182 LANDSCAPE GARDENINU. 



Lewis and Clarke's Expedition. It was named by them 

 in honor of the late Wm. Maclure, Esq., President of the 

 American Academy of Natural Sciences. 



The wood is fine grained, yellow in color, and takes 

 a brilliant polish. It is also very strong and elastic, and on 

 this account the Indians of the wide district to which 

 this tree is indigenous, employ it extensively for bows, 

 greatly preferring it to any other timber. Hence its com- 

 mon name among the white inhabitants is Bodac, a cor 

 ruption of the term bois d'arc (bow-wood), of the French 

 settlers. A fine yellow dye is extracted from the wood, 

 similar to that of the Fustic. 



As the Osage orange belongs to the monoecious class of 

 plants, it does not perfect its fruit unless both the male and 

 female trees are growing in the same neighborhood. 

 Many have believed the fruit to be eatable, both from its 

 fine appearance, and from its affinity with and resemblance 

 to that of the bread-fruit; but all attempts to render it 

 pleasant, either cooked or in a raw state, have hitherto 

 failed : it is therefore probably inedible, though not injuri- 

 ous. Perhaps when fully ripened, some mode of preparing 

 it by baking or otherwise, may render it palatable. 



As an ornamental tree, the Osage orange is rather too 

 loose in the disposition of its wide-spreading branches, to be 

 called beautiful in its form. But the bright glossy hue of 

 its foliage, and especially the unique appearance of a good 

 sized tree when covered with the large, orange-like fruit, 

 render it one of the most interesting of our native trees ; 

 while it has the same charm of rarity as an exotic, since it 

 was introduced from the far west, and is yet but little 

 planted in the United States. On a small lawn, where but 

 few trees are needed, and where it is desirable that the 



