HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Coffeetree. 



Gymnovl-a-iluft dioicus — Koch. 



This tree is found in many parts of the 

 United States and ranges from the shores 

 of some of the New York lakes through 

 Pennsylvania, particularly Franklin county ; 

 through southern Ontario, along the Lake 

 Erie shore; through southern Michigan, coun- 

 ties of Clinton and Montcalm; through 

 Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, east- 

 ern Kansas, southwestern Arkansas, 

 the Indian Territory, and south- 

 ward between the Mississippi and 

 Allegheny Mountains as far as 

 southern Tennessee, being most pro- 

 fuse in the northeastern part and 

 around Nashville. The tree is 

 found in other states in limited 

 numbers, where it has been planted 

 from seeds and cultivated. 



This species is known as coffee- 

 tree : n Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 

 Virginia, West Virginia, North 

 Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, 

 Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Ontario, 

 Michigan and Iowa. It is called 

 coffeenut in Kentucky, Missouri, 

 Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska. 

 Coffeebean is applied to it in Illi- 

 nois, Kansas and Nebraska, and 

 coffeebean tree in Kentucky and 

 Arkansas. For some strange rea- 

 son it is occasionally known as 

 mahogany in New York. In differ- 

 ent sections of Tennessee it bears 

 the peculiar denominations virgilia, 

 nickertree and stumptree. 



The genus Gymnocladus has two 

 species, one of which is native to 

 China, and the other grows in this 

 country in the localities above 

 named. Both of these are of the 

 Leguminosce family, which boasts 

 many handsome, graceful trees, but 

 these are bare-limbed and clumsy 

 specimens as compared with other 

 members. The pulp of the large, 

 heavy pod is utilized in China for 

 soap, while the pioneers of Ken- 

 tucky made a beverage from the 

 seeds which was supposed to re- 

 semble coffee. It is a matter of 

 conjecture how they succeeded in 

 grinding up the solid seeds, and it 

 is equally impossible to understand 

 how they could relish so bitter a 

 drink as the extract must have been. 

 The bark of this tree is grey, tinged slightly 

 with red; it is rough and heavy, and sepa- 

 rates into ridges with persistent scales. 



The flowers are inconspicuous; they blos- 

 som in June, and form in regular, greenish- 

 white racemes, the staminate ones three to 

 four inches in length, the pistillate ten to 

 twelve inches long. They grow on stout 

 pedicels, the staminate ones being on one 



FIFTIETH PAPER 



tree and the pistillate on another. 



The leaves are twice compound, the leaflets 

 broad and sharp-pointed; this peculiar double 

 compound character of the leaves is an ex- 

 cellent aid to establishing the identity of the 

 tree. The leaves contain forty to sixty ova] 

 leaflets and are one to three feet long, and 

 one to two feet wide; dark green in color 

 and smooth above, pale yellowish-green ami 



TYPICAL COFFEETREE GROWTH, INDIANA, 



pubescent below; slightly fringed along the 

 margins. In autumn they turn a handsome 

 yellow. 



The fruit is a reddish-brown, curved 

 legume, about two inches wide, and from six 

 to ten inches long. It contains hard, gray 

 seeds half an inch in diameter. These pods 

 ripen in October, and often hang on the 

 tree all winter. At maturity they become so 



heavy as to inflict a painful blow should 

 they strike a person upon the head in falling. 

 They are filled with a sweet, sticky pulp, 

 which is used when fresh and green to distill 

 a homeopathic remedy. 



The wood is very heavy, but not exceed- 

 ingly hard; it is strong and coarse-grained, 

 and very durable when in contact with the 

 soil. In color the heartwood is a rich, light 

 brown tinged with red; the sap- 

 wood is considerably lighter, and is 

 plainly marked by the annual layers. 

 It is used now and then for cabinet 

 work, but is most valuable for 

 fence-posts, rails, etc. 



In general appearance the coffee- 

 tree is narrow and round-topped, 

 with a tall trunk, and grows from 

 seventy to over a hundred feet in 

 height. It is remarkable for its 

 dead-looking frame, which in spring 

 remains dry and bare long after 

 other trees have taken on their 

 fresh growth of leaves. Often the 

 trunk is destitute of limbs for a 

 height of fifty feet or more. 



The coffeetree thrives best in the 

 rich, moist soil of bottom lands. It 

 is occasionally cultivated for parks 

 and gardens in the United States, 

 and for the purpose of giving shade 

 along avenues in northern and cen- 

 tral Europe. It is one of the rarest 

 American forest trees, and although 

 its range is wide, it is nowhere very 

 common. In the Boston Public 

 Garden, not far from the Newberry 

 street path, is an excellent speci- 

 men, perfect and well-proportioned, 

 though only about fifty feet tall. 

 A famous old "coffeetree" near 

 Fort Jefferson, O., which was said 

 to be the largest of its kind in the 

 United States, was recently blown 

 down in a storm. Its trunk was 

 5 feet in diameter. In its maturity 

 the tree was photographed by rep- 

 resentatives of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, of Washington, and the 

 picture now forms an illustration 

 in one of the volumes published by 

 that institution. The old tree at- 

 tracted wide attention among bot- 

 anists, and many people visited it. 

 it has been a landmark since the 

 coming of the white man to that 

 region, and during the days of 

 trails through the forests from one 

 fort to another, had marked a divide in 

 the path from Greenville to Fort Black, the 

 present site of New Madison, and the old 

 Eaton Road. 



Lounsberry says: " It is a pleasure to feel 

 that we know just what to expect from 

 trees — that they are not with every return 

 of the season presenting us with new fash- 

 ions. We may have noticed that the late, 



