90 
SOREL TREE. 
gardener and amateur to overcome the difficulties which undoubtedly 
attend its propagation and transplantation.] 
SOREL TREE. 
Decandria monogynia. Linn. Ericeæ. Juss. 
Andromeda arborea. A. foliis oblongo-ovalibus, acuminat-is, denticulatis ; 
paniculis terminalibus ; corollis subpubescentibus. 
Obs. Arbor altitudinem 50-60 pedum assequens. 
This is the only species of Andromeda which rises to a sufficient height 
to be ranked among forest trees. It begins to appear on the Alleghanies 
in Virginia, and is found to their termination in Georgia. It grows also 
in the Southern States on the steep banks of the rivers that flow from the 
mountains ; but it becomes more rare in following them from their source, 
whether eastward or westward, and ceases entirely in the maritime parts of 
the Carolinas and of Georgia. 
I have nowhere seen the Sorel Tree of ampler dimensions than in the 
fertile valleys at the foot of the lofty mountains of North Carolina, particu- 
larly in those whose waters unite in the northern branch of the river Cataw- 
ba, about 30 miles from Morgantown and 300 miles from Charleston. In 
these valleys I have measured Sorel Trees which were 50 feet high and 12 
or J.5 inches in diameter. This is an extraordinary size for a tree of this 
genus, which is very numerous in the Atlantic States, and three fourths of 
whose species, to the number of eight or ten, rarely exceed 6 feet in height 
and an inch in diameter. The growth of the Sorel Tree is observed to be 
stinted in dry and gravelly lands, so that it presents itself in the form of a 
bush : as I have particularly remarked about Knoxville, where it is most 
abundant. 
The leaves of the Sorel Tree are downy in the spring, but they become 
smooth in acquiring their growth. They are alternate, oval-acuminate, 
finely denticulated, and from 4 to 5 inches long. 
The flowers are small, white, and formed into spikes 5 or 6 inches long. 
