256 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



groves of live oak. Parks and plazas in towns have them, and would 

 not part with them on any terms. Tallahassee, Florida, is almost 

 buried under live oaks which in earlier years sheltered the wigwams of 

 an Indian town. Villages near the coasts of both the Gulf and the 

 Atlantic in several southern states have their venerable trees large 

 enough for half the people to find shade beneath the branches at one 

 time. Many fine stands have been cut in recent years to make room 

 for corn, cane, and rice. 



Many persons associate the live oak with Spanish moss which 

 festoons its branches in the Gulf region. The moss is no part of the tree, 

 and apparently draws no substance from it, though it may smother the 

 leaves by accumulation, or break the branches by its weight. Strictly 

 speaking, the beard-like growth is not moss at all, but a sort of pine 

 apple (Dendropogon usenoides) which simply hangs on the limbs and 

 draws its sustenance from water and ah*. It is found on other trees, 

 besides live oak, and dealers in Louisiana alone sell half a million dollars 

 worth of it a year to upholsterers in all the principal countries of the 

 world. 



