32 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



along river banks and swamps, but extensively introduced and found 

 hardy as far north as New England. Now naturalized in many places. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. \Vood light, soft, close-grained, abundantly 

 supplied with large open ducts, of rapid growth and very durable in con- 

 tact with the soil; of a light pinkish brown color and very thin whitish 

 sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.4474; Per centage of Ash, 0.38; Relative 

 Approximate Fuel Value, 0.4457; Coefficient of Elasticity, 68161; Modu- 

 lus of Rupture, 590; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 364; Resist- 

 ance to Indentation, 77; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 27.88. 



USES. A very valuable timber for fence-rails, posts, railway ties, etc., 

 its rapidity of growth and durability in contact with the soil strongly 

 commending its bj-ing planted for these uses. The value and popularity 

 of the tree for ornamental purposes are strongly attested by its abundance 

 in the parks, streets and private grounds of many cities throughout the 

 union. The name " Cigar Tree " is given to this tree on account of a 

 use, suggested in the name, sometimes made by small boys of its dried 

 pods. 



MEDICINAL PPOPERTIES. A decoction of the seeds of this tree has 

 been used in the treatment of asthma.* 



ORDER JUGLANDACE J : WALNUT FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, pinnate and without stipules. Flowers monoecious and apetalous, 

 except in some cases in the fertile flowers Sterile flowers in catkins with an irregu- 

 lar calyx adnate to the scale of the catkin. Fertile flowers solitary or in small clus- 

 ters, with calyx regularly 3-5-lobed, adherent to the incompletely 2-4- celled, but 

 1-ovuled ovary. Fruit a sort of dry drupe (a tryina), with a fibrous and more or less 

 fleshy and coriaceous outer coat (shuck) very astringent to the taste, a hard, bony 

 inner coat (shell), and a 2-4-lobed seed, which is orthotropous, with thick, oily and 

 often corrugated cotyledons and no albumen. 



All representatives of the order are trees. 



GENUS CARYA, NUTTALL. 



Leaves odd-pinnate with few leaflets; leaf-buds scaly and from them appear gen- 

 erally both kinds of flowers, the fertile at the extremity of the growth and the 

 sterile at the base, the leaves between. (In one or two species, subgenus Pecania, 

 the staminate catkins appear in lateral fascides at the summit of the shoots of the 

 preceding year.) Sterile flowers in slender, imbricated, mostly forked catkins; scales 

 3-parted; calyx mostly 3-parted; stamens 3-10, free, filaments short or wanting and 

 anthers hairy. Fertile flowers clustered 2-5 together, their common peduncle termi- 

 nating the shoot of the season ; calyx 4-cleft, superior; petals none; stigmas sessile, 

 2-lobed, the lobes bifid, papillose, persistent. Fruit (October) with a coriaceous but 

 at length dry and hard epicarp (shuck), finally falling away in 4 more or less distinct 

 valves, and a smoothish horny endocarp (shell) with a 2-lobed nucleus. 



Trees with hard bark, very tough wood and continuous pith; pubescence stellate. 

 (" Garya " is the ancient Greek name Kapva of the Walnut.) 



* U. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., p. 1717. 



