50 NATURE STUDY. 



The Lightest of Woods. 



Deep in the bogs and vSwamps of southeastern Missouri, 

 in Dunklin and Butler counties, where the land is nev^er 

 dry, and water from one to six feet deep stands perpetual- 

 ly in the forests, there grows a rare and curious tree. The 

 natives know it as the corkwood, or cork tree. 



Science has given it a longer name, the Leitncria Flori- 

 dana^ because it was first discovered in Florida, along the 

 coast where it has long since been washed away. Some 

 meagre specimens of it, from two to six feet high, are still 

 found in the swamp near Apalachicola, Fla., and a few near 

 Varner, Ark., but in both these places it is exceedingly 

 limited in numbers, an occasional specimen being found, 

 and hardly rises to the dignity of a tree. 



Only in southeast Missouri, where it reaches the height 

 of 15 or twenty feet and a diameter of two to five inches, is 

 it really a tree. What makes corkwood so remarkable is 

 its exceeding lightness. Beyond a doubt it is, as Mr. Wm. 

 Trelease, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, has shown, the 

 lightest tree in weight that grows. 



Its wood weighs less than cork. It is so light that the 

 natives use it to make floats for their fishing nets. And 

 yet its wood, though so spongy one ma}^ easily sink one's 

 finger in it, is far tougher than cork. 



The specific gravity of corkwood, as learned from care- 

 ful tests, made by Professor Nipher, in St. Louis, is .207. 

 The roots are even lighter than the stem ; a test showed 

 them to have the astonishingly low specific gravity of .151. 



A further idea of the lightness of corkwood may be gained 

 by a comparison with other woods. The great majority 

 of woods range between .400 and .800. Cork itself is .240. 

 The tree that approaches closest to the corkwood in light- 

 ness is the golden fir tree, which grows in the swamps about 

 Tampa Bay and along the Indian River, Florida. 



Its specific gravity, according to Sargent, is .2616. In 

 comparison with the corkwood, which is the lightest wood 

 with its .specific gravity of .207, may be placed the heavi- 

 est wood known, the ]:)lack ironwood of Florida, whose .spec- 

 ific gravity is 1.302. — American Gardening . 



