82% TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



nished near the middle with two minute caducous bractlets; the pistillate solitary, on short 

 recurved pedicels, bibracteolate with conspicuous acute bractlets ciliate on the margins and 

 often j' in length; corolla of the staminate flower tubular, \' long, slightly contracted be- 

 low the short acute reflexed lobes forming before expansion a pointed 4-angled bud rather 

 longer than the broad-ovate acute foliaceous ciliate calyx-lobes inflexed on the margins; 

 stamens with short slightly hairy filaments and linear-lanceolate anthers opening through- 

 out their length; pistillate flower f long, with a greenish yellow or creamy white corolla 

 nearly \' broad; stamens 8, inserted in one row below the middle of the corolla, with short 

 filaments and sagittate abortive or sometimes fertile anthers; ovary conic, pilose toward 

 the apex, ultimately 8-celled, and gradually narrowed into the four slender styles hairy at 

 the base. Fruit on a short thick stem, ripening at the north late in autumn or earlier 

 southward, often persistent on the branches during the winter, depressed-globose to ovoid or 

 slightly obovoid, rounded or pointed at apex, f -2' in diameter, yellow or pale orange color, 

 often with a bright cheek, and covered with a glaucous bloom, turning yellowish brown 

 when partly decayed by freezing, surrounded at base by the spreading calyx \'-\\' in di- 

 ameter, with broad ovate pointed lobes recurved on the margins; flesh austere while green, 

 yellowish brown, sweet and luscious when fully ripened by the action of frost, or in some 

 forms remaining hard and green during the winter; seeds oblong, rounded on the dorsal 

 edge, nearly straight on the ventral edge, rounded at the ends, much flattened, \' long and 

 \' wide, with a thick hard pale brown rugose testa, a narrow pale hilum and a slender raphe. 



A tree, occasionally 50-60 high, with a short trunk 16'-20' in diameter, spreading often 

 pendulous branches forming a broad or narrow round-topped head, and slender slightly 

 zigzag glabrous or rarely puberulous branchlets with a thick pith-cavity, light brown 

 when they first appear, becoming during their first winter light brown or ashy gray and 

 marked by occasional small orange-colored lenticels and by elevated semiorbicular leaf- 

 scars, with deep horizontal lunate depressions; or in the primeval forest, under the most 

 favorable conditions, sometimes 100-130 high, w 7 ith a long slender trunk free of branches 

 for 70-80 and rarely exceeding 2 in diameter; frequently not more than 15 or 20 high 

 and sometimes shrubby in habit. Winter-buds: axillary, broad-ovoid, acute, I' long, with 

 thick imbricated dark red-brown or purple lustrous scales often persistent at the base of 

 young branchlets during the season. Bark of the trunk f'-l' thick, dark brown tinged 

 with red, or dark gray, and deeply divided into thick square plates broken into thin per- 

 sistent scales, with heavy strong dark brown sometimes nearly black heartwood often un- 

 developed until the tree is over one hundred years old; used in turnery, for shoe-lasts, 

 plane-stocks, and preferred for shuttles to other American woods. The fruit contains 

 tannin, to which it owes its astringent qualities, and is eaten in great quantities in the 

 southern states. The inner bark is astringent and bitter. 



Distribution. Light sandy well drained soil, or in the Mississippi basin sometimes on 

 the deep rich bottom-lands of river valleys; Lighthouse Point, New Haven, New Haven 

 County, Connecticut, and Long Island, New York, through southern Pennsylvania, south- 

 ern Ohio, southern Indiana and Illinois, to southeastern Iowa, eastern Kansas, central 

 Oklahoma, and southward to De Soto County, Florida, southern Alabama, Mississippi, 

 Louisiana, and Texas to the valley of the Colorado River (Burnett County) ; very common 

 in the south Atlantic and Gulf states, often covering with shrubby growth by means of 

 the stoloniferous roots abandoned fields and springing up by the side of roads and fences; 

 ascending on the Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 3500; rare toward the western 

 limits of its range in Texas. In Missouri and Arkansas passing into the var. platycarpa 

 Sarg. with larger broad-ovate leaves rounded or cordate at base or rarely elliptic, more or 

 less densely pubescent on the lower surface, especially on the midrib and petiole, often 

 %,\'-k' long and 2'-2|' wide, and at the end of vigorous shoots up to 6' in length, and de- 

 pressed-globose, yellow, rarely nearly black (f. air a Sarg.), fruit much depressed at top and 

 bottom, If '-3' wide and about 1' high, w T ith sweet succulent flesh, ripening in September or 

 early October, and seeds conspicuously rounded on the dorsal edge, much compressed, 

 dark chestnut-brown and lustrous, only slightly rugose, f long and \' wide. A tree usually 



