The Silver Bell Tree and the Sweet Leaf 



A Snowdrop Tree (M. diptera, Britt.) inhabits swampy 

 land along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts and follows the 

 Mississippi to Arkansas. It is hardy in cultivation no farther 

 north than Philadelphia. It is smaller in stature than the silver 

 bell tree, but has larger leaves and more showy flowers. Between 

 the two species the chief difference is that two of the seed's wings 

 in this one have become obsolete, leaving it two winged, di-ptera. 

 The other species has four-winged seeds, expressed in the Greek 

 word ietra-piera. 



2. Genus SYMPLOCOS, L'Her. 



Trees with pithy branchlets, forming open, round head. 

 Leaves half evergreen, simple, alternate, entire, oval. Flowers 

 small, perfect, white, bell shaped in axillary clusters. Fruit a 

 brown berry. {S. tinctoria) sweet leaf 



Symplocos is a large genus of trees that grow wild in Aus- 

 tralia and in the tropics of Asia and America. Many species 

 belonging to British India yield important dyes and drugs. A 

 species from Japan has recently created a stir in horticultural 

 circles in this country. It has profuse white flowers that look 

 like those of the hawthorns, hence its name, S. craicegoides. 

 These racemed flowers give place to berries which turn on ripening 

 to a brilliant blue, which make the shrubby tree a most striking 

 and beautiful object in a garden in the fall. The only American 

 representative of this genus is a little tree. 



Sweet Leaf, Horse Sugar {Symplocos iindoria, L'Her.) 

 A small, open-headed tree, lo to 30 feet high, with short trunk 

 and slim, ascending branches. Bark ashy grey with reddish cast, 

 warty. Buds ovate, with triangular scales. Leaves leathery, 

 dark green and lustrous above; paler and pubescent beneath; 

 5 to 6 inches long, i to 2 inches wide, tapering at base and apex; 

 entire or remotely toothed on margins; petioles short, winged. 

 Flowers white, fragrant, in close axillary clusters; March to May. 

 Fruit, a brown, nut-like drupe with i seed. Preferred habitat, 

 moist, shady woodlands. Distribution, Delaware to Florida; 

 west to Blue Ridge Mountains, and in Gulf States to Louisiana 

 and southern Arkansas. Uses: Rare in gardens, though it 

 deserves attention for its handsome, sweet-tasting foliage. Bark 

 of stems and roots, bitter and aromatic, yields yellow dye and has 

 tonic medicinal properties. Horses and cattle browse the foliage. 



430 



