MISCELLANEOUS USES 



Osage Orange (Madura aurantiaca, Nutt.). Its 

 native home is in the rich bottom-lands of a com- 

 paratively narrow strip of territory extending from 

 eastern Kansas and Missouri through Arkansas to 

 Texas, attaining in all that region arboreal propor- 

 tions. It is distinguished by its curious, yellowish- 

 green, rough- skinned, milky, but inedible fruits, 

 somewhat resembling half -ripe oranges. The large 

 roots and the heartwood of the tree are bright orange 

 in color, and from the former has been extracted a 

 yellow dyestuff, which has been pronounced com- 

 parable in excellence to fustic, the product of an 

 allied tree of the tropics^ The elastic, satiny wood 

 was a favorite material for bows among the Indians,^ 

 and the tree came to be known accordingly by the 

 French-Louisianians as Bois d'arc. A curious use 

 of the milky juice of the "oranges" is recorded by 

 Dr. James of the Long expedition, the members of 

 which resorted to smearing themselves with it as a 

 protection from the torment of wood-ticks. 



From Kentucky to North Carolina, the beautiful 

 Kentucky Yellow- wood (Cladastris tinctoria, Eaf.) 

 is indigenous, a smooth-barked tree with pinnate 



5 "The price of a bow made from this wood, at the Aricaras', 

 is a horse and blanket." John Bradbury's "Travels in the Interior 

 of America." 1809-11. But the Aricaras lived a thousand miles 

 from where the Osage Orange grows. 



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