FLORA OF THE WABASH VALLEY. 221 



Texafia, called Quercus coccinea by Dr. Ridgway, the tallest of the 

 Wabash oaks, and perhaps the tallest oak in North America, 

 measured one hundred and eighty feet, and a tulip-tree one hun- 

 dred and ninety feet ; a Pecan, the tallest hickory, one hundred 

 and seventy-five feet ; a Cottonwood {Fopiilus monolifera), one 

 hundred and seventy feet; a Bur Oak {Quercus macrocarpa), one 

 hundred and sixty-five feet ; while, in addition to the trees already 

 mentioned, a Liquidambar and a i31ack Oak attained a height of 

 one hundred and sixty feet. The size of the trunks of some of 

 these trees, measured at three feet above the surface of the ground, 

 is hardly less remarkable than their height. A Sycamore {Platanus 

 occidentalis) girted thirty-three and a third feet ; a Tulip-tree twenty- 

 five feet ; a White Oak twenty-two feet ; a Black Walnut twenty- 

 two feet ; a Black Oak twenty feet ; and a Texas Oak twenty feet. 

 In comparison with such trees, the inhabitants of eastern forests, 

 where trees one hundred feet tall are extremely rare, appear like 

 pigmies, and persons familiar only with forests of the Atlantic sea- 

 board can form no idea of the magnificence of these trees, the last 

 remaining vestiges of the forests which covered the valley of the 

 Mississippi when the white man first floated down its placid waters. 



This region is the home of some of our most beautiful and 

 valuable trees. On the bottom-lands of the rivers the Pecan and 

 the great western Hickory {Hicoria laci?iiosd) grow with all the 

 Swamp White Oaks, the Pin Oak, the Texas Oak, and that remark- 

 able form of the Spanish Oak, which, usually an upland tree, sends 

 up on these bottom-lands a tall, beautiful shaft covered with pale 

 bark, which might readily be mistaken for the trunk of one of the 

 White Oaks. 



No other American forest-scene is more beautiful, and certainly 

 no other forest of deciduous trees, for it must be remembered that 

 in all this great collection of trees there is not a single species with 

 evergreen leaves is more interesting. No picture can give an idea 

 of the stateliness and grandeur of these noble trees, or of the 

 luxury of the annual and perennial plants that cover the forest, 

 floor with almost impenetrable thickets. 



