698 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



curiosity; a tree without a relative in the world, and without leaves, 

 flowers, or fruit. The popular notion is wrong, of course, for no tree is 

 without relatives, and none without leaves, flowers, and fruit, or 

 something that takes their place. The flowers, leaves, and fruit of this 

 tree are small and escape notice of the casual observer, but they exist. 

 Its nearest relative in this country is the paradise tree of Florida and the 

 ailan thus introduced from China. It has a small, thorny, crooked trunk ; 

 the wood is dark, turning nearly black with exposure; it is rich with oil; 

 and it is very hard. The species grows in certain places along the Rio 

 Grande. The wood is made into canes, rulers, knife handles, turned 

 articles, and a little furniture of the smaller kinds. The trunks are too 

 small for ordinary sizes of lumber. 



GUM ELASTIC (Bumelia lanuginosa) ranges from Georgia to Texas, 

 and in Florida is called black haw. Children hi Texas mix its berries 

 with chewing gum, to increase -the quantity, and the name which they 

 apply to it is "gum stretch it." An exuded resin is also used for chewing 

 gum. Trees are sometimes sixty feet high and two in diameter, and a 

 considerable number of logs go to hardwood mills, where they lose their 

 name, and possibly appear as ash lumber, or occasionally as maple. 

 The wood is white, tinged with yellow, and is manufactured into 

 agricultural implements. A scarce and smaller species, known as buck- 

 thorn bumelia and ironwood (Bumelia lycioides) covers nearly the same 

 range. From a tree of the same family in southern Asia the gutta percha 

 of commerce is obtained. Other woods of the same family in this 

 country are mastic (Sideroxylon mastichodendron) of south Florida, a 

 tree sometimes sixty feet high and three feet in diameter, useful for boat 

 building; satinleaf (Chrysophyllummonopyrenum), also of Florida, a tree 

 twenty-five feet high and one hi diameter, the wood very heavy, hard, 

 and strong; tough bumelia (Bumelia tenax), ranging from South Carolina 

 to Florida, a tree twenty feet high and six inches in diameter, 

 called black haw in some parts of its range; saffron plum or ant's wood 

 (Bumelia anguslifolia), growing in Florida and Texas, the trunk twenty 

 feet high and six inches in diameter; wood orange colored, and the fruit 

 sweet; bustic (Dipholis salicifolia), in south Florida, a tree forty feet 

 high and eighteen inches in diameter, with wood exceedingly hard, 

 strong, and heavy, and dark brown or red in color; wild sapodilla or 

 dilly (Mimusops sieberi), a tree of south Florida with rich, very dark 

 brown wood, height of tree twenty feet, diameter one foot. 



DWARF SUMACH (Rhus copallina) is known by many names. It is 

 distinguished from staghorn sumach by its smooth branches, those of 

 staghorn being hairy. Sumach's Chief importance is due to its value as 

 tanning material. Leaves and small branches are used. The family has 



