218 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



behind. From the line yellow color of its wood, which is susceptible of the 

 hif^hest linish, the negro calls this tree shittem wood, under the belief that it 

 wjw used in the construction of the tabernacle in Solomon s Temple. To the 

 settlers it is generally known as yellow wood, being extensively used as a 

 dye stuff. Judging from its native habitat this tree requires a warm, calca- 

 reous soil, well drained. It is of slow growth; full-grown si^ecimens by their 

 annual rings of growth were found to be from seventy-live to eighty years old. 

 After being cut down the stump produces numerous sprouts, which grow 

 rapidly during the first years. Seeds may be distributed by the director of 

 tiie Arnold arboretum, Cambridge, where, as I am informed, they were suc- 

 cessfully made to germinate, and a stock of young plants is now raised. The 

 seeds arc slow to sprout, and consequently the success of raising the tree 

 from the seed is connected with some difficulty. It can easily be propagated 

 by layers. There can be no doubt that our 'Alabama smoke tree or shittem 

 wood can as easily be grown as its European relative so common in cultiva- 

 tion throughout Europe and this country, and that it will be found equally 

 as hardy. 



The Neviusia Alahamensk is a shrub of the rosaceous order, nearly related 

 to spine, from which it differs by the want of petals. Its numerous wand- 

 like stems are from two and a lialf to three feet high, the white ilowers ap- 

 pear with or soon after the leaves during the first warm days of the dawn of 

 spring, covering the slender branches in profusion. The delicate pencils of 

 the numerous stamens exceeding in length the lobes of the calyx fully com- 

 pensate for the lack of petals. The flowers are sweetly fragrant. This pretty 

 shrub belongs to a type unique in its characters among the plants of the 

 United States, finding its sole representative in Japan, as has been shown by 

 Prof. Gray. It grows on the bold sandstone cliffs which line the banks of the 

 niack Warrior river, near Tuskaloosa. There it was first observed by some 

 of the jjrofe.ssors of the University, and the Rev. Dr. Nevius, who brought it 

 to the knowledge of th«» botanists in sending specimens to Prof. Gray. It 

 was found liy that botanist to belong to a new genus, which he dedicated to 

 the above-named zeal(jus pioneer in the field of the botany of Alabama. 

 Neviusia submits with facility to cultivation. Small rooted plants received 

 from their rocky, native home, thrive well in the low and damp ground of 

 the garden of the writer, where they have bloomed abundantly every succes- 

 sive season. It is easily.propagated by the suckers which annually stjart from 

 the roots an<l which are found to grow ca.sily after being trans])lante(l late in 

 tiie fall. This shrul) has, so far, not been found beyond the narrow confines 

 of the locality where it was first observed. 



Croton AldbamenHe of latest discovery was first found by Prof. E. A. Smith, 

 in the rock-covered hillsides bordering on the bottom of the Little Cahaba 

 river, at Pratt's Perry, JJibb county. It came to the notice of the writer in 

 the course of his examiniition of the plants collected by the geologist of the 

 Suite. Tin- KjiecimenH were quite insuMici( nt to serve for a description of 

 tijo charjicters of the plant. Fn.m a single female {lower it was, however. 



