TALLOW TREE. 
G3 
and so nearly resembles the black poplar in its foliage 
that it might be mistaken for it if the leaves were ser- 
rated. It is indigenous to China, where it grows on the 
borders of streams. It is now naturalized in both Indies, 
in the south of Europe, and in the southern part of the 
United States, along the sea-coast. It resembles a 
cherry-tree in its trunk and branches. The bark is of a 
whitish-grey, and soft to the touch. The branches are 
long, smooth and flexible, ornamented with leaves from 
their middle to their extremities, where they grow in a 
kind of tuft. These leaves are oval-rhomboidal, on 
longish petioles, wider than long, very entire, acumi- 
nated, green and smooth on both sides, furnished at 
their base with two very small sessile glands; before 
falling, at the approach of winter, they become red. 
The stipules are membranous and linear-lanceolate. 
The flowers are terminal, disposed in erect spikes, 
resembling catkins, which are about two inches long. 
The male flowers are numerous, very small and pedi- 
cellated, with a very short monophyllous and almost 
truncated calyx; with 2, 3, and sometimes more stamens 
having exserted filaments. The fertile flowers are in 
small numbers at the base of each spike. The capsules 
are smooth, brown, and oval, 3-lobed, divided internally 
into 3 bivalvular cells. Each cell contains a somewhat 
hemispherical seed, internally flattened and grooved, 
externally convex and rounded, covered with a some- 
what firm, white, sebaceous or fatty substance. The 
seeds remain firmly attached above by 3 threads, which 
traverse the fruit, and thus remain suspended after the 
fall of the valves of the capsule, so that the tree seems 
to be covered with clusters of white berries, which, 
contrasted with the red colour of the fading leaves, 
produces a very peculiar and elegant appearance. 
The Tallow tree, as its name implies, furnishes the 
