10 Descriptive Remarks on the Osage Orange. 



it will be perceived that it may yet become very useful in other respects, 

 and may be extensively employed in various arts. It is a tree, as yet, 

 but little known, and having a very limited cultivation. We are not 

 certain, but we think there are few, if any (except at some of the 

 nurseries) this side of Philadeljjhia, where it was introduced by Nuttall, 

 the first discoverer and namer of the plant (Genera, ^^c, of J^orth Amer- 

 ican Plants, II, p. 223, 1818). It is a beautiful growing tree, and when 

 loaded with its golden fruit, it presents a most magnificent object. When 

 we first saw it, in the fall of 1831, at the Messrs. Landreth's, we were par- 

 ticularly struck with its appearance; it was then full of fruit, but they 

 had not begun to assume their yellow tinge, which they do not, in the 

 Middle States, excejjt in extremely favorable seasons. 



Much has been said in respect to it, in Loudon's Magazine, particu- 

 larly in regard to that very important question, whether it is a monoecious 

 or a dioecious plant ; that is, whether the staminate (male) and pistil- 

 late (female) blossoms are produced in distinct flowers on the same 

 plant; or, whether the staminate blossoms are produced entirely on one 

 plant, and the pistillate ones on another. In Loudon's Encyclopedia of 

 Plants, quoted above by our correspondent, it is registered in Monoe^cia 

 Tetraiidria Lindley; and in the Introduction to the Natural System of 

 Botany, by the latter author, Artocarpese, to which order it is referred, 

 is defined as containing " flowers monoecious." But Mr. Nuttall, in his 

 Genera, ^c., has placed it in DioeVia Tetrandria. From all the informa- 

 tion, however, which has been collected together, it appears that Mr. 

 Nuttall was incorrect. J. D., in Loudon's Magazine for June, in a pa- 

 per on dioecious plants, asks the following question: " Are the sexes of 

 Maclvira aurantiaca dioecious, or monoecious .'"' and then adduces proof 

 to the latter. Further information is yet wanted, and if any of our 

 friends, who are well acquainted with the tree, and have examined the 

 flowers, can communicate anything which will throw more knowledge 

 upon the subject, we shall be happy to receive it. Through our Maga- 

 zine it will reach those who are very desirous of obtaining such facts as 

 will tend to settle this important question. We have no doubt ourselves, 

 but it belongs to the monoecious plants. In the above communication, 

 mention is made of but one tree, and this has borne fruit, which it would 

 not have done, had it been dioecious. In the Messrs. Landreth's nursery 

 we saw but one tree, and this a large specimen full of fruit, standing iso- 

 lated from any other tree whatever. The Messrs. Prince have stated, 

 (Gard. Mag. II, p. 350,) that the " male plant is [1826] not only not in 

 Europe, but not in any botanic establishment in this country, except our 

 own." This we infer must have been an error caused by supposing the 

 plants were dioecious, they not having, probably, at that time, produced 

 fruit. It has not yet fruited in England, 



All the Artocarpeae to which this belongs, abound in a milky fluid, in 

 most of the genera, resembling caoutchouc. In this order is placed the 

 Upas tree of Java, of which so much has been said, and which contains 

 the most deadly poison. In it also are found those harmless plants, the 

 mulberry and the fi^, the latter so well known as an article of 

 luxury. It is one of the singular instances in which deleterious and 

 wholesome plants are found in the same order. We think it very proba- 

 ble that, belonging to the same order of JWorus, it will be found a good 

 substitute where that cannot be grown. It is of rapid growth and per- 

 fectly hardy in the Middle States ; but whether it will stand our north- 

 ern winters we are not certain, as we do not know of any trees in this 

 quarter. It should, however, be introduced, if for no other purpose 

 than for ornament, into every garden where handsome and showy in- 

 digenous trees and shrubs are collected together. Loaded with fruit 

 somewhat resembling an orange, the effect of a few trees, planted either 



