VALUABLE NATIVE TIMBER TREES. 65 



Indies, Guiana, Brazil, Argentina, India, Southern China, Indian 

 Archipelago, and islands of the Pacific; widely cultivated and natural- 

 ized from the Gulf Coast region to southern California, and also in 

 Mediterranean countries. 



Mesquite [Frosopis glandulosa Torr. )• 



The mesquite varies in size with conditions, attaining a height of 

 over 30 and a diameter of 2 feet in the lower Rio Grande Valley, aver- 

 aging 20 feet high and 5 to 10 inches diameter on prairies in central 

 Texas, where it has long been established, and reduced to mere switches 

 on the lower half of the Staked Plains. 



Its spread has carried some serious evils in its train, but on the 

 other hand a great deal of fencing and fuel material has been gained, 

 and a very considerable amount of forage. 



The tree is of great general utility because of the hard, heavy, 

 compact, and durable quality of the wood. It is used for posts, ties, 

 paving blocks, underpinning, etc., and is an especially good fuel. It 

 should be especially fine for cabinetwork. Other features which can 

 be merely mentioned here are its yield of gum (like gum arabic), tan- 

 nin, and nutritious bean pods. 



Range. — Widely distributed through the arid southwest (Lower 

 Sonoran zone) from about the ninety-seventh meridian in middle 

 Texas to California, Lower California, and into northern Mexico; in 

 the Andean region of South America to Chili, Argentina, and south- 

 ern Brazil; also in the West Indies. 



In Texas the mesquite has for fifty years been crowding up from 

 the southwest and overrunning the prairies to the north and eastward, 

 having passed beyond the Colorado — indeed, to the Brazos — in central 

 and southern Texas, and along the foot of the plains to Oklahoma 

 and even southern Kansas. 



Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.). 



In Texas the black gum is very abundant on low, alluvial soils and 

 even in water soaked, swampy places. The Red River bottom and 

 Sulphur Fork have areas covered with almost pure forest of black 

 gum, which attains a height of near 100 feet and a diameter of 3 to -I 

 feet. The wood is heavy, strong, soft, very tough, and hard to split 

 and work; inclined to check and not durable in contact with the soil; 

 light yellow or nearly w T hite in color. It is used for wheel hubs, rollers 

 in glass factories, ox yokes, shoes for horses in rice fields, wharf piles 

 on the Gulf coast, and soles of shoes. The black gum has scarce^ 

 come into demand in Texas yet. 



Range. — From Maine to Florida and west to southern Ontario, 

 southern Michigan, southeastern Missouri, and eastern Texas (Brazos 

 River). 



26268— No. 47—04 5 



