IS 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



MAGNOLIACEJE. 



grain 



hardly different from the one now living, extending over eastern North America, and Enrope as far 

 south as Italy/ until the advent of glacial ice destroyed it in Europe, and restricted its range iu America 



to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 



The wood of Liriodendron is light and soft, hrittle and not strong ; it possesses a close straight 

 ain-=^ it is readily worked, and does not easily split or shrink j the numerous medullary rays are thin 

 and inconspicuous- The color of the heartwood is light yellow or brown, with a specific gravity, when 

 absolutely dry, of 0.4230, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 26.36 pounds. The thin sapwood, 

 which varies in the number of layers of annual growth in different individuals, is relatively thin and 

 creamy white. The wood of Liriodendron, known as yellow poplar and as whitewood^ is one of the 

 most valuable products of the American forest. Canoes made from it were used by the aborigines when 

 this country was first visited by Europeans,^ and ever since, it has been largely manufactured into lum- 

 ber used in construction,^ in the interior finish of houses, in boat-building, and for shingles, pumps, 



and wooden ware.^ 



All parts of Lmodendron are bitter and slightly aromatic. The inner bark, especially of the root, 



is intensely acrid and bitter^ and has long been used domestically in the United States as a tonic and 

 stimulant.^ Hydro chlorate of tulipiferine, an alkaloid recently separated from the bark of Lirioden- 

 dron, possesses the power of stimulating the action of the heart.'^ 



No vitally destructive insects are known to prey upon Liriodendron. LarVc^ of a small moth [Phyl- 

 locnisiis liriodendreUa) ^ make long linear channels through the leaves. The foliage is occasionally 

 disfi;^nred by a dipterous insect ^ which, when abundant, covers the leaves with small brownish spots, 

 causing them to become dry and fall from the branches; an aphis (Slphonopliora lirlodendri) ^^ some- 

 times blackens the foliage, and a scale {Lecanimn tulipiferm)^^'^ found upon the bark of the branches, 

 injures the trees in the western states. 



The earliest generic name of the Tulip-tree, Tulipifera, was published by Paul Hermann in 1687,^^ 

 and was adopted by Linnaeus as his specific name for this tree. The Linn^an generic name [/d^iov and 

 hhhoov) is descriptive of the lily-like or tulip-like flower. 



1 Massalon^o, FL Senog, 311, t. 7, f. 23, t. 39, f. 3-6. 



^ Iiidlvidual trees are occasionally foimd with the grain of the 

 wood beautifully curled or contorted. The wood of such trees is 

 valued highly for cabinet-making. 



^ "Rakiock, a kind of trees so called that arc sweet wood of 

 which the iiihabitans that were neere unto us doe commonly make 

 their boats or Canoes of the form of trowes," (-4 hriefe and true re- 

 part of the newfound land of Virginia, 23, Thomas Hariot.) Pick- 

 ering (Chron, Hist. PL 900) considers, probably correctly, that Ra- 

 kiock was the Tulip-tree. The methods used by tlie aborigines of 

 Virjjinia in felling trees and shaping their canoes with the aid of 

 fire are described and illustrated in Appendix XII, to Harlot's 

 narrative p 



Canoc-trcc was ouco a common name for Liriodendron among 

 the early settlers in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 



^ Kalm, Travels into North America, English ed. i, 202. 



^ Lumbermen recognize varieties of yellow poplar, differing 

 slightly in color and in the amount of sapwood, and believe that 

 such varieties can be distinguished by the shape of the leaves and 

 by the habit of the individual trees which produce them. Such 



characters, if they exist, are certainly not constant, and bear no ap- 

 parent relation to the nature of the wood, determined probably by 

 the soil in which the individual tree has grown. 



^ Lloyd, Drugs and Med. N. Am^ ii. 12. 



' Llovd, t c. 18, 



r 



s Bull Hayden's U. S. Geolog, Suri\ 1S7S, iv. 108- 

 ^ Cecidomyia liriodendri, Osten-Sacken, Monog. Biptera, N. Am^ 

 i. 202. — J, Gi Jack, Garden and Forest, ii. 605, L 152, 



10 Bull Hayden's U. S. Geolog. Surv. 1878-80, v, 20. 



11 Cook, American Naturalist^ xiii- 324, 



1^ Tulipifera arbor Virgimanaf Cat. Hort. Lugd. Bat. 612, t- 



Tulipifera Caroliniana folils prodnctioribus magL-i angulosis, Pluke- 

 net, Phjt. t. C8, f. 3, 



Tulipifera Virginiana tripartito Aceris folio media laciniata, velut 

 abscissa, Plukenet, Aim, Bat 379, t. 117, L 5, t. 248, f. 7. — Ray, 

 Hist. PI. ii. 1798. — Duhamel, Traitt des Arhres, il 347, t. 102. — 

 Catesby, Nat. HisL Car. i. 48, t. 48, 



Liriodendrum, Linn^us, Hort. Cliff'. 223, — ClaytoHj FL Virgin. 



m. 



L. foliis angulatis truncatis, Trew, PL Ehret. 2, t, 10, 



