150 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Connecticut, frequent, reported as far south as Cheshire 

 (New Haven county). 



South on shaded mountain slopes and in deep ravines to Georgia ; 

 west to Minnesota. 



Habit. Shrub or small tree, 15-25 feet high, with a diameter 

 at the ground of 5-8 inches ; characterized by a slender, beauti- 

 fully striate trunk and straight branches ; by the roseate flush 

 of the opening foliage, deepening later to a yellowish-green ; 

 and by the long, graceful, pendent racemes of yellowish flowers, 

 succeeded by the abundant, drooping fruit. 



Bark. Bark of trunk and branches deep reddish-brown or 

 dark green, conspicuously striped longitudinally with pale and 

 blackish bands ; roughish with light buff, irregular dots ; the 

 younger branches marked with oval leaf -scars and the linear 

 scars of the leaf -scales ; the season's shoots smooth, light green, 

 mottled with black. 



In spring the bark of the small branches is easily separable, 

 giving rise to the name " whistlewood." 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Terminal bud long, short-stalked, 

 obscurely 4-sided, tapering to a blunt tip ; lateral buds small 

 and flat ; opening foliage roseate. Leaves simple, opposite ; 

 5-6 inches long and nearly as broad ; the upper leaves much 

 narrower ; when fully grown light green above, paler beneath, 

 finally nearly glabrous, yellow in autumn, divided above 

 the center into three deep acuminate lobes, finely, sharply, 

 and usually doubly serrate ; base heart-shaped, truncate, or 

 rounded; leafstalks 1-3 inches long, grooved, the enlarged 

 base including the leaf-buds of the next season. 



Inflorescence. In simple, drooping racemes, often 5-6 inches 

 long, appearing after the leaves in late May or early June ; 

 the sterile and fertile flowers mostly in separate racemes on 

 the same tree ; the bell-shaped flowers on slender pedicels ; 

 petals and sepals greenish-yellow; sepals narrowly oblong, 

 somewhat shorter than the obovate petals; stamens usually 8, 

 shorter than the petals in the sterile flower, rudimentary in the 

 fertile, the pistil abortive or none in the sterile flower, in the 

 fertile terminating in a recurved stigma. 



