4 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



THE GREATER TREES OF THE 

 NORTHERN FOREST (No. 10).— 

 THE TULIP TREE (Liriodendron 

 Tulipiferd) . 



The lover of trees travelling, for the 

 first time, through the southern part of 

 the United States, could not fail to be 

 struck with the majestic aspect of the 

 Tulip trees, as they lift their heads high 

 above their surroundings in the forests 

 and mountain valleys, where the axe has 

 not yet done its fell work. In the rich 

 alluvial soil of the bottom-lands along 

 the course of the largest rivers of the 

 South ; in the deep jungle known as the 

 Dismal Swamp, and like places where 

 tree growth is almost tropical in its luxu- 

 riance, they attain their fullest size and 

 beauty. Though the Tulip tree is found 

 as far north as Vermont, and as far west 

 as Arkansas, it is in the States of the 

 middle south that it attains its largest 

 stature. It is seen to great advantage 

 along the valleys of the Kanawha and 

 New rivers in West Virginia, and there 

 are some grand specimens still standing 

 in the Valley of the Shenandoah. The 

 forests of the Wabash Valley in south- 

 ern Illinois and Indiana are noted lor 

 their great Tulip trees, and on the west- 

 ern slopes of the big Smoky Mountains 

 in Tennessee there are noble trees still 

 to be found. But the lumbermen have 

 depopulated our woodlands of these 

 giants of the forest, and it is only in 

 wild regions, far from railroads, that 

 they remain undisturbed. Dr. Ridgway 

 of the Smithsonian Institute at Wash- 

 ington, has called attention to the sur- 

 prising richness of the forest-flora in 

 the Wabash Valley. South of the mouth 



of White River he found that the num- 

 ber of native trees is 107, or more than 

 a quarter of all the trees north of Mexi- 

 co. The height attained by these Wa- 

 bash Valley trees is as remarkable as the 

 number of species in the forests. In- 

 dividuals of forty-two species reach a 

 height of 100 feet, and those of twenty- 

 one species grow to the height of 130 

 feet. Individual trees 150 feet high of 

 thirteen of these species have been mea- 

 sured. A specimen of Quercus texana, 

 the tallest of the Oaks of the Wabash, 

 measured 180 feet; and a Tulip tree 

 was 190 feet in height. A Pecan tree 

 measured 175, a Cottonwood (Populus 

 monoliferd) 170, a Burr Oak (Quercus 

 macrocarpa) 165 feet, while a Liquid- 

 ambar and a Black Oak attained the 

 height of 160 feet. The size of the 

 trunks of these trees, measured 3 feet 

 from the ground, is in due proportion 

 to their height. Thus a Plane [Platanus 

 occidenta/is) was 33^ feet in circumfer- 

 ence of trunk 3 feet from the ground. 

 A Tulip tree was 2 5 feet in girth at the 

 same distance from the ground. A 

 White Oak and a Black Walnut each 

 measured 2 2 feet in circumference, and 

 a Black Oak and Texas Oak were each 

 20 feet in girth. According to these 

 notes it will be seen that of all the trees 

 mentioned by Dr. Ridgway in these bot- 

 tom-land forests the Tulip tree was the 

 highest. This is what would most strike 

 the visitor to our southern woodlands, 

 where it sends up its columnar shafts, 

 often unbranched to the height of 20 

 or 30 feet. 



The leaves of the Tulip tree are of 

 peculiar form, They measure 3 to 6 



