NAT. 
ORDER 
Magnoliacea?. 
LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA. COMMON TULIP-TREE. 
Class XIII. Polyandria. Order III. Polygynia. 
Gen. Char. Flowers, sometimes aggregated in a four-leaved invo- 
lucrum. Calyx, four-toothed. Petals, four. Drupe, with a 
two-celled nut. 
Spe. Char. — Arborescent. Leaves, ovate, acuminate. Involucrum, 
large, with abcordate leaflets. 
This magnificent tree rises from eighty to one hundred and forty 
feet in height ; the trunk is smooth, straight, branched towards the 
top, and covered with a rough, thick, coarse, ash-colored bark ; the 
flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, and resemble the 
tulip, more than the lily or any other flower ; the petals are from six 
to twenty-seven in number ; the outer ones oblong, and the inner 
ones lanceolate ; the leaves are on petioles, large, glossy, and pandu- 
riform, or guitar-shaped. 
This is one of the largest and most beautiful of American forest 
trees. The trunk is large, and much valued for lumbering purposes, 
rising to a great height, without branches, and putting forth, about 
the middle of May, an abundance of superb flowers, marked with 
green, yellow and red streaks, which, together with its beautiful 
foliage, give to the tree a very magnificent appearance. The bark, 
which is employed in medicine, is of a strongly bitter, and slightly 
aromatic taste. According to the analysis of Dr. Rogers, it contains 
gum, resin, muriatic acid, iron, calcareous salt, gum mucus, and 
fecula. This bark has been long employed, both in domestic and 
Vol. iii.— 56. 
