DENDROLOGY. 



313 



VIRGILIA. 



Decandria Monogynia Linn. Leguminosae. Juss. Aperient, emollient. 

 Yellow Wood. Virg-ilia lutea. 



The Yellow Wood is con- 

 fined to that part of West 

 Tennessee which lies be- 

 tween the 35th and the 37th 

 degrees of latitude where it is 

 commonly designated by the 

 name which we have adopted. 

 It grows of preference on 

 gentle declivities, on a loose, 

 deep and fertile soil. 



This tree rarely exceeds 

 40 feet in height and one 

 foot in diameter, and in 

 general it does not exceed 

 these dimensions. Its trunk 

 is covered with a greenish 

 bark, which is smooth instead 

 of being furrowed like that of most other trees. The leaves are 

 six or eight inches long on old trees, and of twice this size on 

 young and thrifty stocks. They are composed of two rows of 

 leaflets, smooth, entire, nearly round and about an inch and a 

 half in diameter. The leaflets are three, four or five on each 

 side, borne by short petioles, and surmounted by an odd one 

 which is supported by the common foot stalk. As in the button 

 wood, the lower part of the foot stalk contains the bud, which 

 becomes visible in plucking the leaf. The flowers form elegant, 

 white, pendulous bunches, a little larger than those of the locust, 

 but less odoriferous. The seeds also resemble those of the 

 locust, and are contained in pods that differ only in being a little 

 narrower. The seeds are ripe about the middle of August. 



40 



PLATE cr. 



Fig. I. A pod. 



Fig. 2. A leaflet. 



