Handbook of Trees of the Nortiieen States and Canada. 373 



The Sorrel-tree is a Imndsomo and interest- 

 ing tree, occasionally in llie I'oru-^t attaining tlie 

 height of 50 to 70 ft. or more, with long clear 

 trunk 18 or 20 in. in diameter. When iso- 

 lated it develops a rather irregular narrow- 

 oblong top, with spreading and drooping 

 branches. 



It occupies mainly well drained slopes and 

 ridges, in company witli various Oaks and 

 Hickories, the Sugar iMaple, Sweet and Sour 

 •Gums, the Silver-bell Tree, Yellow Buckeye, 

 ■etc., and attains its largest size on the lower 

 slopes of the Alleghany Mountains. Farther 

 east, as I have found it along the borders of 

 the Dismal Swamp in Virginia, it is a small 

 felender-stemmed tree, often with inclined 

 trunk, and there thriving in moist soil. It i^ 

 a, distinctly ornamental tree in summer, with 

 handsome foliage and large terminal bunches 

 ■of tiny cup-shaped white flowers, and in 

 autumn with its briglit scarlet foliag'. 



It takes its name from a slightly acidulous 

 flavor of its leaves and branclilets, which are 

 tonic, refrigerant and diuretic in properties. 



The wood is fine-grained, rat' er liard and 

 heaAy, a cubic foot wlicn absolutely dry weigh- 

 ing 40.48 lbs., and is useful in turnery, for 

 tool-handles, etc.i 



Lcarrs alternate, deciduous, revolute in the 

 bud, oltlonj; to lanceolate, cuneate at base, acute 

 or acuminate at apex, irregularly serrulate with 

 slender teeth, lustrous dark green above, pale and 

 glaucous beneath. Flninrs ( .Tuly-August) numer- 

 ous, white, about Mi in. long, in terminal panicled 

 racemes, with i)ubescent bihracteolata pedicels ; 

 •calyx deeply ."-lobed. persistent : corolla cylindri- 

 cal! ovoid, hypdgenous. witli ."« minute reflexed 

 lobes: stamens lo. Ilie filaments wider than the 

 anthers: disk thin: ovary .">-(elled with columnar 

 style and capitate stigma : ovules numerous, a^^- 

 pliitropous. Fruit a r)-celled ovoid pyramidal 

 capsule, with remnants of persistent style and 

 •calyx, loculicidally .^)-valved : seeds numerous, the 

 testa pointed at both ends.= 



2. For genus see p. 452. 



1. A. W., .\II, 283. 



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