24 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. STYRACEZ. 
and frequently with two or sometimes three narrow supplementary wings between them; the stone is 
narrowly obovate, conspicuously sulcate, with about eight dark ridges, and is contracted into a slender 
stipe sometimes an inch in length. 
Mohrodendron dipterum inhabits low wet woods on the borders of swamps in the coast region of 
the south Atlantic and Gulf states from South Carolina to northern Florida and eastern Texas, and west 
of the Mississippi River ranges northward through Louisiana to central Arkansas. 
The wood of Mohrodendron dipterum is light, soft, strong, and very close-grained, with many 
thin medullary rays. It is light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood. The specifie gravity of 
the absolutely dry wood is 0.5705, a cubic foot weighing 35.55 pounds. 
Mohrodendron dipterum was introduced into English gardens in 1758+ by Mr. John Ellis,’ to 
whom it had been sent by Dr. Alexander Garden® of South Carolina. 
In early spring the graceful pure white flowers which cover the branches of the southern Silver 
Bell Tree standing by the dark waters of some impenetrable swamp in the midst of a gloomy forest of 
Pines, bring to the mournful landscape light and cheerfulness which are the peculiar charms of this 
little tree. In the southern United States Mohrodendron dipterum is sometimes found in gardens, in 
which its beautiful flowers, its graceful habit, and freedom from disease make it a desirable inhabitant. 
It is hardy, and occasionally cultivated as far north as eastern Pennsylvania,‘ and in central Europe. 
1 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, iii. 143.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1191, 1853 had attained « height of fifteen feet and a trunk diameter of 
f. 1014. three inches. (See Meehan, American Handbook of Ornamental 
? See i. 40. Trees, 130.) In Pennsylvania Mohrodendron dipterum flowers at 
3 See i. 40. the end of May, or about three weeks later than Mohrodendron 
* A plant in Bartram’s garden in Philadelphia, now dead, in  Carolinum. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Puate CCLIX. MoxropenprRon DIPTERUM. 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
. A flower, the corolla displayed, enlarged. 
An ovary cut transversely, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
oP ow no 
. Vertical section of a fruit with one seed developed, and without 
the stipe and the base of the wings, natural size. 
. Cross section of a fruit, natural size. 
- Vertical section of a nutlet without the stipe, enlarged. 
- An embryo, much magnified. 
Oo CON DD 
. A winter branchlet, natural size. 
