18 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood hard, strong, rather light, close- 

 grained, easily worked and susceptible of a fine polish. It is of a light 

 reddish-brown color when fresh, but darkens with age to a dull red; sap- 

 wood light yellowish. Specific Gravity, 0.5822; Percentage of Ash, 0.15, 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.5813; Coefficient of Elasticity 9 

 85833; Modulus of Rupture, 829; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 

 547; Resistance to Indentation, 204; Weight of a CuUc Foot in Pounds, 

 36.28. 



USES. One of the most valuable and popular of our native woods for 

 interior finishing, furniture, etc. The fruit is sometimes used in a 

 domestic way for making a kind of brandy known as <f cherry brandy." 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are found in the bark and are readily yielded 

 to cold water though owing to volatilization and chemical change 

 boiling water must not be used. They are of a tonic and sedative nature 

 and efficacious in cases of debility of the stomach or of the system in 

 general, phthisis, bronchitis,* etc. 



We have seen in domestic use an infusion of the fresh bark with cider 

 and this is certainly very wholesome and invigorating for a weak stomach. 



NOTE. Tracts of cherry forest, at the season when the cherries are 

 ripe, are great places of rendezvous for the frugivorous birds, and 

 thither, too, the black bear is sure to find its way and fattens largely on 

 the luscious fruit. 



GENUS PYRUS,f L. 



Leaves simple or pinnate; stipules free. Flowers white or rose-colored in cor- 

 ymbed cymes; calyx-tube urn-shaped, becoming thick and fleshy in the fruit, limb 

 5-cleft; petals 5, obovate or roundish; stamens numerous; styles 5 (or sometimes 2-3), 

 and carpels (of the same number) 2-seeded, with papery or cartilaginous endocarp 

 and united with the calyx-tube. Fruit a closed pome, fleshy or berry-like. 



Trees or shrubs, (" Pyrus " is the ancient Latin name of the pear-tree.) 



30. PYRUS MALUS, L. 



APPLE. 

 Ger., Apfelbaum ; Fr., Pommier ; Sp., Manzana. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves simple, 3-3 inches in length, ovate or ovate-ob- 

 long, downy and veins incurved. Flowers expanding with the leaves, in umbellate 

 cymes, white or rose-color, handsome and delicately fragrant; pedicels and calyx 

 when young downy-tomentose; petals with short claws; styles united below. Fruit 

 globose, sunken at the place of attachment of the stem and at the opposite ex- 

 tremity. 



(" Mains " is the ancient Latin name of the apple-tree.) 



A tree not often over 30 ft. (9 m.) in height, excepting in thickets or 

 with a trunk more than 2-J- ft. (0.76 m. ) in diameter, but with full, wide- 

 spreading top. 



*U. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., pp. 1241-4. 

 t Sometimes written Pirus. 



