DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 209 



The Osage Orange Tree. Madura. 

 Nat. Ord. Urticaceae. Lin. Syst. DicEcia, Tetrandria. 



'j'iiis interesting tree is found growing wild on the 

 Arkansas River, and other western tributaries of the 

 Mississippi, south of St. Louis, where, according to Mr. 

 Nuttall, it attains the height of 50 or 60 feet. The 

 branches are rather Hght-colored, and armed with spines 

 (produced at every joint) about an inch and a half long. 

 The leaves are long, ovate, and acuminate, or pointed 

 at the extremity ; they are deep green, and more glossy 

 and bright than those of the orange. The blossoms are 

 greenish ; and the fruit is about the shape and size of a 

 large orange, but the surface much rougher than that fruit. 

 In the south, we are told, it assumes a deep yellow color, 

 and, at a short distance, strikingly resembles the common 

 orange ; the specimens of fruit which we have seen 

 growing in Philadelphia, did not assume that fine color ; 

 but the appearance of the tree laden with it, is not unlike 

 that of a large orange tree. It was first transplanted into 

 our gardens from a village of the Osage tribe of Indians, 

 whence the common name of Osage orange. The intro- 

 duction of this tree was one of the favorable results of 

 Lewis and Clarke's Expedition. It was named by them 

 in honor of the late Wm. Maclure, Esq., President of the 

 American Academy of Natural Sciences. 



The wood is fine grained, yellow in color, and takes 



a brilliant polish. It is also very strong and elastic, and on 



this account the Indians of the wide district to which 



this tree is indigenous, employ it extensively for bows, 



greatly preferring it to any other timber. Hence its com- 



14 



