OSAGE ORANGE; Bow WOOD (Toxylon pomiferum, Raf.). 

 tO to 60 feet. Round-headed tree with short trunk, fleshy 

 roots, stout thorns, and bitter, milky sap. Bark dark, scaly, 

 deeply furrowed; branches orange brown; twigs fuzzy. Wood 

 orange yellow, hard, heavy, flexible, strong, durable in soil, 

 used for clubs and bows by Indians; for posts, ties, piles, pav- 

 ing blocks, telegraph poles, and for interior finish of houses. 

 Leaves ovate, with entire margins, tapering at both ends, 

 thick, shiny, dark green above, paler and dull beneath, 3 to 

 5 inches long, turning yellow in autumn; petioles long, slim, 

 hairy, grooved; thorns solitary, in axils of leaves. Flowers 

 dioecious, greenish, minute, in crowded clusters, axillary. 

 Fruit aggregate, by union of a multitude of fleshy, 1-seeded 

 drupes, into a green ball, 4 or 5 inches in diameter, filled with 

 milky, bitter juice, and often seedless where fertile trees stand 

 far from staminate trees and thus miss pollenation of flowers. 

 Dist.: Deep, rich soil; Southern Arkansas, Oklahoma, and 

 Texas. Extensively planted for hedges and for shade and 

 c rnament, but not hardy where winters are severe. 



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