The Catalpas: The Mountain Mahogany. 291 



tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas. According to Michaux, 

 abounding near the borders of all the rivers which empty into the 

 Mississippi further south. Whether the localities cited by him in 

 West Florida produce this or the eastern species is unknown. 

 Flowers in May." 



1183. The specific name above adopted was given by Dr. John 

 A. Warder, through whose writings, and those of the late E. E. 

 Uariiey, of Dayton, Ohio, and others, the excellence of the tree for 

 prairie-planting and profitable timber-growth have been chiefly 

 made known. 



1184. The wood of this catalpa is light, yet strong enough for 

 most purposes (.f construction. It has been used t.> advantage in 

 bridge-timbers, where exposed t the weather ; it is a favorite ma- 

 terial for fences, is easily worked, and durable as shingles, and is 

 found serviceable as railroad ties. 



1185. This tree prefers low rich bottom lands, but is found to 

 thrive upon a great variety of soils. It has been planted with much 

 success upon the bluff- format ion of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and 

 Nebraska. It is readily propagated from cuttings and layers, but 

 to best advantage from the seed. These should be started in seed- 

 beds, and be transplanted either in the fall or in the spring of the fol- 

 lowing year. In sowing, the seed should be covered a, quarter or a 

 half of an inch deep with fine soil, and they should be well culti- 

 vated and kept clear of weeds until they shade the ground. The 

 practice has been adopted, to some extent, of cutting back the 

 growth of the first year or two, so as to secure a strong, vigorous 

 sprout from the roots after they have become well established. 



MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY (Genus Cercocarpus ledifolius). 



1186. This is a shrub or small tree, seldom growing more than 

 thirty feet high and a foot in diameter, with an excessively hard 

 close-grained wood. It grows in the most arid and rocky places, not 

 usually in groves of considerable size, and from its great weight and 

 hardness, it is most expensive to procure and to work. Its growth 

 is exceedingly slow, and cultivation is quite out of the question, with 

 any view of profit. There are about four other species in the 

 United States and Mexico. They generally occur at from 6,000 to 

 10,000 feet above tide. 



