308 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
inconnu, unknown wood. In Bristol County, where it is often 
found, and whence a fine specimen of the wood was sent me by 
an attentive observer of nature, Micah Ruggles, Esq., of Fall 
River, it is called False Elm, from its strong resemblance. In 
Middlesex, it is so rare that a friend, whose eye is open to what- 
ever is curious in nature, and who showed me specimens of its 
leaves, had been unable to find any name for it among the com- 
mon people, his neighbors. It is, throughout the State, a small 
tree, seldom rising above forty or fifty feet in height, and twenty 
or twenty-four inches in diameter. 
It is said by Torrey, who gives it the name of beaver wood 
and hoop ash, to be found particularly in rocky situations, on 
the banks of rivers. Specimens of the leaves and wood have 
been sent me from the banks of the Potomac, under the names 
of sweet gum and sugar berry. Elliot says that along the 
margin of salt water, in the sea islands of Carolma, where it 
stows in light, rich soils, it sometimes attains the height of sixty 
or eighty feet, and a diameter of three or four. Michaux had 
found it in greatest vigor on the Savannah, where, in a cool 
and shady situation, he had seen trees sixty or seventy feet 
high, and eighteen or twenty mches in diameter. 
This is so rare a tree, that I have not been able.to find that 
any one is acquainted with the qualities of its wood. Michaux 
supposed, from its similarity to the European netile tree, that it 
must have the same properties. That tree, C. Australis, is 
supposed to have been the Lotus of the ancients, the sweet fruit 
of which was the food of the lotéphagi, and which Homer 
describes as so delicious, that those who ate thereof, straight- 
way forgot their native country, or lost all desire to return 
home. 
The European is a small tree, seldom fifty feet high or three in 
circumference. Its wood is extremely compact, taking a place 
between that of the live oak and the box for density and hard- 
ness. It weighs, when dry, according to Baudrillart, 70 Ibs. 3 
oz. per cubic foot. It is susceptible of a high polish, and, when 
cut obliquely across the fibres, resembles satin wood. It is used 
for making furniture, and by carvers for images of the saints. 
The branches are very supple, tough, and elastic, and are much 
