LEATHER WOOD. 155 
it for their cordage, and from its great tenacity 
the name of Leather wood has been applied to it 
in most parts of the United States. The Canadian 
French called it Bois de Piomb or Leaden wood 
from its flexibility. 
The generic character of Dirca consists in a 
tubular corolla without calyx, having its border 
obsoletely toothed. Stamens longer than the corol- 
la. Berry one-seeded. 
The genus contains but a single species. 
Class Octandria, order Monogynia. Natural 
orders Veprecule, Lin. Thymelea, Juss. 
The Direa is an irregular shrub somewhat 
distinguished by the horizontal tendency of its 
branches and leaves. ‘The branches have an in- 
terrupted or jointed mode of growth. ‘The leaves 
are scattered or alternate, with very short petioles. 
They are oval, entire, subacute, downy, when 
young, smooth and membranous when fully 
grown, and pale on the under side. ‘The flowers 
appear long before the leaves. Previously to 
their emerging they exist in miniature within a 
small hairy bud, which occupies a sheath or cavity 
in the end of each flowering branch. They are 
commonly in bunches of three together with their 
peduncles cohering. Each flower is about half 
an inch Jong, of a yellow colour and without ca- 
