PEA FAMILY 
Stamens.—Ten, five long and five short, free, included ; filaments 
thread-like ; anthers orange colored, introrse; in the pistillate flower 
small and sterile. 
Pistil.—Ovary superior, sessile, hairy, contracted into a short style, 
with two stigmatic lobes ; ovules in two rows. 
Frruit.—Legume, six to ten inches long, one and one-half to two 
inches wide, somewhat curved, with thickened margins, dark reddish 
brown with slight glaucous bloom, crowned with remnant of the 
styles. Stalks an inch or two long. Seeds six to nine, surrounded 
by a thick layer of dark, sweet pulp. 
When Kentucky was first settled by the adventurous pioneers from the Atlan- 
tic states who commenced their career in the primeval wilderness, almost with- 
out the necessaries of life, except as they produced them from the fertile soil, 
they fancied that they had discovered a substitute for coffee in the seeds of this 
tree; and accordingly the name of Coffee-tree was bestowed upon it. But when 
communication was established with the sea-ports, they gladly relinquished their 
Kentucky beverage for the more grateful flavor of the Indian berry ; and no use 
is at present made of it in that manner. —A. J. DOWNING. 
This is another of the solitary trees of our flora. It grows 
north as far as Montreal and south to the limits of Arkansas, 
nevertheless one may be 
a student of forest trees 
many years ere one finds 
the Kentucky Coffee-tree 
growing on its native 
hills. In pleasure 
grounds it is not uncom- 
mon, since it is often 
planted because of its 
Pistillate and Staminate Flowers of Kentucky 
Coffee-tree. 
unique appearance and 
interesting character. 
Like the Sumach it is wholly destitute of fine spray, its 
smaller branches are thick, blunt, clumsy and lumpish. 
Other trees lose their leaves but along their twigs and 
branchlets are borne the buds, the hope and the promise of 
the coming year. But the Gymnocladus seems so destitute of 
these, that the French in Canada named it Chicot, the dead 
tree. Even when spring comes it gives no apparent recog. 
nition of light and warmth until nearly every other tree is 
IIo 
