Handbook 



Trkj- 



S OF TIIK 



X^ 



States and Canada. 37' 



Tlie Sorrel-tree is a liandsome and interest- 

 ing tree, occasionally in tlie fore.->t attaining t le 

 lieiglit of 50 to 70 ft. or more, witii long clear 

 trunk IS 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 with various Oaks and 

 Hickories, the Sugar JNlaple, 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 tlie borders of 

 the Dismal Swamp in Virginia, it is a small 

 slender-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 tenninal bunches 

 of tiny cup-shaped white flowers, and in 

 autumn with its bright scarlet foliage. 



It takes its name from a slightly acidulous 

 flavor of its leaves and hranchlets, which are 

 tonic, refrigerant and diuretic in properties. 



The wood is fine-grained, rather hard and 

 heavy, a cubic foot when absolutely dry weigh- 

 ing 46.48 lbs., and is useful in turnery, for 

 tool-handles, etc.i 



cal. ovoid, hypogeuous, with :"> minute reflexod 

 lobes ; stamens lo. the filaments wider than the 

 anthers : disk thin ; ovary ."i-celled with columnar 

 style and capitate stigma : ovules numerous, am- 

 phitropous. Fndt a Ti-celled ovoid pyramidal 

 ca))sul<'. witli remnants of persistent style and 

 calyx, locnlicidally ."i-valved : seeds numerous, the 

 testa pointed at Ixith ends.= 



1. A. W., XII, 28.!. 



2. For jjentis see p. 4."n'. 



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