EUTACE^. 



SILVA OF NOMTH AMEPdCA. 



11 



New Mexico to the valley of the Mimhres River and the mountains of Colorado^ and northern Mexico. 

 Ptelea trifoliata generally grows on rocky slopes near the borders of the forest, often in the shade 

 of larger trees. 



The wood of Ptelea trifoliata is heavy, hard, and close-grained, with a satiny surface. The med- 

 ullary rays are thin and not numerous, but the layers of annual growth are clearly marked by two or 

 three rows of open ducts. The color o£ the heartwood is yellow-brown, the thin sapwood, composed of 

 six to eight layers of annual growth, being hardly distinguishable from it. The specific gravity of the 

 absolutely dry wood is 0.8319, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 51.84 pounds. 



Herbalists employ the bitter bark of the roots of Ptelea trifoliata in the form of tinctures and 

 fluid extracts as a tonic in the treatment of dyspepsia and debiHty ; ^ and the bitter fruit is said to be 

 sometimes used domestically as a substitute for hops in beer-bre\\dng.^ 



The earliest description of Ptelea trifoliata is that of Plukenet, published hi 1696 in the Alma- 

 gestum Botanicum^ It was cultivated in England as early as 1724^ by Dr. James Sherard,*^ in his 

 garden at Eltham, and has since been an esteemed plant m gardens, where, at different times, forms 

 with variegated or blotched foliage have appeared. 



Ptelea trifoliata is the favorite food of a Tree-hopper which punctures its branches,' and the larvte 

 of a Tineid moth ^ are known to disfigure the leaves.** 



Ptelea trifoliata flourishes in rich rather moist soil, and may be easily propagated from seed 

 which, i£ planted as soon as it is ripe, germinates the following spring. 



There is a shrubby form of this species, smaller in all its parts than that represented in our figure, 

 more pubescent, and -with the under surface of the leaves often coated with thick white tomentum.^" It 

 is not rare in the south Atlantic states near the coast and in Florida ; it is the common form of western 

 Texas and New Mexico. 



1 Canon City, Hooker & Gray (1877), in Herb. Gray. 

 = Am. Jour. Pharm. 1862, 198; 1867, 337. — iVa(. Disp. ed. 2, 

 1179. 



8 This statement of the use of the frnit of Ptelea has been re- 

 peated in most of the published accounts of the tree. I have no 

 reason for supposing that it is now used for this purpose. 



*, Frutex Virginianus trifolius Ulmi Samarris Banisteri, 159. — Dil- 

 lenins, Hori. Elth. 147, t. 122, f. 148. — Gate sby, Nat. Hist. Car. 

 ii. 83, t. 83. — LinuEeus, Hort. Cliff. 36. 



Ptelea foliis ternatis, MiUcr, Icon. Diet. ii. 141, t. 211. 



s Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 162. 



^ James Sherard, M. D. (1666-1737), brother of the more dis- 

 tinguished William Sherard, who was one of the most eminent bot- 

 anists of his time and the founder of the Botanic Garden at Oxford. 

 James Sherard, a successful London physician and apothecary, was 

 devoted to botany and horticulture. His garden at Eltliam in Kent 



was one of the richest of its time in England, and was made famous 

 by Dillenius in his sumptuous Hortiis Elthamensis, published in 1732, 

 in which he figured many of the plants cultivated by Dr. Sherard, 



* EcTtenopa binotata, Say, First Ann. Rep. State Entomol. N. Y. 287. 



^ Nepticula pielea^ella. 



^ The foliage of Ptelea trifoliata is ruined every year during the 

 month of August in the neighborhood of Covington, Kentucky, by 

 the larvEe of this species. (T. V. Chambers, Psyche, iii. 137.) 



1° Ptelea trifoliata, var. mollis, Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. A m. i. 680. — 

 Engelmann & Gray, Jour. Boxt. Soc. Nat. Hist. v. 33 (PL Lind- 

 ^em.).— .Torrey, Marcy's Rep. 269. — Gray, PL Wright, i. 31 



(Smithsonian Contrib. iii.). — Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 335.— 

 Sai-gent, Forest Trees N. Am. lOih Census U. S. ix. 31. 



P. mollis, Curtis, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, vii. 40G ; Rep. Geolog. 

 Surv. N. Car. 1860, iii. 107. — Walpers, Ann. ii. 259. — Chapman, 

 JY. 67. 



