60 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



With the exception of the last two, the trees of the above list were 

 all felled, and the total length measured with a 100-foot tape-line. The 

 two exceptions were fine, vigorous, standing trees, and their height meas- 

 ured with a " dendrometer." Standiug isolated, this was easily done, 

 and the measurements are no doubt perfectly accurate. 



The finest tree of all those given above was exami)le q ,which at 74 feet 

 measured 6 feet in diameter, the trunk being iJerfectly sonnd even at 

 the extreme base, and straight as a column. 



The longest trunk (example u) was cut into ten 12-foot logs. It was not 

 very large, however, measuring, if I remember rightly, about 1 leet in 

 diameter at the butt and less than three feet through at the top of the 

 last cut. A trnnk measuring 84 feet in length (sawed into seven 12- 

 foot logs), measured 54 inches in diameter at the butt and 42 inches at 

 the small end of the last cut. This is the tree marked & in the list. 



At the "Timber Settlement" in Wabash County, I measured, in May, 

 1881, a solid stump of this tree, which, although entirely denuded of bark 

 and with a considerable iiortion hewn off for firewood, was still 20 feet in 

 circumference at 4 feet from the ground. A portion of the trunk still 

 lying on the ground was 50 feet or more in length, and had apparently 

 supplied the occupants of a deserted cabin near by with firewood for 

 many years. 



The example marked v was 35 feet in circumference at the ground, 

 and at 150 feet from the base the several branches were 1 to 1^ feet 

 in diameter. The top branches, broken off and scattered by the falling 

 of the tree, had been collected for firewood, so that its total height 

 could not be measured, but could not have been much less than 190 

 feet, which is the maximum height as given by Dr. Schneck in his 

 "Flora of the Wabash Valley " (Cox's Geological Sitrvey of Indiana^ 

 1875, p. 512). 



3. (10.) Asimina triloba. Pawpaw. 



The Pawpaw is a very abundant underwood in all bottom lands and 

 other damp woods, growing usually to a height of 20 to 30 feet, and 2 

 or 3 inches in diameter, but not unfrequently 40 feet or more in height, 

 and, in exceptional cases, nearly a foot in diameter. The two largest 

 specimens measured (both in the bottoms below Mount Carmel) were 46 

 and 43 feet, respectively, in height, the larger being 32 inches in cir- 

 cumference, the smaller only 10 inches around. 



Two well-marked varieties are distinguished by the fruit, which in one 

 has the pulp a rich golden yellow, very aromatic, and exceedingly sweet, 

 and much liked by most people, though too rich for many. This variety 

 is known as the " Yellow Pawpaw " ; the other, called " White Paw])aw," 

 has a whitish or very faintly yellow, insipid, or disagreeable tasting 

 fruit, and is seldom eaten. I am unable to state whether any peculiarity 

 of flower or foliage distiuguishes the two varieties. 



