150 



I'ace of men. Their habits of Avandering and of savage freedom 

 seemed an obstacle to anj very extensive refining or civilizing 

 results ; and whatever marked superiority "was to bo seen 

 among different tribes could be referred to more auspicious 

 climatic differences. Even these he believed had much to do 

 "vvith physical beauty, strength, &c. 



A few dried specimens of flowers brought from the Salt 

 Lake, Utah, having been previously assigned to John L. 

 Russell, he recognized among them the beautiful Calochortus 

 liiteus of Nuttall ; the bulb of which is used for food by the 

 Indian tribes around the sources of the Columbia. There were 

 two or three others unknown to him, which promised to be 

 great accessions to our flower gardens, if not already known and 

 introduced by European botanists. Mr. R., also reported on a 

 ripened fruit of the Osage orange, which he had met with, as a 

 donation to the Institute. He referred it, according to Lindley's 

 to the natural order of Moracese, or the mulberry tribe. It is 

 called by botanists Madura aurantiaca. This name was 

 assigned to it by Nuttall, in honor of William Maclure, Esq., a 

 philosopher, whose devotion to natural science, especially to 

 geology, causes him to rank with Saussure and with the other 

 earlier geologists of Europe. According to Loudon, in his Arbo- 

 retum et Fruticeium, the Arkansas appears to form its northern 

 boundary ; introduced into the gardens of St. Louis on the 

 Mississippi from a village of Osage Indians, whence its name of 

 Osage orange. As an ornamental plant the Madura stands 

 high in esteem ; its smooth, shining, glossy leaves, and vigor- 

 ous annual shoots, render it conspicuous ; but where the 

 climate admits of its bearing fruit to perfection there is super- 

 added its numerous globular, golden orange-like carpels much 

 to the admiration of beholders. Mr. C. M. Hovey speaks of 

 such a specimen, Avhich he saw at Messrs. Landreth's nurseries 

 in Philadelphia as being impressed with its appearance. Some 

 attempts have been made to introduce it into our culture as a 

 hedge plant, its straight, sharp spires rendering it desirable, 

 but our usual northern winters about Boston seem to forbid. 



