30 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



panicled racemes, with pubescent bibracteolate pedicels; calyx deeply 5-lobed, 

 persistent; corolla cylindrical, ovoid, hypogenous, with 5 minute reflexed lobes; 

 stamens 10, the filaments wider than the anthers; disk thin; ovary 5-celled with 

 columnar style and capitate stigma; ovules numerous, amphitropous. Fruit 

 a 5-celled ovoid pyramidal capsule, with remnants of persistent style and calyx, 

 loculicidally 5-valved; seeds numerous, the testa pointed at both ends. 



The Sorrel-tree is ordinarily of medium or small stature, but under 

 favorable conditions in forest growth attains the height of 75 ft. 

 (22 m.) and 2 ft. (0.60 m.) in diameter of trunk. It develops a 

 rather narrow top of shortish branches, and interspersed among its 

 dark green foliage are always conspicuously to be seen its ample 

 clusters of tiny white cup-shaped flowers or, later in the season, of 

 small fruit-capsules, which often persist until after the appearance 

 of the crop of the subsequent year. The bark of trunk is of a brown- 

 ish gray color, furrowed longitudinally with narrow rounded ridges. 



HABITAT. The Allegany mountain region from southern Penn- 

 sylvania to northern Florida and from near the Atlantic coast to 

 Indiana, Tennessee and Louisiana, occupying mainly well-drained 

 slopes and ridges and reaching its best development on the foot-hills 

 of Tennessee and the Carolinas. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood moderately heavy and hard, 

 strong, compact, with uniformly distributed small open ducts and 

 very small medullary rays. It is of a reddish brown color with ample 

 brownish white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7458; Percentage of 

 Ash, 0.37; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7430; Coefficient of 

 Elasticity, 88851; Modulus of Rupture, 728; Resistance to Longi- 

 tudinal Pressure, 501 ; Resistance to Indentation, 201 ; Weight of 

 Cubic Foot in Pounds, 46.48. 



USES. As logs of this wood are not often found of any consider- 

 able size or abundance, it being usually distributed throughout forests 

 of other growth, no particular commercial value is placed on this 

 wood. It is, however, used to some extent for tool handles and other 

 small articles of wooden-ware. The Sorrel-tree is occasionally planted 

 for ornamental purposes, though not as extensively as its merits 

 would seem to justify. It proves hardy as far north as Massa- 

 chusetts. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The leaves have a pleasant acid taste, 

 and are used by hunters to allay thirst, and form in decoction a 

 grateful refrigerant drink in fevers. Aside from that little is claimed 

 for medicinal properties in this species* 



* 17. 8. Tlir.pfnfiaicry, 16th ed., p. 1707. 



