which,
mostly fixtal, was sometimes protracted for several days before
producing death. It is reported that many of the Europeans
who first landed in Surinam died suddenly from sleeping under
this tree; and there may probably be some foundation in truth
for such reports, when we take into consideration the volatile
nature of the poisonous principle of these plants. As in the
venomous species of Rhus or Sumach, also, while many in-
dividuals are afiected by the 23oison, others, for no evident
reason, can touch or handle these plants with impunity. Hence,
though Jacquin asserts that he reposed under the shade of the
Manchineel for the space of three hours without experiencing
any inconvenience, it does not follow that it would be equally
harmless to all who should hazard the experiment; and, with a
laudable prudence, the inhabitants of Martinique formerly burned
down whole woods of the Manchineel in order to clear their
country of so dangerous a pest.

Catesby acknowledges that he was not sufficiently satisfied of
its poisonous qualities "till, assisting in the cutting down a tree
of this kind on Andros Island, I paid for my incredulity : some
of the milky poisonous juice spirting in my eyes, I was two
days totally deprived of sight, and my eyes and face much
swelled, and felt a violent pricking pain the first twenty-four
hours, which from that time abated gradually with the swelling,
and went off without any application or remedy, none in that

M A N C H I N E E L. 205

uninhabited island being to be had. It is no wonder that the
sap of this tree should be so virulent, when rain or dew falling
from its leaves on the naked body causes blisters on the skin,
and even the effluvia of it are so noxious as to affect the senses
of those which stand any time under its shade."

Oily substances are considered the best remedy for this
poison. Some also recommend a large glass of sea-water to
be drank instantly as a preventive.

The branches of the Manchineel are covered with a grayish,
smooth bark. The leaves, which fall annually, are alternate,
petiolate, numerous, oval, pointed, almost cordate at the base,
slightly and distantly serrulate, dark green, rather thick,
shining, veined, and transversely nerved, three to four inches
long by about two inches wide. Stipules oval and caducous.
The flowers are small and of a yellow color, monoecious, and
grow upon straight, terminal spikes, like catkins. The male
flowers are minute, collected together in clusters of about thirty
together, each cluster subtended by a concave, caducous scale.
The calycine scales are accompanied at their base by two large,
lateral, orbicular, depressed glands. The fertile flowers are
sessile and solitary. The drupe, in color and odor, is so like
a small apple that it might easily be mistaken for it; it is
shining, and of a yellowish-green color, with a white and milky
pulp. It contains a thick, bony nut, full of angular crests
which project almost through the skin ; it has, ordinarily, six
or seven, sometimes as many as fourteen ? one-seeded cells, which
have no spontaneous dehiscence or valves. The male flowers
have a very small one-leaved, roundish, bifld calyx, with a
straight, slender filament as long again as the calyx, bearing
four roundish anthers. The female flower, like the preceding,
has no corolla, and consists of a three-leaved calyx, with round-
ish, obtuse, connivent leaflets. The ovary is oval, superior, as
long as the calyx, surmounted by a straight, short style, deeply

206 ALEURITES.

divided into six or seven long, subulate, pointed, and reflected
stigmas.

PLATE LX.

A branch of the natural size. a. The male jiower. h. The ajjple-like
drupe of the natural magnitude, c. A transverse section of ilie drujye
having six cells and one abortive cell. d. The seed, of its natural mag-
nitude, e. The kernel, with the inverted embryo of the natural size.

The poisonous Upas, [Antiaris toxicaria,) bearing solitary,
female flowers with two styles and an unequal drupaceous
fruit, though only of one cell, still approaches nearer to the
anomalous Manchineel, in this family, than to any plant of the
Artoca7yece, with which it is so unnaturally associated.

Aleurites, by its fruit, a two-celled, two-seeded, indehiscent
drupe, appears to be almost intermediate with Antiaris and
Hippomane. We are unacquainted with the structure of the
seed in Antiaris ; but the obliquity of the fruit, and its swelling
out more to one side, would seem to indicate the presence of
two germs. These poisonous plants, as well as the Aleurites,
seem to form a natural group, which further observation must
decide; if so considered, they might bear the name of Hippo-
mane^, from the well-known Manchineel, and will be distin-
guished chiefly from the EuPHORBiACEiE by their indehiscent,
drupaceous fruit of one or two to seven or more one-seeded
cells, in place of three, the characteristic number in Euphor-
biaceas.

The large oily kernels of the Aleurites triloba, known in the
Sandwich and Friendly Islands by the name of Too-tooe, are
employed by the natives, generally, for lights : pierced with a
skewer, they are lighted like a candle or a torch, and burn well
and for a long time, giving out a bright flame and smoke. An
excellent oil is obtained from these nuts by expression, which

A L E U R I T E S. 207

is used for a variety of purposes, and answers well for paint.
It constitutes, likewise, one of the most ornamental and charac-
teristic trees of the forest, visible at a great distance by the
paleness and whiteness of its verdure, and hence the name of
Aleurites given to it by Forster, from its mealy appearance.
It grows rapidly and affords a fine shade, producing leaves
which resemble those of the Plane Tree.

END OF VOL. I. OF NUTTALL-

STKUEnTTPED BY L. JOHNSON S CO.
PHILADELPHIA.

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