68 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA, 



HUTACE^. 



near the coast to the shores o£ Bay Biscayne and Tampa Bay, Florida j it extends westward thro 1 

 the Gulf states to northwestern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, and through Texas to the valley of W 

 Devil's River, in the western part of the state. It is nowhere common in the Atlantic states where it " 

 confined to the immediate neighhorliood of the coast, growing in liglit sandy soil, often on the low hi ff 

 of islands or river hanks, or occasionally in abandoned fields. Its associates here are the Live O' 1 

 the Water Oak, the Loblolly Pine, the Eed Bay, and the Dwarf Palmetto. It extends farther from tl 

 coast in the Gulf states, especially west of the Mississippi Eivei-j and it is not unusual to find it in so tl 

 ern and central Alabama and Mississipi>i, growing along the margins of swamps, in rich sandy soil w'tl 

 Pines, Live Oaks, the Florida lUiciiim, the Styrax, the Syniplocos, the Holly, and the Nvssa. It is v 

 common m eastern Texas, attaining its largest size on the rich intervale lands of the streams flowii 

 into the Trinity Eiver. Farther west it is greatly reduced in size and of rare occurrence. 



The wood of Xanthoxyhim Clava-EerculAs is liglit, soft, and close-grained, with numerous thin 

 medullary rays ; it is light brown, with yellow sapwood, and has, when absolutely dry, a specific gravity 

 of 0.5056, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 31.51 pounds. 



The bark of XantJioxrjJum Clava-HcrcuUs contams the active properties found in that of the other 

 species of the genus, and, as well as the leaves and fruit, is used for the same purposes.^ The bark is 

 held in high esteem by the negroes, who collect it in large quantities, and are fast exterminating the 

 tree, especially along the Atlantic seaboard. 



The earliest account of Xanthoxylum Clava-UercuUs seems to have been that of Ray,^ published 

 in 16G8. It was known to Phdienet,^ and described by Catesby in his Natural History of Carolina.'^ 

 It appears to have been introduced into England at least as early as the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century,^ and was cultivated in 1739 by Philip Miller at Chelsea." 



There is a form' of this tree in southern Florida and in western Texas with short, sometimes three- 

 foliate,^ more or less pubescent leaves with small ovate or oblong blunt and conspicuously crenulate 

 rather coriaceous leaflets. This is the common form of west Texas, where it grows usually as a low 

 shrub, attaining sometimes hi the region hnmediately adjacent to the coast the size and habit of a smaU 

 tree. 



^ " It is used to cure the Tooth-ache, by putting a Piece of the 

 Bark In the Mouth, which being very hot, draws a Rhume from the 

 mouth, and causes much Spittle." (Lawson, The History of Caro- 

 lina, ICO.) 



B. S. Barton, Coll. l 26, 54 ; ii. 38. 



U. S. Nat. Disp. ed. 2, 1535. 



■' Arhor spinosa Virginiana, caudice ^- ramis LanigercE spinosx 

 Malabnrica smilis ; an HercuUs clava Mus. Societ. liegicE ? Hist PI 

 ii. 1800. 



^ ^ Arbor aculeata, Caroliniana, spinis grandioribus, crebris tulerculis 

 vnnascentihus ; cortice urens, Aim. Bot. 43. 



Euor>,ymo adjinis aromalica, s. Zanthoxylum Floridanum, Fraxini 

 foliis, minus spinosum, AmallTt. Bot. 76. 



* Zanthoxylum spinosum, Lentisci longioribm foliis Euonymi fructu 

 capsulan ex insula Jamaicensi, i. 26, t. 26. _ Royen, Fl. Luad. Prodr. 

 635, 



Zanthoxylum, Linu=eus, Hori. Cliff. 487 (excl. syn. Plukenet). 

 The name of Clava-Herculis appears to have been first used by 

 Trew to describe the spiney truuk of a Xanthoxylum from the south- 

 ern part of North America in the museum of the Koyal Society at 

 London. This is the plant described by Linn^us as Z. Clava-Her- 



culis in the Species Plantarum, as shown by his reference to Cates- 

 by's excellent figure. Misled, however, by Catesby's erroneous 

 reference to Jamaica, Linnsus supposed that the Carolina and Vir- 

 ginia plant was a native also of that island. The error was copied 

 by Willdeuow ; Swartz and De Candolle suppressed the North 

 American station entirely, describing a West Indian tree as X. 

 Clava-Herculis ; but that name being preoccupied for the Carolina 

 plant, the West Indian species, as shown by Triana & Planchon 



(Ann. Sd. Nat. ser. 5, 14, 319), becomes X. Caribceum of Lamarck 

 (Diet. ii. 110). 



^ "In Horto Industrii Hortulani D. Darby, apud Hoxtoniam, vi- 

 cum Londoni nostri suburbanam, ex feminibus natum conspcximus," 

 Plukenet, Amalth. Bot. 76. 



^ Hort. Kew. iii. 399. 



^ Xanthoxylum Clava-Herculis, var. fruticosum, Gray, PI Wright. 

 1- 30 {Smithsonian Contrib. iii.) ; Proc. Am. Acad. n. ser. xxiii. 

 225. — Torrey & Gray, Pacifc R. R. Rep. ii. 161. — Torrey, Bot. 

 Mex. Bound. Surv. 43. — Chapman, FL 66. 



X hirsutum, Buckley, Proc. Phil. Acad. 1861, 450. 



« Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 335. 



