291. TOXYLON POMIFERUM OsAGE GRANGE. 41 



291. TOXYLON POMIFERUM, EAF. 



OSAGE ORANGE. BOW-WOOD. 

 Ger., Bogen-Holz; Fr., Bois d'Arc; Sp., Madera de arco. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: See the above generic description, this being the only 

 species. 



The Osage Orange in its native southern forests attains the height 

 of 50 or 60 ft. (18 m.) with a trunk perhaps 3 ft. (0.90 m.) in 

 diameter, but in the open rarely if ever attains as great a height. 

 It is there characterized by a short, thick trunk covered with an 

 orange-brown bark, rough with prominent, firm and more or less 

 reticular fibrous ridges. The trunk divides into a few large limbs and 

 these into many curved branches forming a rounded or dome-shaped 

 top with lowermost branches drooping nearly to the ground. Its 

 curved branches, strikingly suggestive of so many drawn bows, and 

 its glossy dark green foliage are prominent features. 



HABITAT. The native home of the Osage Orange is limited to the 

 rich bottom-lands of southern Arkansas, Indian territory and eastern 

 Texas, but its popularity for hedges and ornamental planting has 

 caused its quite general distribution over the middle and eastern 

 states and it is now quite common and naturalized in various localities 

 far outside of its native range. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, very hard and strong, flex- 

 ible, compact, very durable in contact with the soil, and of a clear 

 rich yellow color or tinted with brown in places, and with a scanty 

 white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7736 ; Percentage of Ash, 0.68 ; 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7683 ; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 94373; Modulus of Rupture, 1131; Resistance to Longitudinal 

 Pressure, 809 ; Resistance to Indentation, 363 ; Weight of a Cubic 

 Foot in Pounds, 48.21. 



USES. A valuable wood for fence-posts, railway-ties, paving blocks, 

 the hubs of wheels, etc. Formerly it was the favorite wood of the 

 American Indians of the middle west for their bows a fact which 

 is commemorated in the name, Bow-wood, or the French Bois d'Arc, 

 by which the tree is known in the region in which it grows. 



The bark of the roots yields a yellow dye and the tree is of value 

 for ornamental planting. 



