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AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



Florida. The botanical name refers to the river along whose course the trees are 

 most abundant. Local names are gopher plum, Ogeechee lime, and wild lime. The 

 tree is sixty or seventy feet high,one or two in diameter, and is often divided in several 

 stems. Its wood is lightest of the gums, weighing only 28.75 pounds per cubic foot. 

 It is diffuse-porous, and the springwood is scarcely distinguishable from the summer- 

 wood. The annual rings of growth are indistinct, and the medullary rays are thin 

 and inconspicuous. The wood is weak, soft, tough, and white, and little difference is 

 apparent between heart and sapwood. The flowers are rich in honey and are valuable 

 to bee keepers. It appears that no reports exist of the use of this wood for any 

 purpose. It is not abundant anywhere. 



WATBR GUM (Nyssa biflord) is a member of the gum group, and is of small 

 importance. Trees above thirty feet high are unusual, and the trunk is of poor form, 

 owing to its greatly enlarged base. This gum is found on the margins of small ponds 

 in the pine barrens from North Carolina to the Gulf coast. The leaves turn purple 

 and red in the fall, and are then conspicuous objects. The fruit is a blue drupe about 

 a third of an inch long. The wood is light, tough, and difficult to split. 



