1856.] Flora of the Western States. 83 



so remarkable for its leaves, which are never lobed and sinnate like those 

 of its congeners, but perfectly entire, lance-shaped, thick, and shining. 

 Its wood rifts kindly into shingles — a miserable substitute, often used 

 by the new settlers for want of better ; but under the sun's rays they 

 speedily curl, and liken the roof which they cover to the back of a 

 frightened aligator. Moreover, we find in the same forests, the chestnut 

 oak,- the mossy-cup, f the over-cup, + and many others, so that he must 

 be a good botanist who is able to distinguish all our species of this use- 

 ful family. 



Of the gum-tree,§ often of great size, whose toughness defies the beetle 

 and wedges, it is not necessary to speak; but so remarkable is the 

 aspect of yonder massive sycamore.|j vegetating in the gravel-beds of the 

 stream, and so characteristic of the Western bottom-lands, that we must 

 pay them here a passing notice. This tree, called also the Ameri^^^m 

 plane tree, and the button-wood, abounds in every section of the Un.on, 

 but seems to attain the highest perfection only in these rich bottoms. 

 Here they stand in clumps, some erect, some bending over the water, 

 others leaning toward his neighbor, as if in close consultation, all 

 looking like so many towers in ruins, covered with moss, and wreathed 

 with ivy. 



We mention the single species of the beech,-- abundant in our woods, 

 as being gigantic when compared with the dimensions which it attains 

 at the East. But our maples and elms, both in abundance and mag- 

 nitude, must yield the palm to those which flourish there. Only four 

 species of maple, the red, white, black, and the rock.ff are found here, 

 against six species there. The rock maple, the crown of the deciduous 

 woods of New England, here loses its pre-eminence, in comparison with 

 many other genera, and even with its allied species, the black maple — 

 the " sugar-tree " of the Hoosiers, well known to all. 



But time bids us hasten. We may not linger among the forest trees ; 

 but before we bid them adieu, let us cast a single glance upon the hum- 

 ble shrubs beneath them, and skirting the groves, throughout prairies 

 and barrens. Three only are so abundant as to merit the envy of the 

 husbandman, and give importance to the occupation of the grubbing-hoe : 

 viz., the red-root.|| the sassafras,§§ and the hazel.||l| The first is the 

 ** Jersey tea," well known to our ancestors, with downy-leaves, and close, 



"Qiiercus castanea. jQ- olivaefornis. | Q. macrocarpa. § Nyssa muTtiflora. 



II Platanus occidentalis. -'•■= Fagus sylvatica. f f Acer rubrum, dasycarpum, 



nigrum, and saccharinum. XI Cernothus Americanus. §§ Sassafras officinale. 

 III! Corylus Americana. 



