76. ASIMINA TRILOBA PAPAW, CtfSTARD APPLE. 17 



A small tree with few branches and growing in thickets in which may 

 be occasionally found individuals 30 or 40 ft. ( 12 m.) in height and 8 or 10 

 in. (0.25 m.) in thickness of trunk, but most of the representatives are 

 much smaller or even shrubs. These thickets are often found in the 

 shade of taller forest trees or the tree may be found sparsely scattered 

 throughout a forest. The bark is of a dark-gray color mottled with 

 patches of whitish, smooth and only on the bases of the largest trunks 

 becoming fissured into firm longitudinal ridges. When bruised it emits a 

 rank and rather unpleasant odor. 



HABITAT. Sparingly in western New York and Ontario, and thence 

 southward to the gulf, reaching perhaps its greatest development in 

 southern Indiana and Illinois, growing along river banks and rich bot- 

 tom-lands. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. A very weak, soft and light wood with an- 

 nual rings sharply defined by mostly small but numerous open ducts. It 

 is of a light olive color, shading into a greenish brown heart- wood. 

 Specific Gravity, 0.3969; Percentage of Asli, 0.21; Relative Approximate 

 Fuel Value, 0.3961; Coefficient of Elasticity, 48179; Modulus of Rup- 

 ture, 391; Resistance of Longitudinal Pressure, 212; Weight of a Cubic 

 Foot in Pounds, 24.73. 



USES. Little if auy use is ever made of this timber, but the tree 

 has some value for ornamental purposes and its fruit occasionally finds 

 its way into market. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not ascribed to this species. 



ORDER RUT ACE SI : RUE FAMILY. 



Leaves simple or compound, alternate or opposite, exstipulate, dotted with trans- 

 lucent glands and containing an aromatic or acrid volatile oil. Flowers regular, 

 usually 3-o-nuuierous liypogenous ; stamens as many or twice as many as the sepals 

 or rarely more ; pistils 2-5, separate or compound with ovary containing as many 

 cells, raised on a prolongation of the receptacle (gymnophore) or glandular disk, 

 styles commonly united even when ovaries are distinct. Fruit usually capsular with 

 few seeds, large embryo and fleshy albumen. 



A large family of both herbaceous and woody plants, mostly of the Old World 

 and southern hemisphere. 



GENUS PTELEA, L. 



Leaves 3-foliate (sometimes 5-foliate.) Flowers polygamous, small, greenish-white, 

 in terminal cymes ; sepals 3 to 5 but usually 4, much shorter than the petals ; petals 

 3 to 5, spreading ; stamens of the same number, alternate with them and longer in 

 the perfect flowers, but shorter and imperfect in the pistillate flowers ; pistil with 

 2-celled ovary, short style and two stigmas. Fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded nearly 

 orbicular samara with broad margin. 



(Pteltn is the ancient Greek name of the Elm and applied here on account of a re- 

 semblance in the fruit.) 



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