48 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



tifuUy set forth in its hundreds of curious flowers, shrubs and grasses, than in 

 only about a score of trees I shall mention. A fuller knowledge of the richness 

 and variety of the forest trees and their locations in the State can be had by 

 refering to a pajier in the July number of the American Forestry Journal for 

 1883, entitled, " Forests and Forest Trees of Texas," and of the flora in gen- 

 eral of the State, in the August, October, November and December numbers 

 of the Gardener's Mordhly for 1879 (comment on Journal). 



Major Emory's Bdan>j(ifthe United States and Mexican Buundary presents a 

 tine study of the Western Texas, Rio Grande and New Mexican flora, but 

 this is a rare work and out of print. It will be a boon to Western botanists 

 when Dr. Gray completes his Flora of the United Stales, and all these fragment- 

 ary works are framed harmoniously together. 



At present there is much inquiry by persons of the North as to the pecu- 

 liarities of the Lone Star Empire State of the South; so the following list of 

 trees may in part answer the inquiry. 



I name in alphabetical order : 



jEscidus arguta (Buckley), Yellow Buckeye. A peculiar species of the 

 true Prickly Buckeye, small tree with pale yellow flowers; found in a limit- 

 ed region in Cherokee county; has been introduced as an ornamental tree, 

 by Dr. F. L. Yoakum, of Palestine, Texas. 



Algarobia glandulosa, INIesquite, or Texas Gum Arabic Tree, occurs in all 

 the ])rairie country of Central Texas, westward from the Navasota river, and 

 southward from the Trinity, in Norther Texas, to the Table Lands and far 

 across the Rio Grande into Mexico. It is generally a scraggy shrub, but in 

 places grows 25 or 30 feet high, and eight to twenty inches through at collar. 

 Groves, or forests, at a little distance, present the appearance, when out of 

 leaf, of an old peach orchard. Though the top is generally so small, the roots 

 are very bulky, and can be used green in the forge with almost equal eff"ect 

 with charcoal, and, like coal, rapidly destroys a stove or grate in which they 

 are burned. It is the chief fuel in a vast region of the grazing portion of the 

 State. The roots, dug and delivered, usually bring $0 to $10 per ton, to be 

 used as fuel. It dues not interfere with the pasturage ; on the contrary, the 

 pods, with their bean-like seeds, are greedily eaten by ^tock, which rapidly 

 fatten thereon, when the crop is abundant. The wood above ground, as well 

 as below, is heavy, firm, and admits of a high polish, having a color simi- 

 lar to walnut wo(xl. In its native region, where cultivated lands have 

 been abandoned, the Mesquite springs up and occupies the ground. It 

 makes a very durable fence post, ^nd owing to its generally low branch- 

 ing habit, would, if the limbs were cut at some distance from the body, make 

 a noble grape-trellis. The gum which exudes from wounds on the body is 

 quite equal with commercial Gum Arabic, and is sometimes cullected and 

 put on the market. 



Arctostaphylos Umentosa, Mountain Mahogany, or Manzanita— with Mexi- 

 cans meaning Little Ai)ple, is a very ornamental, broad-leaved evergreen, 

 closely allied to the Laurel— Kalmia— of liic Kast. but attains Hf teen to 



