128 REMARKS ON THE TULIP TREE. 



Kalm speaks of having seen a barn of considerable size, the sides and 

 roof of which were made of a single tulip-tree, split into boards. 



Mr. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, says, there are 

 some of these trees in America which are 30 feet in circumference- 

 There is one inconvenience attending this wood, which is, that it con- 

 tracts and expands itself more than almost any other timber. 

 1 The bark is an aromatic medicinal agent : it is often pounded, and 

 given to horses that have the bots. The roots of the tulip-tree are 

 said to be as efficacious in agues as Jesuits' bark. 



In America these trees are distinguishable at a great distance, even 

 when they have no leaves upon them, as the boughs are unequal and 

 irregular, making several bends or elbows. Kalm observes, that it is 

 very agreeable, at the end of May, to see one of these large rees, with 

 its singular leaves, covered for a fortnight together with flowers, which 

 have the shape, size, and partly the colour of tulips. 



The leaves of this tree are generally from four to five inches broad, 

 and about the same in length, of a singular shape, being what is 

 termed abrupt, truncatum, appearing as if their ends were cut off" 

 with scissors ; the side lobes are rounded, and end in blunt points. 

 The upper surface of the leaves is smooth, and of a lucid green ; the 

 under side is of a pale green ; and as they are supported on foot- 

 stalks of four inches long, they hang and move in a very graceful 

 manner. The flowers are produced at the end of the branches ; they 

 are, like the tulip, composed of six petals, three without and three 

 within, which form a sort of bell-shaped flower that encloses the 

 fruit, which is a kind of cone that has a stigma to each globosity. 

 The filaments are numerous, and crowned with linear anthers, grow- 

 ing longitudinally to the sides of the filaments. The petals are of a 

 greenish white, marked near the base with ochre yellow, and spotted 

 with red, that gives them a fine appearance, particularly to look into ; 

 but they fall short of that gay appearance which most people expect 

 at first seeing them, from the name being the same as that of the 

 flower so celebrated for its gaudy colours. The flowers appear in 

 July and August, but we know of no instance of their having ripened 

 seed in this country. 



The Hortus Kewensis notices the introduction of this tree into 

 England, as long back as 1663 ; and Ray tells us, that it was culti- 

 vated by Bishop Compton, at Fulham, in 1668. When first it was 



