THE YELLOW-WOOD OR VIRGILIA 



OF all the trees of the eastern region of North America this seems to be the rarest 

 and most local in its distribution. Were it not that it has been frequently planted 

 in parks and ornamental grounds as far north as New England, it would be a 

 species which comparatively few people would ever see. This very fact of its rarity, as 

 well as the interesting character of its flowers, fruit and foliage, renders it especially desira- 

 ble for ornamental planting. It is indigenous in a comparatively limited region of the 

 Southern States, its distribution being given in Professor Sargent's authoritative "Manual 

 of The Trees of North America" in these words: "Limestone cliffs and ridges, generally 

 in rich soil, and often overhanging the banks of mountain streams; Central Kentucky 

 and Central Tennessee to Northern Alabama and the western slopes of the high mountains 

 of Eastern Tennessee ; to Cherokee County, North Carolina ; rare and local ; most abundant 

 and of its largest size in the neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee." 



The general habit of the tree as it grows in the open is well shown in the picture on 

 the plate. The division into several large branches a short distance from the ground is 

 quite characteristic of the species, as is the broad open effect produced by the rather 

 slender, more or less horizontal branches. Beautiful white flowers, which show at once 

 that this tree belongs to the great family of leguminous plants, blossom in June and are 

 succeeded by the slender pods, which are equally distinctive in showing the family relation- 

 ship. The large compound leaves are of especial interest in that the base of the petiole 

 completely covers the bud, a oondition which is more familiar to most of us in the case of 

 the Sycamore or Buttonwood. The leaves are also interesting from the fact that the 

 leaflets are arranged in alternate fashion along the central stalk, a condition which is very 

 unusual, as may readily be seen by glancing at those plates which show the other kinds of 

 trees with compound leaves, in which the leaflets are opposite each other along the central 

 stalk. The wood is of a characteristic yellow color sometimes more or less brownish, 

 which gives the species its common name. It is heavy and hard, weighing thirty-nine 

 pounds per cubic foot. The tree is also sometimes called the Virgilia. 



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