FOKEST TREES. 



231 



is quite showy. Fruit ovoid, bright red, pulp very acid, but is 

 sometimes used as a substitute for cranberries. This is the par- 

 ent of the well known Guelder Rose or Snowball of gardens, in 

 which the flowers are all sterile. A handsome large shrub, 

 sometimes twenty feet high in swamps in the Northern States, 

 and westward extending to the Pacific Coast in Oregon and 

 northward. The remaining indigenous sx)ecies are either small 

 or large shrubs, seldom over ten feet high, but interesting orna- 

 mental plants. 



XAKTHOXYLUM^ Liiiii. — Prichly Ash, 



A large genus, the species mostly tropical or sub-tropical ever- 

 green trees or shrubs, with minute monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers,with unequally pinnate leaves, and branches armed with 

 prickles or strong spmes. Bark, leaves and fruit usually 

 pungent and aromatic. The fruit of bne or two Asiatic species 

 is used in China and Japan as an antidote for nearly all kinds 

 of poisons, and one as a substitute for pepper. We have four 

 indigenous species. 



Xanthoxylum Caribseumj Lam. — Satin Wood. — Branches and 

 leaf -stalks unarmed ; leaflets five to seven, ovate-lanceolate, on 

 the fertile plant, and elliptical, obtuse, or emarginate on the 

 sterile. Seed solitary, obovate, black and shining. Said to have 

 been discovered at Key West, Florida, by Dr. Blodget, and to 

 be a large and common tree in that region. 



X. ClaTa-HercnIiSj Linn. — Tooth-ache Tree, Prickly Ash. — 

 Branches and leaf-stalks armed with long prickles. Leaves 

 alternate, seven to nine f oliolate ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, cre- 

 nate, sliining above ; panicles terminal. Fruit rather downy, 

 containing black seed. A small tree, about twenty feet high 

 in Southern Virginia to Florida, but in the West Indies it 

 grows forty or more feet high. Wood yellow, close-grained, 

 and according to Sloane, has the aromatic odor of Sandal- wood. 

 The leaves, bark and fruit have a pungent aromatic taste. 



X. Pterota, H., B., K. — Bastard Iron Wood. — Branches very 

 crooked, armed with short, curved spines, and the leaf-stalks 

 winged and jointed. Leaflets seven to nine, only one half to 

 three-fourths of an inch long ; obovate and crenate above the 

 middle. Flowers in axillary clusters. Fruit about the size of a 

 grain of black pepper, containing one smooth dark-brown seed. 

 A small shrub or tree, with very hard, yellow wood. Southern 

 Florida, west to Texas, also south to Brazil. 



