Handbook of Trees of the ISToetheejst States and Canada. 287 



The CofTee-tree, or as it is commonly called 

 the Kentucky Coffee-tree, sometimes attains 

 the height of 100 ft. and in the forests with 

 straight columnar trunk 2-4 ft. in thickness 

 covered with a. grayish bark, rough with 

 firm prominent scales. In the open it de- 

 velops a rather wide obovoid top, conspicuous 

 in summer on account of its graceful airy 

 foliage and perhaps interspersed with its great 

 brown pods. On the approach of winter its 

 manner of shedding its large bicompound 

 leaves suggested to the common mind the er- 

 roneous idea that it is shedding also its twigs 

 and its appearance then, when leafless, has 

 given rise to the name Stump-tree. It is con- 

 fined in its distribution to low rich bottom- 

 lands in company with the Black Walnut, 

 Biifikeye, Red-bud, Hackberry, Slippery Elm, 

 Honey Locust, Oaks and Hickories, but is no- 

 where abundant. Its common name, Coffee- 

 tree, is given to it because its seeds in early 

 days were used to some extent as a substitute 

 for coffee. 



The wood, of which a cu. ft. when abso- 

 lutely dry weighs 4.3.21 lbs., is heavy, stronk 

 and very durable, and is useful for posts, rail- 

 way ties, furniture, etc.- 



Leovcs lar,?p, 2-."-lt. long, with strong petioles 

 and 10-18 pinn^ each bearing 10-14 ovate mem- 

 braneous nearly glabrous leaflets. Flowers staml- 

 nate flower-clusters ."-6 in. long : the pistillate 

 10-12 in. Ions with longer pedicels. Fruit pods 

 mostly 4-10 in. Ion". li/>-2 in. broad, remaining 

 closed on the branehlets late into the winter with 

 sweet pulp and seeds ^4 in. across.^ 



1. Syn. Gymnocladns Canadcsis Lam. 



2. A. W., II, 27. 



3. For genus see p. 442. 



