58 
COMMON FRINGE TREE. 
it sufficiently common for economical purposes. Accord- 
ino- to Elliott, the root is used in form of an infusion, as a 
remedy in long standing intermittents. 
The tree presents a roundish spreading summit; the 
leaves are opposite, petiolate, oval, pointed at either end, 
entire ; green and smooth above, pubescent beneath, 6 or 
7 inches long by about 3 wide. The white flowers come 
out in pendent paniculated racemes, of which the extreme 
ramifications are usually 3-flowered. The fringe like petals 
are 8 or 9 lines long, sometimes with 6 divisions instead of 
4, and as many as 4 stamens. It grows generally in humid 
places, near swamps and streams, and bears cultivation 
extremely well. In the fine old garden of the Bartrams at 
Kingsessing, there is a tree of this species which has been 
growing nearly a century, and is now 32 inches in circum- 
ference, and about 20 feet high. 
A species very much resembling the present, the flowers 
equally loose and trichotomal, but with thick smooth coria- 
ceous leaves, according to Poiteau, inhabits the island of 
St. Domingo, and will probably be met with in East Florida. 
Plate XCVIII. 
A branch of the natural size, a . The fruit. 
