86 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



MORACE^. 



the 



flower ; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, anatrop 



Fruit drupa 



oblono-, compressed, rounded and often notched at the apex, acute at the base ; epicarp thin and 



succulent ; endocarp thin, crustaceous, light brown. 

 obHque and marked at the apex by the conspicuous 

 membranaceous. 



Seed oblong. 



compressed 



ded at the base 



blong pale hilum, destitute of albumen 



testa 



o 



anaceous, light chestnut-br 

 ated, incumbent, ascending, 

 jy tough perianths, globose 



Embryo recurved 



tyledons oblong 



ly equal; radicle 



Syncarp formed by the union of the thickened and much elongated 



the 



saturated with milky juice, mammillate on the surface 



ir 



thickened rounded summits, light yellow 

 individuals. 



ally of full 



but seedless on isolated pistillate 



The wood of Toxylon is heavy, exceedingly hard, very strong, flexible 



grained, with a 



satiny surface susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish, and very durable in contact with the ground 

 it contains numerous thin conspicuous medullary rays, many small open ducts and broad bands of large 

 ducts marking the layers of annual growth. It is bright orange-colored, turning brown on exposure t 



the atmosphere, with thin light yellow sapwood composed of five to ten layers of 



growth 



The 

 It is 



specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7736, a cubic foot weighing 48.21 pounds, 

 largely used for fence-posts, pavement-blocks, railway ties,* and wheel-stock, and as a substitute for Olive 



it was employed by the Osage and other 



wood in the manufacture of many small articles; formei 

 Indians west of the Mississippi River for bows and war-clubs. 



The bark of the roots of Toxylon, which contains moric and morintannic acid,^ has some 



yellow dy 



3 



d that of the trunk is sometimes used in tanning leather 



4 



The earliest account of the Osage Orange appears in the 



6 



of Dunbar and Hunter's journey 



made in 1804 from St. Catherine's Landing on the Mississippi to the Washita River. It was first found 



by Mr. Dunbar 



6 



the Dost of the Washita, althousrh traders with the Indians of the Red River had 



doubtless been familiar with their Bois d'Arc before this, for in 1810 Bradbury^ found two trees 



In the preface to 



in Pierre Chouteau's^ garden in St 



growing 



Pursh's Flora Amer 



Louis old enough to bear fruit 



Ser)tentrionaliSy published in 1814^ allusion is made to its discovery 



the expedition which crossed and recrossed the continent in 1804-1806 under command of Captains 

 Lewis and Clark, although there is no mention of the tree in their published journals. Early in this 

 century seeds of the Osage Orange were received in Philadelphia by Bernard MacMahon^ and David 



1 "In 1873 we procured from Texas some railroad ties of Osage ture. He visited Pittsburgh, and then joining a company formed to 



Orange, and had them put in the road-bed of the New York Divi- colonize West Florida, became a planter, settling in Baton Rouge, 



sion of the Pennsylvania Railroad alongside of oak, chestnut, and and afterward in Natchez. He was a friend and correspondent of 



catalpa. The soft woods were all torn out in two or three years, Jefferson, and received several appointments under the Federal 



but the Osage Orange, after twenty-one years, is still in place, Government. He was a member of the American Philosophical 



after having been turned several times, and still as good as the first Society, and contributed to its Proceedings papers on ethnology, 



year 



J? 



(Bernet Landreth in litt., July, 1893.) 



2 King, Am. Jour, Pharm, xlvi. 275. 



8 Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 325. — Baillon, Hist PL vi- 1810, and 1811, 159, 



meteorology, and astronomy. 



^ Travels in the Interior of North America in the Years 1809, 



179. 



U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1848. 



^ Reverchon, Garden and Forest, vi. 524. 



Bradbury describes the bows and war-clubs made from the wood 

 of the Osage Orange as well as the two cultivated trees. In 



^ The Message of the President of the United States, February 19, Arkansas the price of a bow made of the wood was in his time a 



1806, commimicating discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, horse and blanket. 



Red, and Washita Rivers, 166. 8 Pierre Chouteau (1749-1849), a native of New Orleans, was 



Dunbar praised the appearance of the Osage Orange, which he one of the settlers of St. Louis, the site of which he selected with 



considered one of the most beautiful trees he had seen, suggested his brother Auguste in 1763. By honesty and intelligence he 



its probable value as a hedge-plant, and alluded to the dye obtained acquired wealth in trading with the Indians, over whom he had 



by the Indians from its roots. great influence, and lived to see a great city rise on the uninhabited 



6 William Dunbar (about 1746-1810) was born in Scotland, and bluff where he had landed as a young man. 



educated in Glasgow and London. His proficiency in mathematics ^ Bernard MacMahon (about 1775-1816) was born in Ireland, 

 and astronomy made him known to Sir William Herschel, with 

 whom he corresponded for many years. In 1771, Dunbar, being 



and was of good birth aud fortune. Obliged to leave Ireland 

 owing: to his connection with one of the unsuccessful rebellions which 



out of health, came to Philadelphia in charge of a mercantile ven- distracted it during the last years of the eighteenth century, he 



