SILVERBELL TREE 



(Mohrodendron Carolinum) 



THIS tree belongs to the storax family, which is not a very numerous 

 family as forest families are generally counted, but it is old and 

 highly respectable. Its members are found in the old world and the 

 new in both North and South America, in Europe, Asia, and the Malay 

 Archipelago. Trees of the storax family produce, or they are supposed 

 to produce, resins and gums, balsams, and aromatic exudations, but some 

 give little or none. The priests and soothsayers of idolatrous nations of 

 ancient times laid great stress on storax. They insisted on having the 

 resin as an adjunct to their superstitious rites. It was the incense 

 offered in their worship, and they compassed sea and land to obtain it for 

 that purpose. It is not improbable that the southern peninsulas of Asia 

 and the far-off Molucca islands were visited in ancient times to procure 

 the incense which ultimately found its way to the Mediterranean 

 regions. 



It is, therefore, interesting to find that two members of the old 

 storax family are quietly living in the coast region and among the 

 mountains of the southeastern part of the United States. No one has 

 ever suspected that they might be capable of yielding resinous incense 

 suitable for the altars of heathen gods. They are the silverbell tree, and 

 its little cousin, the snowdrop tree (Mohrodendron dipterum). They 

 have had common names a long time, but their botanical names are the 

 result of a recent christening. They are named from Charles Mohr who 

 wrote an interesting book on the flora of Alabama. The silverbell tree 

 is the larger of the two and deserves first consideration. 



It has a somewhat extensive range, but in some parts it is so 

 scarce that few persons ever see it. It is found from the mountains of 

 West Virginia to southern Illinois, south to middle Florida, northern 

 Alabama, and Mississippi, and through Arkansas and western Louisiana 

 to eastern Texas. Under cultivation, this tree is known as the snowdrop 

 tree in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Florida, and Louisiana. In Rhode Island, under cultivation, it is also 

 sometimes known as the silverbell tree, and bears the same name in 

 Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. In parts of Tennessee it is known as 

 the wild olive tree, and in other parts of the state as the bell tree. In 

 various localities in Alabama it is referred to as the four- winged halesia; 

 and in others as opossum wood. It is indiscriminately known in various 

 sections of Texas as the rattlebox and calico wood, and some of the 

 furniture manufacturers in North Carolina list it as box elder, though it 



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