24 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



of trunk and is very commonly only a shrub in habit of growth. As 

 a tree its trunk divides into a few large crooked branches and it 

 forms a broad open top. The bark of trunk is of a grayish black 

 color and quite smooth, excepting for the prominent horizontal lenti- 

 cels which break its surface. Its singular foliage and nodding 

 clusters of crimson fruit make it easily recognizable. 



HABITAT. It is a species of wide distribution, being found from 

 southern Maine to Iowa and southward to the Gulf Coast, preferring 

 the dry soil of gravelly hillsides and uplands, which it sometimes 

 occupies in considerable abundance, even to the exclusion of nearly 

 everything else. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. The wood is light, soft, not strong and. 

 unlike the golden-tinted woods of most of the Sumachs, is of a light 

 greenish brown color with thin whitish sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 

 0.5273; Percentage of Ash, 0.60; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.5241 ; Coefficient of Elasticity, 73647 ; Modulus of Rupture, 663 ; 

 Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 377 ; Resistance to Indentation, 

 109 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 32.86. 



USES. The leaves and bark are rich in tannin and largely used, 

 in regions where abundant, for tanning and dyeing purposes. 



OBDEB LEGUMINOS-ZE: PULSE OB PEA FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, usually compound, with stipules. Flowers regular or papilion- 

 aceous and usually perfect; stamens 10 or many, with diadelphous (sometimes 

 distinct) filaments and 2-celled anthers opening" longitudinally; pistil solitary, 

 with one or several-celled superior ovary. Fruit a legume. 



A very large and important family of trees, shrubs and herbs of wide distribu- 

 tion throughout all temperate and tropical regions, generally free from obnoxious 

 properties and many of its representatives of the greatest economic importance. 

 There are about 7,000 species grouped in nearly 450 genera, and of these seven- 

 teen have arborescent representatives in the United States. 



GENUS CLADRASTIS, RAF. 



Leaves deciduous, odd-pinnate, with stout terete petioles enlarged at base and 

 few large entire short-stalked leaflets; buds small, naked superposed and formed 

 within the base of the petiole. Flowers white, papilionaceous, in terminal panicles 

 or racemes; calyx narrow-campanulate, 5-toothed; petals with suborbicular re- 

 flexed standard and those of the keel incurved and distinct; stamens 10, distinct, 

 with slender filaments and uniform versatile anthers; ovary subsessile, linear 

 and tipped with slender incurved style with terminal stigma; ovules several, 

 suspended. Fruit a glabrous compressed linear margined tardily dehiscent legume,' 

 containing few oblong compressed seeds with slender funicle and no albumen 



Trees of a single species of limited natural distribution in the Atlantic states, 

 but widely planted for ornamental purposes. They have yellowish heart-wood 

 somewhat watery juice and smooth bark. Another tree (Maackia Amurensis 

 Kupr.), of eastern Asia and Japan, is referred by some writers to this genus 

 but by others is considered to be generically distinct. (Name formed from Greek 

 roots meaning brittle branches.) 



