in Extra-Tropical Countries. 7o 



Eastern States. A tree, to 80 feet high in damp woods. Its rate of 

 growth is about 18 inches in a year, while young. Heart-wood pale- 

 colored. Seed of sweet pleasant taste. Wood similar to that of C. 

 alba, but paler. The tree is still hardy in Christiania. 



Carya tomentosa, Nuttall.* 



The Mockernut-Tree or White-Heart Hickory. Eastern North- 

 America, extending to Canada. A large tree, likes forest-soil, not 

 moist. Heart-wood pale-colored, remarkable for strength, elasticity, 

 heaviness and durability, yet fissile ; used for axles, spokes, felloes, 

 handles, chairs, screws, sieves and the best of mallets; the saplings for 

 hoops and wythes. Hickory is the most heat-giving amongst all 

 North- American woods. Nut small, but sweet; very oily. A variety 

 produces nuts as large as a small apple, which are called King- 

 Nuts. 



Caryota urens, Linn<*. 



India. One of the hardier Palms, ascending the Himalayas to an 

 altitude of 5,000 feet, according to Dr. Thomas Anderson, yet even 

 there attaining a considerable height, though the temperature sinks in 

 the cooler season to 40 F. Drude mentions, that species of this genus 

 ascend to an elevation of 7,500 feet, where the temperature occasion- 

 ally approaches the freezing point. The trunk furnishes a sago-like 

 starch. This palm flowers only at an advanced age, and after having 

 produced a succession of flowers dies away., From the sap of the 

 flower-stem, just as from that of the Cocos- and Borassus-Palm, toddy 

 and palm-sugar are prepared, occasionally as much as 12 gallons of 

 liquid being obtained from one tree in a day. The fibre of the leaf- 

 stalks can be manufactured into very strong ropes, also into baskets, 

 brushes and brooms. It also serves the Indian races as tinder. The 

 outer wood of the stem answers for turnery. Several allied species 

 exist, one extending to North-Eastern Australia. 



Casimiroa edulis, Llav and Levarz. 



Mexico, up to the cool heights of 7,000 feet. This tree comes into 

 bearing in about ten years. The kernel of its fruit is deleterious 

 (Hernandez), but the pulp, of a delicious, melting, peach-like taste 

 (Garner), partaking of which is said to induce sleep. The tree thrives 

 well in a clime like that of Santa Barbara, California. The fruit 

 is about an inch in diameter, pale-yellow, of a rich subacid taste, and 

 most palatable when near decay. Efforts to propagate it from cuttings 

 were not successful, and seeds do not seem to reach perfection in Cali- 

 fornia. The Spanish inhabitants call the tree Zapote (Calif. Hortic. 

 Magaz. 1880). 



Cassia acutifolia, Delile. 



Indigenous or now spontaneous in Northern and Tropical Africa 

 and South- Western Asia. Perennial. The leaflets merely dried con- 

 stitute part of the Alexandrian- and also Tinnevelly-senna. The 

 active principle of senna namely, cathartic acid occurs also in the 

 Coluteas and in Coronilla varia, according to C. Koch. 



