44 
BOTANICAL INDEX, 
THE BIG TREES OF INDIANA. 
B. WILSON SMITH, LA FAYETTE, INDIANA. 
E read with great interest the reports of the big trees and the curious 
trees of other countries and States, not once dreaming that there are those 
in our own State remarkable for size and character. 
CHESTNUT TKKES. 
In Jackson county are to lie found the largest Chestnut trees in the State. 
There are veritable giants located about three miles southeast of Seymour. I meas- 
ured one of these four years ago, which was twenty-two feet and four inches in cir- 
cumference, two feet above the ground. I estimated its height to first limb at about 
seventy feet. 
sassafras trees. 
The sassafras attains a remarkable size on the Lower Wabash. One of these, one 
mile and a half west of Springfield, the old county seat of Posey, is full three feet in 
diameter, and for more than sixty feet, clear of limbs and knots; its height, in full, 
is eighty-five feet. 
CATALPA TREES. 
In this same region and along the Wabash, the catalpa grows tall and slender, 
and in great abundance. It is used for both fence rails and posts; especially for the 
latter, and stands next to the black locust in its durability. 
SYCAMORE TREES. 
The giant tree of Indiana, as far as I know, is a sycamore in the White river bot- 
tom, not far from Worthington. It is said to be forty-eight feet in circumference, 
and has a solid trunk. At a height of twenty-five feet it branches into three or four 
limbs, one of which must be more than five feet in diameter. The tree is not quite 
round but is still quite regular. It fills the mind with awe to stand by and contem- 
plate it. It looks like a veteran come down from the ages agone. 
YELLOW WILLOW. 
The yellow willow, though common as any other tree in this latitude, does not 
usually attain a large size. Trunks two and three feet in diameter are among the 
largest, yet there is a very remarkable one on my farm in White county. I planted 
it myself— stuck a twig in the ground— in the month of April, 1848. Last summer 
I measured the tree, and its circumference was thirteen feet and four inches, and 
the extreme spread of the branches sixty-six feet. In an extensive acquaintance 
reaching through all the counties of the State but two, this is the largest yellow wil- 
low I have ever seen. 
VINCENT VAN DEB VINNE. 
On the 14th of April, 1879, died at Haarlem, at the venerable age of nearly SO 
years, Mr. Vincent van der Vinne, a florist to whom all growers and amateurs of 
Hyacinths and Tulips are greatly indebted for his raising of new sorts; so that his 
name is worthy to be mentioned. Mr. Vincent van der Vinne was born November 
22d, 1799, at Amsterdam, where he was brought up by his parents for an apothecary. 
About 1822 he gave up this career, and went into the cultivation of Flowerroots at 
Haarlem, where he soon excelled for his beautiful and true stock of late Tulips, until 
18(12, when he gave up his business. He was the renown specialist for this valuable 
article. During these forty years he raised from seed most of the best double Tulips, 
which are, or are to come, in the trade, and many sorts of Hyacinths, which have taken 
the lead of the trade, being nearly all exhibition sorts. To him we are indebted for the 
following white Hyacinths : Grandeur a Merveille, LaGrandesse, La Neige, L’inno- 
cence; among the red, Lina, Princesse Louise; among the blue, Czar Peter, de Candolle, 
Lord Melville, and Prince of Wales, certainly all together too many sorts to be all men- 
tioned. As a specimen of the great value of his novelties I may relate, that there 
were sold in the spring of 1879, twenty-one roots of the double red Hyacinth, Prin- 
cesse Louise, for the sum of £38, 8s, 5d, being nearly the highest price which was paid 
for a new Hyacinth in the last ten years. From 1862 until 1879 he enjoyed a well 
deserved rest after a busy and useful career, and had the pleasure to be respected by 
all who knew him for his stainless life. — C. E. Van Goor, Haarlem, Holland. 
