134 ^ PBACTICAL FOKBSTEY. 



cal puiposes, where a fine, hard wood is required. The roots 

 are almost as tough and strong as a hempen rope, and it 

 requires a sharp spade to cut them in transplanting. I am 

 reminded of this characteristic of the roots, from the fact that 

 about twenty-five years ago I sent to Kentucky, where this 

 tree is most abundant, and secured two pounds of the seed, 

 from which I raised several thousand trees. After transplant- 

 ing them once or twice, and they had reached a higbt of 

 three or four feet, I offered them free to my neighbors, any one 

 who would accept and take up few or many ; but as very 

 few persons were acquainted with the trees, I only succeeded in 

 distributing a smaU number, and the remainder were dug up 

 and burned. One of this lot is now growing on my lawn, and it 

 is a noble specimen, and not excelled by any tree in my grounds. 

 When planted in a forest, it wiU grow tail and straight. It 

 deserves to be far better known and more extensively cultivated 

 than it has been. Native of Kentucky and Tennessee, but not 

 abundant. 



€• ainnreiisis, Bentham and Hooker. — This is an Oriental spe- 

 cies, which has been introduced into this country, and is a free 

 grower and quite hardy. 



CLiFTONiA, Banks. — Buckwheat Tree. 



A small tree or shrub, the Myloearpwm, of WDldenow. Only 

 one species, the 



Cllftonia lignstrina -Buck wheat Tree. — ^Leaves evergreen,oblong, 

 smooth, and somewhat glaucous. Flowers white, fragrant, in 

 racemes two to four inches long, appearing in March and April. 

 A tree sometimes twenty feet high, along the borders of 

 streams in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Propagated from 

 seed, layers, or green cuttings, in a propagating house. 



C.LUSIA. — Balsam Tree. 



A genus of tropical trees or shrubs with resinous yellow 

 juice and rough evergreen opposite leaves. Fruit of some of 

 the species edible, only one native of the United States. 



Clnsia flava, Linn. — Balsam Tree. — ^Leaves with short stalks 

 obovate, finely veined. Flowers polygamous, single, or in threes, 

 on short axillary or terminal peduncles, yeUow. Fruit pear- 

 shaped, containing about a dozen seeds, imbedded in a soft 

 pulp. A small tree about thirty feet high in Southern Florida, 

 and the West Indies. 



