COMMUNICATIONS. 211 



Like the red maple, this tree grows most naturally in the low 

 rich grounds along the margins of rivers ; and in such situations 

 it might perhaps be cultivated with profit, on account of its rap- 

 id and vigorous growth. The figure shows a leaf which is com- 

 pound, or pinnate, of one fourth the natural size. Very often, 

 and especially in specimens from further South, there are five 

 leaflets, instead of three, as here represented. The fruit is shown 

 of the size of life. The flowers appear in April or M ay ; and 

 the fruit ripens early in the season. 



The six species noticed above are all that are known in the 

 northern United States, There are five other species west of the 

 Eocky Mountains, and one in Louisiana. 



Order III. Leguminose^, — The Pea Family, 



8, Gymnodadus Canadensis, of Linnceus. — Kentucky Coffee Tree. 



I have never seen this tree growing in Wisconsin ; but Dr. P. 

 R. Hoy, of Racine, has detected it on the bottom lands in Green 

 county. This may therefore be deemed to be its extreme north- 

 ern limit. The Coffee Tree may be known by the very large, 

 twice-pinnate leaves, sometimes two to three feet in length, 

 though the leafets are only from one to two inches long. Ihe 

 bark is very rough, and the branches stout, and abruptly termi- 

 nated, giving the tree in winter the appearance of a dead stump. 

 From this circumstance, the early French settlers called it chicot, 

 or the stump tree. 



Michaux says " the wood is very compact, and of a rosy hue. 

 The fineness and closeness of its grain fit it for cabinet-making, 

 and its strength renders it proper for building. Like the Locust, 

 it has the valuable property of rapidly converting its sap into 

 perfect wood, so that a trunk six inches in diameter has only six 

 lines of sap, and may be employed almost entire." — (N. Am. 

 Sylva, vol. 1, p. 122.) It usually grows with a slender trunk, a 

 tree fifty or sixty feet high being only twelve to fifteen inches in 

 diameter. But if separated from the dense forests in which it is 

 usually found, it grows with a spreading head, affording ample 

 shade for a large space of ground, and being altogether a very 

 beautiful object. 



