Handbook or Trees of the Noktheen States and Caxaha. 



40 



The Forestiera or Swamp Privet is a low 

 wide-spreading tree oeeusioiially 26 ft. in 

 heiglit and 1 ft. in diameter of trunk. It often 

 IS no more than a small shrub in stature, send- 

 ing up from the ground several crooked or in- 

 clined stems. It inhabits low banks of streams, 

 lake-shores and deep swamps subject to occa- 

 sional inundation, in company with various 

 Willows, the Button-bush, Planer-tree, Bald 

 Cvpress. Cums, Water Locusts, Water Hickory, 

 Deciduous ITolly, etc., or often occu])ying ex- 

 clusively tracts of low river banks and swamps 

 of considerable extent. Many such regions in 

 the southern states are beautified by the rich 

 green masses of its abundant foliage. 



The wood of the Forestiera is rather light, 

 a cubic foot when absolutely dry weighing 

 "9.54 lbs., hard, strong, of close grain and suit- 

 able for use in turnery. = 



Lccircs di'ciduous, oval to ovato-olliptical. 2-.T 

 in. long, about equally acuminate or acute at both 

 ends, glabrous, crenate-serrate or entire, especially 

 at base ; petioles slender, about V'j in. long. 

 Flowers in early spring, l)rfore the leaves, the 

 staminate in dense close clusters ; the pistillate 

 mostly in short panich's ; calyx wantin.g. Fniit 

 an oblong to iinpar-oblong wrinkled and pitted 

 drupe, from Vl; to % in. long, dark blue at ma- 

 turity, with coriaceous longitudinally ribbed and 

 fibrous pit.^ 



1. Syn. Ailrlia acuiniiiata llichx. 



2. A. W., V, 111. 



.'1. For genus see p. 4.".", 



