304 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



glabrous, smooth, or scabrate above, pale and more or less pubescent below, with 

 short white hairs thickest on the orange-colored midribs and primary veins arcuate 

 and united near the margins and connected by reticulate veinlets, or sometimes 

 hoary-tomentose below, 3'-5' long, 2'-4' broad, turning bright yellow in the autumn; 

 their petioles stout, hoary-tomentose at first, becoming glabrous, f'-l^'long; stipules 

 lanceolate, acute, abruptly enlarged and thickened at the base, sometimes tinged 

 with red above the middle, coated with long white hairs, and often V in length. 

 Flowers appearing with the unfolding of the leaves, staminate in narrow spikes 

 2'-2' long, on stout light green peduncles covered with pale hairs; calyx divided 

 nearly to the base into 4 oblong concave lobes rounded at the apex and hirsute on 

 the outer surface; stamens with slightly flattened filaments narrowed from the 

 base to the apex, and bright green anthers, their connectives orbicular, conspicuous, 

 bright green; pistillate in oblong densely flowered spikes, 1' long, on short hairy 

 peduncles, a few male flowers being sometimes mixed with them; calyx divided nearly 

 to the base into 4 thick concave lobes rounded at the apex, rounded or slightly keeled 

 on the back, the 2 outer lobes twice as wide as the others, as long as and closely 

 investing the glabrous light green ovary. Fruit: syncarp at first bright red when 

 fully grown, I'-l^' long, becoming dark purple or nearly black and sweet and juicy 

 when fully ripe; drupes about -fa' long, with a thin fleshy outer coat and a light 

 brown nutlet; seed ovate, acute, with a thin membranaceous light brown coat. 



A tree, 60-70 high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 3-4 in diameter, stout 

 spreading smooth branches forming a dense broad round-topped shapely head, and 

 slender slightly zigzag branchlets dark green often tinged with red, glabrous, more 

 or less coated with pale pubescence, and covered with oblong straw-colored spots 

 when they first appear, becoming in their first winter light red-brown to orange 

 color and marked by pale lenticels and by large elevated horizontal nearly orbicular 

 concave leaf-scars displaying a row of prominent fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and in 

 their second and third years dark brown slightly tinged with red. Winter-buds 

 ovate, rounded or pointed at the apex, \' long, with 6 or 7 chestnut-brown scales, 

 those of the outer rows broadly ovate, rounded, and slightly thickened on the back, 

 puberulous, ciliate on the margins, and much shorter than those of the next rows, 

 the inner scales scarious, coated with pale hairs, oblong-lanceolate, rounded or acute 

 at the apex, and ^'-f ' long at maturity. Bark ^'-f ' thick, dark brown tinged with 

 red and divided into irregular elongated plates separating on the surface into thick 

 appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, rather tough, coarse-grained, very 

 durable, light orange color, with thick lighter colored sapwood; largely used for 

 fencing, in cooperage, and in ship and boatbuilding. 



Distribution. Intervales in rich soil and on low hills; western Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, and Long Island to southern Ontario and central Michigan, southeast- 

 ern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and southward to the shores of Bay Biscayne and 

 Cape Romano, Florida, and to the valley of the Colorado River, Texas; most abun- 

 dant and of its largest size in the basin of the lower Ohio River and on the foothills 

 of the southern Appalachian Mountains. 



Occasionally planted, especially in the southern states, for its fruit valued for fat- 

 tening hogs and as food for poultry. A few natural varieties, distinguished for the 

 large size and good quality of their fruit, or for their productiveness, are occasion- 

 ally propagated by pomologists. 



