444 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



tribe, seems to have no nickname except 

 in Arkansas, where it is occasionally 

 known as stave oak. But a good many 

 other kinds are also called white oak. 



What is called black locust in Penn- 

 sylvania is yellow locust in Massachu- 

 setts, white locust in -New York, red lo- 

 cust in one part of Tennessee and green 

 in another. In Maine it is simply locust, 

 in Louisiana acacia, in Minnesota honey 

 locust, and in Maryland post locust. 

 These many names overlap and are not 

 strictly separated by state lines. On the 

 other hand, the true honey locust 

 (which belongs to an altogether distinct 

 genus from the black locust), is known 

 also as black locust, sweet locust, thorn 

 locust, locust, three-thorned acacia, 

 thorn-tree, honey shucks, piquant 

 amourette, Confederate pintree, and a 

 few other names. 



White pine is a tree of so distin- 

 guished appearance that it is entitled to 

 one name among lumbermen as well as 

 among botanists. But it does not have 

 it. In both Alassachusetts and South 

 Carolina it is sometimes known as Wey- 

 mouth pine, which is its universal name 

 in Europe. Pennsylvanians occasion- 

 ally speak of it as soft pine, Tennessee- 

 ans as spruce, and in other parts of the 

 South it is called Northern pine. 



The loblolly pine is a southern tree, 

 and the people of the South have been 

 liberal with names, sometimes applying 

 several in a restricted locality. In 

 North Carolina it is loblolly oldfield, 

 torch, rosemary, slash, shortleaf, sap, 

 Indian, yellow, swamp, and longstraw, 

 each being followed by the word 

 "pine." In Maryland it is longshucks, 

 in Delaware longschat, in Virginia corn- 

 stalk, foxtail, spruce, swamp, and 

 others. It is called meadow pine in 

 Florida. 



From New England to the Carolinas 

 the tulip poplar is frequently called 

 white wood or tulip tree. Yellow pop- 

 lar is its usual name in Pennsylvania, 

 West \^irginia and Kentucky, and on 

 the market in the form of lumber. It is 

 tulip poplar in Illinois, poplar in Ohio, 



white poplar in Indiana, blue poplar in 

 Delaware, hickory poplar in Virginia, 

 popple in Rhode Island, cucumber tree 

 in New York, and canoe wood in Ten- 

 nessee. 



The birches are equally rich in names, 

 and some of the names cling after the 

 lumber reaches market. "Cherry" and 

 "mahogany" furniture may be made 

 from what in Maine is known as sweet 

 birch, but which changes its name at 

 the crossing of almost every state line as 

 the tree's habitat is traced southward. 



Scarcely half a dozen of the almost 

 500 species of forest trees found in the 

 United States are popularly known by 

 their botanical names. A few however, 

 are so known, among them being catalpa 

 and sassafras. But even these suffer 

 through mispronunciation by those who 

 try to speak them. Catalpa is some- 

 times Catawba, and sassafras is badly 

 broken up by those who try to say it. 

 The word itself is a corruption of two 

 Latin words meaning "stone breaker." 

 It is possible that it was so called be- 

 cause its roots sometimes grow in crev- 

 ices of rocks and may force the ledges 

 apart. Some of the mispronunciations 

 are saxifrax, sassafac, and sassafrac. 



When mistakes are made in the iden- 

 tification of wood furnished for building 

 purposes, much embarrassment and 

 trouble often result. Architects, build- 

 ers, and other users of lumber find that 

 the situation is growing worse each 

 year, because many of the kinds of lum- 

 ber formerly in heavy supply are now 

 growing scarce and substitutes are 

 gradually taking their places. To meet 

 this one demand of identification of 

 trees by wood structure, the Govern- 

 ment has established a laboratory which 

 renders free serAnce to all users of tim- 

 ber. This laboratory is in charge of a 

 trained dendrologist of the United 

 States Forest Service, whose prompt 

 advice may be had by architects, build- 

 ers and other wood users who send 

 specimens of woods for examination 

 addressed to the Forester at Wash- 

 ington. 



