LEGUMINOSE. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 55 
CLADRASTIS. 
FLOWERS in ample terminal panicles; calyx 5-toothed, the teeth imbricated in 
estivation; corolla papilionaceous; stamens distinct; ovary stipitate, many-ovuled. 
Legume linear-compressed, tardily dehiscent. Leaves unequally pinnate, destitute 
of stipules. 
Cladrastis, Rafinesque, Neogen. 1.— Endlicher, Gen. 1309. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 554 (excl. Maackia). — Baillon, 
Hist. Pl. ii. 361 (excl. Maackia). 
A tree, with copious watery juice, smooth gray bark, slender slightly zigzag terete branchlets, 
infrapetiolar buds, and fibrous roots. Buds four together, superposed, flattened by mutual pressure 
into an acuminate cone, covered individually with thin lanceolate scales coated with lustrous brown 
tomentum, and inclosed collectively in the hollow base of the petiole, the largest and upper one only 
developing, the lowest minute and rudimentary. Leaves alternate, petiolate, the stout terete petioles 
abruptly enlarged at the base, seven to eleven-foliolate, deciduous ; leaflets usually alternate, broadly 
oval, the terminal one rhomboid-ovate, contracted at the apex into a short, broad point, wedge-shaped 
at the base, entire, petiolulate, destitute of stipels, covered at first ike the young shoots with fine 
silvery or on the midrib slightly rufous pubescence, at maturity thin, glabrous, dark yellow-green on 
the upper, and pale on the lower surface, the midribs and numerous primary veins conspicuous, deeply 
grooved above, light yellow below. Flowers in long graceful nodding terminal panicles, the lower 
branches racemose and often springing from the axils of solitary flowers, the main axis slightly zigzag, 
and, like the branches, covered at first with a glaucous bloom, and slightly pilose. Bracts lanceolate, 
scarious, early deciduous. Pedicels solitary, slender, puberulous, bibracteolate near the middle, the 
bractlets scarious, minute, caducous. Calyx cylindrical-campanulate, enlarged on the upper side, 
obliquely obconic at the base, puberulous within and without, the teeth nearly equal, short, and 
obtuse, the two upper subconnate. Disk cupuliform, adnate to the interior of the calyx-tube. Petals 
white, unguiculate ; standard nearly orbicular, entire or slightly emarginate, reflexed above the middle, 
barely longer than the straight oblong wings, slightly bi-auriculate at the base of the blade, marked 
on the inner surface with a pale yellow blotch; keel-petals free, oblong, nearly straight, obtuse, slightly 
subcordate or bi-auriculate at the base. Stamens ten, free; filaments filiform, slightly incurved near 
the summit, glabrous; anthers attached on the back at the middle, versatile, two-celled, the cells 
opening longitudinally. Ovary linear, stipitate, bright red, villose with long pale hairs, many-ovuled, 
contracted into a long slender glabrous slightly incurved subulate style; stigma terminal, minute ; 
ovules suspended from the inner angle of the ovary, superposed, amphitropous, the micropyle superior. 
Legume glabrous, short-stalked, linear-compressed, the upper margin slightly thickened, tipped with 
the remnants of the persistent style, four to six-seeded, ultimately dehiscent, the valves thin and 
membranaceous. Seed oblong-compressed, scarcely strophiolate, destitute of albumen, attached by 
a slender funicle; testa thin, membranaceous, dark brown. Embryo filling the cavity of the seed ; 
cotyledons fleshy, oblong, flat ; radicle short, inflexed. 
The wood of Cladrastis is heavy, very hard, strong, and close-grained, with a smooth satiny 
surface capable of receiving a good polish, the layers of annual growth being clearly marked by several 
rows of open ducts. In color it is bright clear yellow changing to light brown on exposure, the thin 
sapwood being almost white. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6278, a cubic foot 
weighing 39.12 pounds. It is used for fuel and occasionally for gun-stocks, and yields a clear yellow 
dye. The genus is not known to possess other useful properties. 
