STYRACACE^— STORAX FAMILY 



SILVER BELL-TREE 



Mohrodi'ndroit caroDimnK IlaUsia Ich d/^lcra. 



A tree sometimes eighty or ninety feet in height, with a tall straight 

 trunk, short stout branches wliicli form a narrow head ; usually much 

 smaller, often in the north a shrub with stout spreading stems. 

 Roots are fibrous. Ranges from the mountains of West Virginia 

 southward to northern Alabama and Florida, westward to southern 

 Illinois and Arkansas and eastern Te.xas. 



Bark. — Red brown, with broad ridges, and surface scaly. Branch- 

 lets slender, terete, at first coated with pale tomentum, later become 

 reddish brown sometimes glaucous. In the second year the bark 

 darkens and begins to show pale longitudinal fissures. 



Wood. — Light brown, sapwood paler brown ; light, soft, close- 

 grained. Sp. gr. , 0.5628 ; weight of cu. ft., 35 07 lbs. 



Winter Buds. — Dark red, small, obtuse, hairy. Outer scales 

 drop when spring growth begins ; inner scales lengthen with the 

 growing shoot, become strap-shaped, bright yellow and sometimes 

 half an inch long. Flower-buds ovate, obtuse. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, exstipulate, four to six inches long, 

 two to three wide, oval or ovate-oblong, wedge-shaped or rounded 

 at base, obscurely serrate, abruptly contracted into long points at 

 the apex. Midrib slender, primary veins conspicuous. They come 

 out of the bud involute, bronze red, hairy above, petiole and lower 

 surface coated wilh thick pale tomentum, when full grown bright 

 green above, p.iler beneath. In autumn they become pale yellow 

 and fall late. Petioles short, stout. 



Flowers. — May, when leaves are about one-third grown. White, 

 perfect, about one inch long, borne on short, few-flowered racemes 

 or fascicles developed from the axils of the previous year's leaves, 

 subtended by bracts. Pedicles slender, drooping, downy, one to 

 two inches in length. Bracts obovate, yellow green, caducous. 



