DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 1J 



As the chestnut, like the oak, forms strong tap-roots, it ia 

 removed with some difficulty. The finest trees are pro- 

 duced from the nut, and their growth is much more rapid 

 when young, than that of the transplanted tree. It prefers 

 a deep sandy loam, rather moist than dry ; and will not, 

 like many forest trees, accommodate itself to wet and low 

 situations. 



THE OSAGE ORANGE TREE. Madura. 



Wat. Ord. Urticaceae. Lin. Syst. Dicecia, Tetrandria. 



This interesting tree is found growing wild on the 

 Arkansas River, and other western tributaries of the 

 Mississippi, south of St. Louis, where, according to Mr. 

 Nuttall, it attains the height of 50 or 60 feet. The 

 branches are rather light-colored, and armed with spines 

 (produced at every joint) about an inch and a half long. 

 The leaves are long, ovate, and acuminate, or pointed 

 at the extremity ; they are deep green, and more glossy 

 and bright than those of the orange. The blossoms are 

 greenish ; and the fruit is about the shape and size of a 

 large orange, but the surface much rougher than that fruit. 

 In the south, we are told, it assumes a deep yellow color, 

 and, at a short distance, strikingly resembles the common 

 orange ; the specimens of fruit which we have seen 

 growing in Philadelphia, did not assume that fine color ; 

 but the appearance of the tree laden with it, is not unlike 

 that of a large orange tree. It was first transplanted into 

 our gardens from a village of the Osage tribe of Indians, 

 whence the common name of Osage orange. The intro- 

 duction of this tree was one of the favorable results of 



