226 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



Charleston, South Carolina, is about the end of April. The 

 fruit is round, and about twice as large as a common pea. When 

 ripe, it is of a purple color, approaching to blue, and consists of 

 a hard stone thinly coated with pulp. As it remains attached to 

 the branches during a part of the winter* its color forms, at this 

 season, an agreeable contrast with the foliage. 



The wood of this tree has a fine and compact grain, and when 

 perfectly dry it is excessively hard and very difficult to cut and 

 split : hence is derived the name of Devil Wood, It is, 

 notwithstanding, neglected in use. On laying bare the cellular 

 integument of the bark, its natural yellow hue changes instanta- 

 neously to a deep red, and the wood by contact with the air r 

 assumes a rosy complexion. 



PAVIA, 



m 



Hexandria Monogynia. Linn. Hippocaslanes. Juss. Astringent* 

 Large Buckeye. Pavia lutea. 



The Yellow Pavia, or Large Buckeye is first observed on the 

 Alleghany Mountains in Virginia near the 39th degree of latitude;, 

 it becomes more frequent by following the chain towards the 

 south-west, and is most profusely multiplied in the mountainous 

 districts of the Carolinas and of Georgia. It abounds also upon 

 the rivers that rise beyond the mountains and flow through the 

 western parts of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee to meet the 

 Ohio. It is much less common along the streams which have 

 their source east of the Alleghanies, and which, after watering 

 the Carolinas and Georgia, discharge themselves into the Ocean. 

 This species may be considered then as a stranger to the Atlantic 

 States, with the exception of a tract thirty or forty miles wide in 

 the Southern States, as it were beneath the shadow of the moun- 

 tains. It is here called Big Buckeye, to distinguish it from the 

 Pavia rubra, which does not exceed eight or ten feet in height, 

 and which is called Small Buckeye. The situations most favorable 

 to the growth of this tree are the declivities of mountains where 

 the soil is generally loose, deep and fertile, 



