72 
INDIANAPOLIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
THE TREES OF INDIANA, 
Being a statement of the Principal Indigenous Trees of the State, with some 
of their uses in the Arts and Manufactures and for Ornament and Shade. 
Submitted to the Indianapolis Academy of Sciences, 
BY THOMAS B. ELLIOTT. 
The following remarks, on a number of the most promi¬ 
nent woods of Indiana, are prepared with special reference 
to their uses in commerce and the arts, and for street plant¬ 
ing and ornamental purposes. 
So far as is practicable I have avoided technical and 
scientific description, and have endeavored to present the 
subject in a popular form. 
The commercial value of the woods of Indiana is rapidly 
appreciating. The western border of the State is the 
extreme western edge of the precious hard wood forests of 
the Mississippi Valley. Indianapolis is situated nearly at 
the geographical center of these invaluable wood lands, 
and her eleven lines of railway intersect them in every 
direction, bringing to Indianapolis, for manufacture and 
distribution, more hard wood lumber than finds a market 
at any other city of the country. The statistics of railway 
transportation show that fully twenty-five per cent, of the 
heavy freight (fourth class and lower,) of all our railways 
consists of the products of our forests, and on several of 
the roads centering here more than one half the heavy car¬ 
riage is of the various grades of lumber. Five new roads, 
