66 TIMBER TREES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



The wood is light, soft, not strong, close-grained, compact, 

 unwedgeable, and light brown or nearly white in color. It is used 

 for turning, woodenware, broorahandles, and wooden shoes. The 

 roots are sometimes used as a substitute for cork for net floats. 

 The wood has only a few local uses in North Carolina. 



Oxydendron arboreum, De Candolle. 



(SOURWOOD. SORREL TREE.) 



A small tree, with pendulous branches and deeply furrowed 

 gray-brown bark, reaching a height of 60 feet and a diameter of 20 

 inches. 



It grows usually in rather dry soil, and occurs from western 

 Pennsylvania along the Alleghany mountains to western Florida 

 and Mobile bay, westward to middle Tennessee, and through the 

 northern portions of the Gulf states to western Louisiana. It 

 attains its best development in eastern Tennessee. 



In North Carolina, where it reaches a height of 50 to 60 feet 

 and a diameter- of 12 to 15 inches, it is rare (and usually a shrub) 

 in the coastal plain, not uncommon in the Piedmont plateau, and 

 most abundant in the lower parts of the mountains. It reaches 

 its largest size on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge. 



The sourwood bears seed prolifically and for the most part 

 every year. Young seedlings are usually very abundant, espe- 

 cially in rather dry woods which have been thinned. Sprouts 

 grow readily from the stump, but do not attain a very large size. 

 Trees over 10 inches in diameter are usually hollow. 



The small rounded fruit is in large loose clusters. The oblong 

 pointed leaves are acid, whence the name. The flowers and fruit 

 occur in loose drooping panicles, 7 to 8 inches long. The red win- 

 ter-buds are very small, and the flexible twigs are mahogany-red 

 in color. The sourwood has numerous lateral roots. This tree 

 is especially prized on account of the delicious transparent honey 

 made from the flowers. 



The wood is heavy, hard* very close-grained, compact, brown 

 in color ; the sapwood somewhat lighter. It takes a beautiful 



