308 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



mconmi, unknown wood. In Bristol County, where it is often 

 found, and whence a fine specimen of the wood was sent me by 

 an attentive observer of nature, Micah Ruggles, Esq., of Fall 

 River, it is called False Elm, from its strong resemblance. In 

 Middlesex, it is so rare that a friend, whose eye is open to what- 

 ever is curious in nature, and who showed me specimens of its 

 leaves, had been unable to find any name for it among the com- 

 mon people, his neighbors. It is, throughout the State, a small 

 tree, seldom rising above forty or fifty feet in height, and twenty 

 or twenty -four inches in diameter. 



It is said by Torrey, who gives it the name of beaver wood 

 and hoop ash, to be found particularly in rocky situations, on 

 the banks of rivers. Specimens of the leaves and wood have 

 been sent me from the banks of the Potomac, under the names 

 of sweet gum and sugar berry. Elliot says that along the 

 margin of salt water, in the sea islands of Carolina, where it 

 grows in light, rich soils, it sometimes attains the height of sixty 

 or eighty feet, and a diameter of three or four. Michaux had 

 found it in greatest vigor on the Savannah, where, in a cool 

 and shady situation, he had seen trees sixty or seventy feet 

 high, and eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. 



This is so rare a tree, that I have not been able to find that 

 any one is acquainted with the qualities of its wood. Michaux 

 supposed, from its similarity to the European nettle tree, that it 

 must have the same properties. That tree, C. Australis, is 

 supposed to have been the Lotus of the ancients, the sweet fruit 

 of which was the food of the lotophagi, and which Homer 

 describes as so delicious, that those who ate thereof, straight- 

 way forgot their native country, or lost all desire to return 

 home. 



The European is a small tree, seldom fifty feet high or three in 

 circumference. Its wood is extremely compact, taking a place 

 between that of the live oak and the box for density and hard- 

 ness. It weighs, when dry, according to Baudrillart, 70 lbs. 3 

 oz. per cubic foot. It is susceptible of a high polish, and, when 

 cut obliquely across the fibres, resembles satin wood. It is used 

 for making furniture, and by carvers for images of the saints. 

 The branches are very supple, tough, and elastic, and are much 



