CYRILLACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 7 
CLIFTONIA MONOPHYLLA. 
Titi. Iron Wood. 
Cliftonia monophylla, Britton, Budl. Torrey Bot. Club, Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1412. —Schnizlein, Icon. t. 240, f. 5, 
xvi. 310. 7-10, 20. — Chapman, 7. 273. — Sargent, Forest Trees 
Ptelea monophylla, Lamarck, Jil. i. 336. — Poiret, Lam. N. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 38. 
Dict. v. 662. Mylocaryum ligustrinum, Willdenow, Hnum. 454. — 
C. nitida, Gertner f. Fruct. iii. 247, t. 225. — Watson, Bull. Bot. Mag. t. 1625.— Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 402, t. 
Torrey Bot. Club, xiv. 167. 14.— Poiret, Lam. Dict. Suppl. iv. 41; Jd. ii. 616, t. 
C. ligustrina, Sprengel, Syst. ii. 316. — Nuttall, Gen. i. 952. — Elliott, Sh. i. 508. 
104; Sylva, ii. 92, t. 73.— Walpers, Rep. vi. 422. —- Waltheria Carolinensis, Cat. Hort. Fraser. 
The Cliftonia sometimes grows, under favorable conditions, to a height of forty or fifty feet, with a 
stout trunk which is crooked or often inclining, occasionally fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and 
covered near the base with deeply furrowed dark red-brown bark a quarter of an inch thick, the ridges 
broken into short broad scales. The bark of younger trunks and of the principal branches is thin, the 
surface separating into small persistent scales an inch or two long. The trunk generally divides, twelve 
or fifteen feet from the ground, into a number of stout ascending branches; or sometimes, especially in 
the region bordering the Atlantic Ocean, where the Cliftonia rarely assumes the habit of a tree, the stem 
divides at the ground into numerous straggling stout or slender branches, growing sometimes a few feet 
high, or often to a height of thirty or forty feet. The shoots of the year are slender, rigid, and covered 
with bright red-brown bark, which gradually becomes paler during the second and third seasons. The 
leaves are one and a half to two inches long, half an inch to nearly an inch broad, bright and lustrous 
on the upper, and paler on the lower surface. They remain on the branches until the autumn of their 
second year. The inflorescence appears in February and March. The racemes are at first nodding, and 
at this period are conspicuous from the presence of the long exserted dark red-brown bracts. These 
fall, and the racemes gradually assume an erect position before the fragrant flowers open. The fruit,’ 
which is a quarter of an inch long, or rather less, ripens in August and September. 
The Cliftonia is found in the coast region of the south Atlantic states from the valley of the Savan- 
nah River in South Carolina to northern Florida, extending westward through the Pine belt of the Gulf 
coast to eastern Louisiana. It grows generally on damp sour sandy peat-soil, and attains its greatest size 
in the tree-covered swamps which border the large streams of the Pine barrens of western Florida and 
of Alabama and Mississippi. In these swamps, which are submerged for several months of the year, it 
grows with the Red Bay and White Cedar under the shade of Water Oaks, Gum-trees, and the Cuban 
Pine, forming impenetrable thickets sometimes miles in extent. The Cliftonia in such situations is a 
short-lived tree. The large trunks, which are generally hollow, are easily prostrated, and specimens 
which have grown for more than fifty or sixty years are not common. In open shallow swamps which 
are seldom overflowed except temporarily the Cliftonia usually assumes a shrubby habit, forming thick- 
ets with the Wax Myrtle, the Swamp Bay, Andromeda nitida, Leucothoé axillaris, and Vaccinium 
virgatum, and near the Gulf coast with [lex coriacea. 
The Cliftonia is one of the most ornamental of the small trees of the North American forests, espe- 
cially in the early spring, when it is covered with delicate fragrant flowers made conspicuous by their 
background of dark green lustrous foliage. It was probably introduced into English gardens by John 
1 The fruit, from its fancied resemblance to that of the Buck- wheat-tree ; a name, however, which is possibly not in colloquial 
wheat, has caused the Cliftonia to be sometimes called the Buck- use in any part of the country where the tree is found. 
