Coffee Tree of North America, 299 



less, and the rest very regular ; the terminal branches of large 

 size, and the branches but few in number. 



It is a native of Canada (Upper and Lower), the Gennessee 

 country, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and all along the Ohio 

 and Illinois rivers. It is called by the French Gros Fevier 

 (bean tree), from the size and shape of its pods ; and Chicot 

 (stump tree), from the dead appearance of the tree in winter. 

 It is also called coffee tree, from its seeds being burnt and 

 used as a substitute for coffee ; though they form rather a poor 

 one, as the coffee made from them is very rank and bitter. 



Some trees of the Gymnocladus are barren, and others fer- 

 tile; and I see that Browne notices a peculiarity which I have 

 ever observed, that of the epidermis, which is entirely rough, 

 detaching itself in small hard transverse strips rolled back- 

 wards at the ends, and projecting from the tree, so as easily 

 to distinguish it from other trees. 



I saw, in July last, on the borders of Lake Ontario, a beau- 

 tiful specimen of the Gymnocladus canadensis, measuring 

 53 ft. high and 16J in. in diameter. It had not a single branch 

 on it up to the height of 19 ft.; but the summit formed a 

 perfect mass of tufted foliage interspersed v/ith the white blos- 

 soms, which were then nearly out of bloom. I have now 

 twelve or fourteen young trees, which, in the spring, I shall send 

 to England and Scotland, and am confident that the Gymno- 

 cladus will not be thought the least ornamental tree which you 

 could recommend to your friends. — I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



Montreal, Nov. 1. 1832. A. P. Hart. 



Many of our gardening friends have seen the leaf of the Gymnocladus 

 canadensis, which, although not especially remarkable in the figure of its 

 leaflets (see the Encyclopcedia of Plants^ p. 842. fig. 13987.), is so in its 

 triply pinnate structure and bough-like amplitude, as scarcely a yard square 

 would include its extreme points. The legume, of which we possess a 

 specimen, received on August 27. 1832., from Mrs. Seaton of Washington, 

 is 5|in. in length, and nearly 2 in. (1|^) in breadth : it is of a red brown 

 colour, smooth even to a slight degree of polish, but uneven here and there, 

 from the prominence of nerves, which rise at the under edge of the legume, 

 and pass across to the upper edge, and are branched in their progress : 

 the under edge is straight, the upper curved convexly. The legume, to- 

 wards its under edge, is compressed flat, but towards the upper edge a 

 little tumid from the seeds within, which are affixed to the upper edge by 

 a white stoutish funiculus f of an inch in length, 3 to one valve, 2 to the 

 other. Each seed is circular, nearly ^ of an inch across, and so flattened as 

 to be not more than half an inch thick, of an olive brown colour, and as 

 hard as stone. All the space within the legume, not occupied by the seed, 

 is filled with a tenacious dark brown gummy pulp, which, to the taste, is at 

 first sweet, but is followed by a bitterish slightly acrid flavour. The idea 

 of" stump tree," as applied above, seems identical with that conveyed by 

 botanists in the term Gymnocladus, from gymnos, naked, and klados, a 

 branch. G. canadensis sometimes reaches 80 ft. in height, as stated in 

 Vol. VIIl. p. 272. — J. D. 



