LEGUMINOS.E 



619 



short-oblong, compressed, attached by a slender funicle; without albumen; seed-coat 

 thin, membranaceous, dark brown; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons 

 fleshy, oblong, flat; radicle short, inflexed. 



Four species are now known. One inhabits the southern United States, two occur in 

 western China and one in Japan. 



Cladrastis, from /cXdSos and dpavo-rds, relates to the brittleness of the branches. 



1. Cladrastis luteaK. Koch. Yellow Wood. Virgilia. 



Leaves 8'-12' in length, with leaflets 3'-4' long and l'-2' wide, the terminal leaflet 

 rather shorter than the others and 3'-3^' wide; turning bright clear yellow rather late in 

 the autumn some time before falling. Flowers appearing about the middle of June, 

 slightly fragrant, in panicles 12'-14' long and o'-6' wide. Fruit fully grown by the middle 

 of August, ripening in September and soon falling. 



Fig. 566 



A tree, sometimes 50-60 high, with a trunk l-2 or exceptionally 4 in diameter, 

 usually divided 6-7 from the ground into 2 or 3 stems, slender wide-spreading more or 

 less pendulous brittle branches forming a wide graceful head, and zigzag branchlets clothed 

 with pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, during their first season 

 light brown tinged more or less with green, very smooth and lustrous, and covered by nu- 

 merous darker colored lenticels, bright red-brown in their first winter and marked by large ele- 

 vated leaf -scars surrounding the buds, and dark dull brown the following year. Bark of the 

 trunk |'-i' thick, with a silvery gray or light brown surface and rather darker colored 

 than that of the branches. Wood heavy, very hard, strong and close-grained, with a 

 smooth satiny surface, Wight clear yellow changing to light brown on exposure, with 

 thin nearly white sap wood; used for fuel, occasionally for gun-stocks, and yielding a cleat- 

 yellow dye. 



Distribution. Limestone elm's and ridges generally in rich soil, and often overhanging 

 the banks of mountain streams; Cherokee County, North Carolina, and the western slopes 

 of the high mountains of eastern Tennessee; central Tennessee and Kentucky; near 

 Florence, Lauderdale County, and cliffs of the Warrior River, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; 

 Forsythe, Taney County, and Eagle Rock, Barry County, Missouri; rare and local; most 

 abundant in the neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, and in Missouri. 



Often planted in the eastern United States as an ornamental tree, and hardy as far 

 north as New England; and rarely in western and southern Europe; usually only flower- 

 ing in alternate years. 



