12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Iron>rood. 

 Uitiya \ irginUa KOr Viiginiana) — Willd. 



Ironwood, the most general name for this 

 tree — although it is also known as hop 

 hornbeam and leverwood — is found in the 

 valleys of the St. Lawrence river, through- 

 out Nova Scotia and Ottawa, along the 

 northern shore of lake Huron to northiTu 

 Minnesota, south through the 

 northern states and along the Alle- 

 ghany mountains to the Chatta- 

 hoochee region of -western Florida; 

 through eastern Iowa, southeastern 

 Missouri and Arkansas, eastern 

 Kansas, Indian Territory and the 

 Trinity river region of Texas. 



The name ironwood is applied to 

 the tree in Ehode Island, New 

 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Delaware, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Arkan- 

 sas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota, South Dakota. 

 Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and On- 

 tario. It is known as hop horn- 

 beam in Vermont, Khode Island. 

 Massachusetts, New "Vork, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 

 North Carolina, South Carolina. 

 Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Ohio. 

 Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota, Kansas, Nebraska and 

 South Dakota; as hornbeam in 

 Rhode Island, New York, Florida, 

 South Carolina, and Louisiana. It 

 is called leverwood in Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island. New 

 York, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. 

 In Vermont it is sometimes called 

 hardback and in England, stone- 

 wood. This is undoubtedly the 

 tree to which the Indians referred 

 as O-tan-tahr-te-weh, "lean tree." 



The leaves of ironwood are sim- 

 ple and alternate; they taper to a 

 sharp point at the end, while the 

 base is rounded. They are doubly 

 and sharply serrate. In color they 

 are dark green above, and lighter 

 below, tufted in places, resembling 

 birch leaves in some respects, al- 

 though they are quite different in 

 texture, the leaves of birch being 

 glossy, while those of ironwood 

 are rough. They are joined to the 

 twig with a short stem, hardly a 

 ■ fourth of an inch in length. 



The branchlets are brownish-purple in 

 color, dotted with grey, and shiny. 



The flowers grow in long catkins, stain- 

 inate ones sometimes more than two inches 

 long, covered with fringed scales. The pis- 

 tillate catkins are usually shorter. Iron- 

 wood blooms in April and May and its fruit 

 ripens in .\ugii8t and September. It bears 

 a strong resemblance 1o the Imp, hence the 



TWENTY-SECOND FAFEB. 



name hop hornboani. The tiny nuts are 

 flat. The fruit cluster is green in color, and 

 grows in drooping hop-like strobiles, with 

 scales or sacs, whirh have tiny bristles at 

 the base. 



The bark of the ironwood tree is finely 

 furrowed longitudinally, the furrows not 

 extending unbroken for a distance of more 



liEMARKAIlI.K SPECIMEN OK IltONWOOD FOREST 

 GKOWTII. E.MMKT COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



is srjily. ;ind loosely 

 I n color it is a pci'u- 



llian four inches. It 

 adheres to the trunk, 

 liar greyish-brown. 



The heartwood is redilisli brown, some- 

 times whiti' or pinkish. Tlic sapwood is 

 sharply defined frmn tiic heart, and is 

 lighter in color, often white. The rays are 

 numerous, and brown in color. The rings 

 are very distinct in a tninsjiarenf section of 



the wood, but much less so in a solid piece. 

 The grain is very fine though open, and 

 the surface of the wood is dull. Ironwood 

 has neither smell nor taste. It burns well, 

 tlie embers glowing brightly in still air. 

 The weight of a cubic foot of seasoned 

 wood is fifty-one pounds. It is strong, hard, 

 Ihmvv. tough, and exceedingly durable when 

 exposed to variable weather, or 

 when in contact with the soil. It 

 takes a beautiful polish. Trees 

 more than a foot in diameter are 

 often found to be hollow. 



In general appearance the tree 

 is small, from four to thirteen 

 inches in diam(!ter, rarely reaching 

 a height of more than thirty-five 

 feet. The brandies are light and 

 slender, giving it a fragile, grace- 

 ful appearance. It thrives best on 

 dry hillsides and knolls, and in 

 gravel, reaching its greatest devel- 

 opment in southern .\rkansas. 



The half-tone illustrating the for- 

 est growth of ironwood presented 

 with this article is by no means 

 typical. The majority of trees 

 are from four to eight inches in 

 diameter. The specimen herewith 

 pictured is undeniably a freak 

 growth, as it is two feet eight and 

 a half inches in diameter at the 

 stump line, and forty feet to the 

 first limb. It grew on property be- 

 longing to the Longfellow & Skill- 

 man Lumber Company of Grand 

 Tiapids, in Emmet county, Michi- 

 f;an. So far as the writer knows, 

 it is the largest ironwood tree ever 

 |iictured. 



From the small size and limited 

 quantity of ironwood growth, it 

 will never come into commercial 

 jirominence. Its uses are almost 

 I'ntirely local and domestic. The 

 lumberman or the farmer selects 

 an ironwood sapling as being the 

 best material obtainable for mak- 

 ing a wagon or sleigh tongue, a 

 skid, or a lever. The farmer often 

 laboriously works a section of the 

 flint-like wood into minor agricul- 

 tural implements, and it is es- 

 pecially esteemoil for handles and 

 rake teeth. 



The foremost manufacturer of 

 logging wheels, who has made big 

 than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury at Manistee, Mich., discovered many 

 years ago that the most durable wood which 

 ho can emjiloy for the manufacture of 

 these vehicles is ironwood saplings, and he 

 regularly has the loggers np the Manistee 

 river, get out for him enough of these poles 

 to supply his season's needs in the manu- 

 facture of big wheels. 



wheels for more 



