A-PPEisTDIX M. 
i 
Saint Louis, December 31, 1860. 
Dear Sir: Warn of time has prevented me fully to elaborate the very rich 
botanical material brought together, under your orders, by my brother, Henry Engel- 
mann, the geologist and meteorologist of your expedition. 
I herewith inclose to you an account of a few species, which seem to have a par¬ 
ticular, and principally a practical, interest. 
I expect to continue my investigations, and hope 'to submit them, through you, to 
the scientific public at a future period. 
Very respectfuly, &c., 
George Engelmann. 
Capt. J. II. Simpson, 
Topographical Engineers , U. 8. A., Commanding Expedition. 
ROSACEA 
Jr m 
CercocArpuS LEpiFOLius, Nuttall in Torrey and Gray's Fl N. Am. 1, p^^KJnnd in 
Ms continuation of Michauds Sylva , 2, p. 28, t. 51; Hooher , i. c. pi. t. 324; Mountain - 
Mahogany of the inhabitants of UtaTl. , 
This small evergreen tree is so well described by Nuttall in both works mentioned 
that not much remains to be added. His figure, however, is not a very faithful repre¬ 
sentation. He says that it grows much like a peach-tree, at most 15 feet high, and 
that the trunk is sometimes as much as a foot in diameter. On the expedition, it Was 
found to grow rarely as a tree, but usually branching from the base, or several stems 
from one root; its height was from 8-15 feet, and the stems seen had the thickness of 
3-6, or, at most, 10 inches. The bark is light gray, tough, smoothish, with superficial 
longitudinal wrinkles and short transverse scars. The wood is hard, heavy, very close- 
grained, light reddish-brown, with white sap; medullary rays very numerous, but 
extremely fine, scarcely visible with the naked eye; the wood is similar to cherry-wood, 
but harder and heavier. A specimen before me has a diameter of 16 lines, 14 lines of 
which are wood, showing 24 annual rings, so that each ring has a thickness of not 
much more than \ line. The shoots, or longer branches, have a white, smooth bark, 
with joints or internodes of about 1 inch in length. The leaves, however, /ire usually 
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Missouri 
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copyright reserved 
Garden 
