42 



BILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



TEKNSTRCEMIACE^. 



Gordonia LasiantJms grows in shallow swamps or on moist springy lands^ scattered with the Great 

 Magnolia^ the Red Bay^ the Scarlet Maple, and other moisture-loving trees, through forests composed 

 principally o£ the Water-gum ; or with the Small Magnolia it almost exclusively occupies shallow depres- 

 sions, often several huudied acres in extent, in the pine-barrens near the Atlantic coast. It is occasion- 

 ally found in the sandy swamps which border the rivers of the Gulf coast, covered with almost impen- 

 etrable forests of the "VYater-gum, the White Cedar, the Devil-wood, and the Swamp Red Bay. On the 

 poorest pine-lands of South Carolina, usually covered with a dense undergrowth of the Saw Palmetto, 

 Gordonia Lasianthus is sometimes found blooming as a shrub, and on such soils it rarely grows to a 

 height of more than three or four feet or lives more than a few years. Gordonia Lasianthus is never 

 long-lived, and the insecure hold which the superficial roots have in the wet soil in which this tree 

 grows causes it to be blown down easily after it reaches its full size. 



The wood of Gordonia Lasianthus contains numerous thin medullary rays ; it is light, soft and 

 close-grained, but not strong or durable. The color of the heartwood is light red ; when absolutely dry 

 it has a specific gravity of 0.4728, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 29.47 pounds. The sapwood, 

 consisting of forty to fifty thick layers of annual growth, is lighter colored. The wood is sometimes 

 used in cabinet-making, for which purpose, were it not for its want of strength, its fine grain and good 

 color would make it valuable. 



Gordonia Lasianthus^ was first described by Plukenet in the -4??ia?^/^eKm ^o^flnicinTi.^ It was 

 introduced into England about 1768,^ and is occasionally seen in gardens, although no great sue- 

 cess has ever attended its cultivation.* It is precariously hardy in the United States as far north as 

 Philadelphia. 



1 The Liniiieau use of the capital m Lasianthus (hairy- flowered) 

 is retained, although Liim^us's reasou for so writing the word is 

 not apparent. His quotation, " Lasianthus Gronovii vide Syst. 

 Nat.," as a synonym under his species in the Hortus Cliffbrdanus, is 

 not clear. The name does not appear in the first edition of the Sys- 

 tema Naturce, the only one published before the Hortus Cliffbrlianus, 

 and the only use of the word by Gronovius was in the Flora Vir- 

 ginicai where this phrase occurs as a note to his Hypericum Jlore 

 cameo: "Lasiantho affinis foliis ovatis integris ; flore specioso alho, 

 esterius puhescente, fundo rubro, Clayt." (175), Linnaeus, when 

 it was found that this plant was not a Hypericum, seems to have 

 suggested Lasianthus to Ellis as the generic name for it. The sng- 

 gestioOj however, came too late, as Ellis, writing to Linuffius on De- 

 cember 28, 1770, eight days after his paper on Gordonia was read 

 before the Royal Society, regrets that " I cannot oblige you in 

 changing the name Gordonia to Lasianthus." The characters of 

 Gordonia Lasianthus are given in this letter, (Smith, Correspond- 

 ence of Linnaeus y i. 254,) 



Loblolly, a loutish or foolish person, nautically loblolly-boy or 

 surgeon's assistant, is a nautical name also for water gruel or spoon 

 meat, and is applied to medicines collectively. It was early used 

 in the West Indies as a plant name, and appears in Plukenet's 

 Almagesium Botanicum, published in London in 1096, where tliis 

 phrase occurs on page 38 ; "Arbor Indiea baeclfera Verbasci foliis 

 lanuginosa, Loblolly Barbadensibus dicta," Plukenet's plant Is 

 Cordia macrophyllay Mill., which thus appears to be the first tree to 

 which the name Loblolly was applied In print. 



A Cupania, probably C. glabra, Sw., is called by Browne in the 

 Natural History of Jamaica, publisl;cd in 17S9, "Loblolly-wood." 

 In the description it Is stated that '' the wood is soft and useless, from 

 whence its name." This seems to connect the name of loblolly, a 

 soft, foolish person, or soft mixture of porridge, with a tree with 



soft wood. Laplacea Hmmatoxylon ^ Camb,, Pinus Cuhensis, Griseb,, 

 Sciadophyllum Jacquinii, Griseb., and Piaonia subcordatay Sw., are 

 alsoj according to Grisebach {FL Brit. W> Ind.)^ called Loblolly. 

 ''Blolly," a corruption, no doubt, of Loblolly, is used by the inhab- 

 itants of the Florida keys, and probably by those of the Bahama 

 Islands, as the common name of Pisonia oitusata, Sw- 



Catesby first called Gordonia Lasianthus Loblolly Bay (NatHisL 

 Car*'). The use of the name as applied to this tree is not, however, 

 clear. Catesby may have given it the name from a fancied resem- 

 blance of the Gordonia to a West Indian tree seen by him on the 

 Bahamas ; or the name may have been used from the fact that old 

 treeSj attached to the ground by their lateral surface roots only, are 

 easily blown down. The name is more common in books than it is 

 in familiar use by the people of the southern states. 



^ Alcea FloridanOf quinquecapsularis Laurinis foliis, leviter crena- 

 tis, seminihus Coniferarum instar alatis, 7, t. 352, f . 3. — Catesby, Nat 

 Hist, Car. I 4A, t. 44. 



Hypericum Jlorihus pentagynis, foUis lanceolatis serratis, Linnseus, 



Hon, Cliff. 380. 



^ Gordonia Lasianthus was first cultivated in England, according 

 to Alton (Ilort. Kew^ ih 231), by a Mr, Benjamin Bewick, of whom 

 I have no information in addition to that contained in the following 

 extract from a letter from Ellis to Linnaeus : " You must know 

 then, that we have lately got into a method of cultivating that ele- 

 gant evergreen, called in South Carolina and the Floridas the Lob- 

 lolly Bay. This tree has lately produced some well-blown flowers 

 in the curious botanic garden of Mr, Bewick at Clapham, near Lon- 

 don, who was so obliging to send them to me to examine their char- 

 acter while fresh," (Phil. Trans. Ix, 518 ; read December 20, 

 1770,) 



* Loudon, Arb, Brit L 379, 



