Trees Peculiar to Texas. 49 



thirty feet high. The body at iirst has a thin, brown papery b irk, which 

 breaks and peels olF, leaving it and the larger branches very smooth and of 

 a whitish color resembling the Sycamore. The leaves are large and leath- 

 ery, resembling evergreen Magnolia, with a brownish down beneath. The 

 flowers are conspicuous, and of a lovely rose color. The fruit is berry like 

 and edible. The w^ood is hard and admits of a high poll h. The Manzanita 

 is found on the hills and mountains of Crockett, Tom Green, Presidio and 

 El Paso counties, a territory large as the State of Pennsylvania, thence west- 

 w.ird to California. 



Carya Buekleyii (Durand), Black Hickory, a larger tree than the Bull Hick- 

 ory or Mockernut, for which it is often mistaken. Common throughout all 

 the Post Oak region of Texas, but most abundant on rich loamy, sandy land, 

 and always regarded a mark of good fruit soil. Grows fifty to seventy-five 

 feet. It is quite variable and may be identical, specifically, with C. porcina, 

 Pig Hickory, which is abundant in Indian Territory and Arkansas, in simi- 

 lar soils to those in Texas. Wood usually knotty and hard to split. Makes 

 a hot fire. Nuts with thin outer hull, but thick inner shell. Kernel very 

 sweet. 



Carya olivR'formls, Pecan. Though widely scattered through the bottom 

 lands of the Mississippi Valley and Gulf States, yet Texas has a national rep- 

 utation for her large, rich, thin-shelled Pecans, the finest of which are abim- 

 dant along the Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio and Nueces rivers. The 

 Guadalupe Pecan is most famous, but in obtaining select nuts for planting 

 in nursery to get trees for Pecan orchards, I find the San Antqnirj Pecans 

 equal to the best Guadalupes. The finest of these nuts, this season retail at 

 from twenty to twenty-five cents per pound from the nut stands of Texas 

 towns. The lowest wholesale rates are thirteen to fifteen cents. Thirty- 

 three pounds of cured nuts make a bushel. An orchard tree of fifteen years 

 should produce from three to five bushels of nuts, making an income per 

 tree of from $12 to $20 at wholesale. The price of these fine nuts is not 

 likely to become much less, as the demand grows more rapidly than the 

 supply. A Pecan orchard would last for centuries. The timber is very valua- 

 ble for wagon and carriage making, and the possessor of a large orchard in 

 bearing would have an investment equal, if not superior to that in Govern- 

 ment bonds, and far more suitable as an heirloom to his children. 



Cerasus capollin, Texas Wild Cherry, mountains of Western Texas, resem- 

 bles the Wild Black Cherry, C sesoHna, but not so large; twenty to thirty 

 feet. 



Diospyros Texana, Texas or Black Persimmon. Found about Austin and 

 southwestwardly into Mexico. Leaves densely tomentous. Fruit being 

 brown or black when ripe, gives the name Black Persimmon. Not equal to 

 the D. Vir<jiniana,ov common species, in fruit or wood. 



Hajpesla arb-jrea (Buckley). Grows on hills near the Gulf, below Corpus 

 Christi, and other localities near the mouth of the Nueces river. Twenty to 

 twenty-five feet, eight to ten inches through cf)]l;ii-. l'>:u-k of trunk and 



