Hanhhhok nv Tkke.s ok the NoirniKEN States and Canada. 73 



Thi3 curious and rare tree has the distinc- 

 tion of lu-oducing «'ood wliich is tlie liglitcst 

 in weight of all known woods. It is a small 

 tree, only under (he most favorahle con- 

 ditions attaining the heiglit of 20 ft. with loose 

 open head of few spreading branches and trunk 

 5-(i in. in diameter. l'\'w other trees are so 

 strictly aquatic in distribution, as it thrives 

 best in permanently inundated swamps and 

 deep sloughs, where its roots are constantly 

 wet, and to visit it one nuist go in a boat or 

 wade through mud and water. Individuals 

 growing in less permanently inundated locali 

 tics, where the water supply is less constant, 

 plainly suffer the deprivation and hardly 

 grow to the height of a man's shoulder. 1 1 

 attains its largest size in the swamps which 

 border the St. Francis River of Missouri and 

 Arkansas, growing in the shade of otiier swamp 

 loving trees as the Bald Cypress, Cotton Gum. 

 Planer Tree. Pumpkin Ash, etc. Separated 

 from this locality by a long interval it apjiears 

 again in the saline marshes of the Gulf coast 

 of Florida near Appalachicola, where it was 

 first found and made known to science. Far 

 to the westward it is also found in the swam]is 

 along the Brazoa River near Columbia, Texas. 

 Tlie trunks are vested in a, smooth mottled 

 gray hark slightly fissured at their bases, 

 which are nuich swollen beneath the water lim- 

 and usually bearing a mass of dark moss ami 

 rootlets. 



The wood is of a pale lemon yellow color 

 with lighter sap-wood. It is lighter than cork 

 in weight. Inning a specilic gravity, as ri'- 

 ported by Prof. Treloase. of (I. -207. while that 

 of common cork (the bark of (^iiricii^ .<<iibrr. 

 etc.) is 0,'24O. It is occasionally used by 

 fishermen for making lloats for their nets. 

 For botanical characters see the ordinal and 

 generic descriptions, this being the only 

 species. 1 



I. I-'or L^^enus 



[.. 41J.-I 



