110 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



LEITNERIACEiE. 



Seed filling the cavity of the nutlet^ compressed^ rounded at both ends, marked on the thick edg 

 with 



an 



oblong 



ly black hilum. Embryo 



ded by thin fleshy albumen \ cotyledons 



oblong, flattened, rounded at the extremities ; radicle superior, conical, short, and fleshy. 



The wood of Leitneria is soft, exceedingly hght, close-grained, and contains thin obscure medullary 

 rays and groups of small open ducts, the layers of annual growth, which are not distinguishable to the 

 naked eye, being marked by narrow bands of interrupted cells ; it is pale yellow, and shows no trace of 

 heartwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.2070,^ a cubic foot weighing 12.90 



pounds 



It 



used for the floats of fishing 



Missouri, its remarkable lightness 



2 



making it 



valuable for this purpose. 



Leitneria was discovered by Thomas Drummond ; ^ it was 

 growing on the muddy shores of a cove washed by high tides five mi 



found by Dr. A. W. Chapman* in 1847 



es west of the town of Apalachi- 



cola in Florida ; and in October, 1892, by Mr. B. F. Bush 

 Francis River in southeastern Missouri. 



the deep swamps bordering the St 



The generic name commemorates that of a German naturahst killed in Florida during the Seminole 



War. 



The genus is represented by a single species. 



^ This determination made by Professor Nipher is published in 1846, having received an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine 

 Professor William Trelease's exhaustive study of Leitneria, to from the Louisville Medical Institute, he established himself in 

 which I am indebted for my knowledge of this interesting tree. Apalachicola, Florida, which is still his home. Before leaving 



(See iJep. Missouri BoL Gard. vi. t. 30-44.) 



Massachusetts, Dr. Chapman had acquired a, fondness for botany 



2 The wood of no other North American tree that has been and some rudimentary knowledge of the science, although his 

 examined is as light as that of Leitneria ; the wood which ap- botanical career did not begin until after his settlement in Florida, 

 proaches it nearest in lightness is that of the Florida Ficus aurea, when he commenced, in his long professional rides, the systematic 



which has a specific gravity of 0.2616. 

 3 See ii. 25. 



formation of a herbarium upon which was based his Flora of the 

 Southern United States, prepared in the moments of leisure left by 



Drummond's specimen preserved in the herbarium of the Royal the demands of a laborious profession, and published in 1860, with 

 Gardens at Kew has no collector's ticket, and is labeled in the hand- a second edition and appendix in 1883. 



writing of Sir William Hooker, *^E,io Brazos, Texas." Drum- 



Florida herb of the Pea f ami! 



mond passed some time in Apalachicola, where he made a large successful botanical labors. 



collection of plants, and it is not impossible that it was in Florida 



^ Benjamin Franklin Bush was born in Columbus, Indiana, in 



and not in Texas, where it has not been seen since, that he discov- 1858, and in 1865 moved to Independence, Missouri, where he has 



been engaged in horticultural pursuits. In 1892 Mr. Bush pre- 



ered Leitneria. 



^ Alvan Wentworth Chapman (September 28, 1809) was born pared a herbarium of the dried plants of Missouri and a collection 

 in Southampton, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Amherst of the forest products of the state for the Columbian Exposition 



College in 1830. Having taught school in different parts of Geor- held in Chicago in the summer of 1893. 



Notes on a List of 



gia from 1831 to 1834, he studied medicine at Washington, Geor- Plants collected 

 gia, and then with Dr. John W. Davidson at Quincy, Florida. In of the Missouri 



Missouri are published 



