33 



* 



y 



Aurantiaca, both in habit and characters. Mr. NuttaU has overlooked the stipules, which are certainly 

 present in M. Aurantiaca, although they are very small. This interesting tree was first introduced into the 

 Gardens at St. Louis, Mississippi, from a tree transplanted from the village of the Osage Indians, and from seeJ. 

 obtained from that tree, plants were raised in the nursery of Mr. M'Mahon of Philadelphia, and thence intro- 

 duced to this country by Lord Bagot, from seeds received from the celebrated Naturalist, Mr. Correa de Serra, 

 then Ambassador of Portugal to the United States. The trees at Philadelphia have reached their full size, 

 and produce fruit annually. Lord Bagot possesses two fine trees of it, which he keeps in his conservatory. 

 Mr. Nuttall, who was very lately in this country, informed me, that it bears the winters of Philadelphia without 

 injury. It will conse(|uently readily endure our winters in the open air, a circumstance that will render it a 

 still more vahiable acquisition to the gardens of this country. Lord Bagot was so good as to give me pknts 

 of it, which are now growing at Boyton. 



I subjoin the following extract relating to this tree from " Mr. James's interesting account of the Expedition 

 to the Rocky Mountains" 



" Maclura Aurantiaca of Nuttall. — A description of this interesting tree may be seen in Mr. Nuttall's 

 valuable work, on the Genera of North American Plants, page 233, vol. ii. That description was drawn from 

 specimens cultivated in the garden of Mr. Choteau, at St. Louis, -where, as might be expected, the tree did 

 not attain its full size and perfect character. In its native wilds the Maclura Is conspicuous by its showy 

 fruit, in size and external appearance resembling the largest oranges. 



" The leaves are of an oval form, with an undi\ided margin, and the upper surface of a smooth shining green; 

 they are five or six inches long, and from two to three wide. The wood is of a yellowish colour, uncommonly " 

 fine and elastic, affording the material most used for bows by all the savages from the Mississippi to the 

 Rocky Mountains. How far towards the North its use extends, we have not been informed, but we have 

 often seen it among the lower tribes of the Missouri, who procure it in trade from the Osages, and the Pawnees 

 of Red River- The bark, fruit, &c. when wounded, discharges a copious milkj sap, which soon dries on 

 exposure, and is insoluble in water, containing, probably, Hke the milky juices of many of the Urticew^ a large 

 intermixture of coatchouc or gum elastic. Observing this property in the milky juice of the fruit, we were 

 tempted to aj)]jly it to our skin, where it formed a thin and flexible varnish, affording ns, as we thought, some 

 protection from the ticks. 



" The fruit consists of radiating, somewhat woody fibres,-terminatingln a tuberculated and slightly papillose 

 surface. In this fibrous mass, the seeds, which are nearly as large as those of a quince, are disseminated. We 

 cannot pretend to say what part of the fruit has been described, as the " pulp which is nearly as succulent as 

 that of an oran^-e, sweetish and perhaps agreeable when fully ripe." In our opinion the whole of it is as dis- 

 agreeable to the taste, and as unfit to be eaten, as the fruit of the sycamore, to which it has almost as much 



resemblance as to the orange. 



" The tree rises to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet, dividing near the ground into a number of long 

 slender and flexuous branches. It inhabits deep and fertile soils along the river valley. The Arkansa appears to 

 be the northern hmit of the range of the Maclura, and neither on that river nor on the Canadian, does the 

 tree or the fruits, attain so considerable a size as in warmer latitudes. Of many specimens of the fruit 

 examined by Major Long, at the time of his visit to Red River, in 1817, several were found measuring five 



and a half inches in diameter." 



The following is a Letter from Nr. Nuttall, dated Liverpool, April 12, 1824, containing much valuable 



information relative to this tree. 



" 1 have herewith sent you, the drawings of the Maclura, and have but little to add concerning it besides 

 what is already before the public. I have, however, since that publication seen the male flowers with which I 

 had been unacquainted. They are produced in partly sessile clusters, probably twelve or more together in a 

 very short raceme, and consist each of a four-parted greenish calix including three but more commonly four 

 stamens about the length or a little exceeding that of the ealix. 



*' The trees often attain the height of 00-feet or upwards, having very spreading branches thickly clothed 

 with a foliage of the most vivid and shining green. The flowers are very inconspicuous and nearly green 



