able from the sapwood of 60-80 layers of annual growth; little used except for fuel.



346



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA



Distribution. Rich moist soil on the borders of river swamps and Pine-barren ponds,
or rarely on high rolling hills; coast of North Carolina southward to De Soto County,
Florida, extending across the peninsula, and in the neighborhood of the coast through the
other Gulf states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, ranging inland to central Missis-




Fig. 3 12

sippi and to southern Arkansas, and northward on the bluffs of the lower Mississippi River
to the mouth of the Yazoo River, Mississippi; best developed and most abundant on the
bluff formation of the lower Mississippi River, and of its largest size in West Feliciana
Parish, Louisiana.

Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in all countries of temperate climate; in the
eastern United States precariously hardy as far north as Trenton, New Jersey. Numerous
varieties, differing in the form of the leaf and in the duration of the flowering period, have
appeared in European nurseries; of these, the most distinct is the variety exoniensis Loud.,
with a rather fastigiate habit and broadly elliptic leaves densely clothed with rusty tomen-
tum on the low r er surface; this variety begins to flower when only a few feet high.



4. Magnolia virginiana L. Sweet Bay. Swamp Bay.
Magnolia glauca L.

Leaves oblong or elliptic and obtuse or oblong-lanceolate, covered when they unfold
with long white silky deciduous hairs, at maturity bright green, lustrous and glabrous
on the upper surface, finely pubescent and pale or nearly white on the lower sur-
face, 4 '-6' long, l^'-3' wide, with a conspicuous midrib and primary veins; falling in the
north late in November and in early winter, at the south remaining on the branches with
little change of color until the appearance of the new leaves in the spring; petioles slender,
^'-f ' in length. Flowers on slender glabrous pedicels 2' f' long, creamy white, fragrant,
globular, 2'-3' across, continuing to open during several weeks in spring and early summer;
sepals membranaceous, obtuse, concave, shorter than the 9-12, obovate often short-pointed
concave petals. Fruit ellipsoidal, dark red, glabrous, 2' long and \' thick; seeds obovoid,
oval, or suborbicular, much flattened, \' in length.

A slender tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk rarely more than 15'-20' in diameter, with
small mostly erect ultimately spreading branches and slender bright green branchlets
hoary-pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, marked by narrow horizontal pale
lenticels, gradually turning bright red-brown in their second summer; usually a low shrub.
Winter-buds covered with fine silky pubescence, the terminal |'-f ' long.



MAGNOLIACE^



347



Distribution. Deep swamps; Magnolia, Essex County, Massachusetts, Long Island,
New York, and southward from New Jersey generally in the neighborhood of the coast to
southeastern Virginia and occasionally in North and South Carolina and Georgia; in Penn-
sylvania as far west as the neighborhood of Chambersburg, Franklin County. In the
southern states usually replaced by the var. australis Sarg., differing in the thick silky white
pubescence on the pedicels and branchlets. Leaves persistent without change of color




Fig. 3 13



until spring, elliptic to ovate, oblong-obovate or rarely lanceolate, l'-4' wide; petioles
puberulous, pubescent or tomentose.

A tree, 60-90 high, with a tall straight trunk occasionally 3 in diameter, small short
branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and branchlets usually becoming glabrous
in their second year; in southern Florida often much smaller and on the Everglade Keys
shrubby, and generally not more than 10 tall. Wood soft, light brown tinged with red,
with thick creamy white sap wood of 90-100 layers of annual growth; used in the southern
states in the manufacture of broom handles and other articles of woodenware.

Distribution. Borders of Pine-barren ponds, in shallow swamps and on rich hummocks
usually in the neighborhood of the coast; swamps of the lower Cape Fear River near Wil-
mington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, to southern Florida; common in the
interior of the Florida peninsula, and westward to the valley of the Nueces River, Texas;
ranging inland to Cuthbert, Randolph County, western Georgia, to Tuskegee and Selma,
Alabama, Tishomingo County, northeastern Mississippi, and to Winn and Natchitoches
Parishes, western Louisiana; less abundant west of the Mississippi River than eastward.

The northern form is often cultivated as a garden plant in the eastern states and in
Europe.

X Magnolia major or Thompsoniana, a probable hybrid between Magnolia virginiana
and Magnolia tripetala, raised in an English nursery a century ago, and still a favorite
garden plant, is intermediate in character between these species.

5. Magnolia tripetala L. Umbrella-tree. Elkwood.

Leaves obovate-lanceolate, narrowed at the ends, acute or bluntly pointed at apex, when
they unfold nearly glabrous above, covered below with thick silky caducous tomentum,
at maturity membranaceous, glabrous, 18'-20' long, 8'-10' wide, with a thick prominent
midrib and numerous slender primary veins; falling in the autumn with little change of
color; petioles stout, I'-l^' in length. Flowers on slender glabrous pedicles covered with
a glaucous bloom and 2'-2|' long, cup-shaped, white; sepals narrowly obovate, 5'-6' long,



348



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA



1%' wide, thin, light green, becoming reflexed; petals 6 or 9, concave, coriaceous, ovate,
short-pointed, erect, those of the outer row 4'-5' long and sometimes 2' wide, much longer
and broader than those of the inner rows; filaments bright purple. Fruit ovoid, gla-
brous, 2|'-4' long, rose color when fully ripe; seeds obovoid, %' long.

A tree, 30-40 high, with a straight or often inclining trunk rarely more than 18' in
diameter, stout irregularly developed contorted branches wide-spreading nearly at right
angles with the stem or turning up toward the ends and growing parallel with it, and stout
brittle branchlets green during their first season, becoming in their first winter bright red-
dish brown, very lustrous, and marked by occasional minute scattered pale lenticels, and
by the large oval horizontal slightly raised leaf-scars with scattered fibro-vascular bundle-
scars, brown during their second and gray during their third season; generally much smaller,
sometimes surrounded by several stems springing from near the base of the trunk and




Fig. 314



growing into a large bush surmounted by the head of the central stem. Winter-buds: ter-
minal, acute or bluntly pointed, purple, glabrous, covered with a glaucous bloom, usually
about 1' long; axillary globose, the color of the branch. Bark \' thick, light gray, smooth,
and marked by many small bristle-like excrescences. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not
strong, light brown, with creamy white sap wood of 35-40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Deep rather moist rich soil along the banks of mountain streams or the
margins of swamps, and widely distributed in the Appalachian Mountain region, but no-
where very common; valley of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania (Lancaster and
York Counties), to southern Alabama, middle Kentucky and Tennessee, and northeastern
Mississippi; in central and southwestern Arkansas; and in southeastern Oklahoma (near
Page, Le Flore County, 0. W. Stevens), extending in Virginia and North Carolina nearly
to the coast; of its largest size in the valleys along the western slopes of the Great Smoky
Mountains in Tennessee up to altitudes of 2000.

Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in northern and
central Europe.

6. Magnolia macrophylla Michx. Large-leaved Cucumber-tree.

Leaves obovate or oblong, acute or often abruptly narrowed and acute or rounded at
apex, narrowed and cordate at base, bright green and glabrous on the upper surface, silvery



MAGNOLIACE^E



,'349



gray and pubescent, especially along the stout midrib and primary veins on the lower
surface, 20'-30' long, 9'-10' wide; falling in the autumn with little change of color; petioles
stout, 3'-4' in length, at first tomentose, becoming pubescent. Flowers on stout hoary-
tomentose pedicels l'-l|' long, soon becoming glabrous or puberulous, cup-shaped, fra-
grant, 10'-12' across; sepals membranaceous, ovate or oblong, rounded at apex, much nar-
rower than the 6 ovate concave thick creamy white petals with a rose colored blotch at
base, 6'-7' long and 3'-4' wide, at maturity reflexed above the middle, those of the inner
row narrower and often somewhat acuminate. Fruit ovoid to nearly globose, pubescent,
2'-3' long, bright rose color when fully ripe; seeds obovoid, compressed, ' long.

A tree, 30-50 high, with a straight trunk 18'-20' in diameter, stout wide-spreading
branches forming a broad symmetrical round-topped head, and stout brittle branchlets
hoary- tomentose when they first appear, light yellow-green, pubescent, and conspicuously




marked during their first winter by the large irregularly shaped sometimes longitudinal
slightly raised leaf-scars with many scattered fibro-vascular bundle-scars, turning reddish
brown during their second and gray during their third season. Winter-buds: terminal,
bluntly pointed, covered with a thick coat of snowy white tomentum, If '-2' long, f'-f
thick; lateral, much flattened, brownish, pubescent, \'-\' long. Bark generally less than
I' thick, smooth, light gray, divided on the surface into minute scales. Wood hard, close-
grained, light, not strong, light brown, with thick light yellow sapwood of about 40 layers
of annual growth.

Distribution. Sheltered valleys in deep rich soil; nowhere common, and growing gen-
erally in isolated groups of a few individuals; Piedmont region of central North Carolina
to middle and western Florida, southern Alabama, southern and northeastern Mississippi
to the valley of the Green River, Kentucky; in eastern and western Louisiana; probably
most abundant in south-central Mississippi.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and in the temperate
countries of Europe; hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.

7. Magnolia Fraseri Walt. Mountain Magnolia. Long-leaved Cucumber-tree.
Leaves obovate-spatulate, acute or bluntly pointed at apex, cordate and conspicuously
auriculate at base, bright green and often marked on the upper surface w y hen young with
red along the principal veins, glabrous, 10'-12' long, 6'-7' wide, or on vigorous young
plants sometimes of twice that size; falling in the autumn without change of color; petioles
slender, 3'-4' in length. Flowers on stout glabrous pedicels covered with a glaucous
bloom and l'-l|' long, pale yellow, sweet scented, 8'-10' across; sepals narrowly obovate,



350 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA

rounded at apex, 4'-5' long, deciduous almost immediately after the opening of the
bud, shorter than the 6 or 9 obovate acuminate membranaceous spreading petals con-
tracted below the middle, those of the inner rows narrower and conspicuously narrowed
below. Fruit oblong, glabrous, bright rose-red when fully ripe, 4'-5' long, l^'-2' thick,
the mature carpels ending in long subulate persistent tips; seeds obovoid, compressed, f
long.

A tree, 30-40 high, with a straight or inclining trunk 12'-18' in diameter, often undi-
vided for half its length or separating at the ground into a number of stout diverging
stems, regular wide-spreading or more or less contorted and erect branches, and stout
brittle branchlets soon becoming bright red-brown, lustrous, marked by numerous minute
pale lenticels and in their first winter by the low horizontal leaf-scars with crowded com-
pressed fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and grayish in their second year. Winter-buds: ter-




Fig. 316

tninal, glabrous, purple, l'-2' long, ' thick; axillary, minute and obtuse. Bark rarely
more than \' thick, dark brown, smooth, covered by small excrescences, or on old trees
broken into minute scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown, with
thick creamy white sap wood of 30-40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Valleys of the streams of the southern Appalachian Mountains from south-
western Virginia and northeastern Kentucky to northern Georgia; in northern Alabama
and in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana (Laurel Hill, R. S. Cocks) ; in South Carolina east-
ward to the neighborhood of Aiken, Aiken County; probably most abundant and of largest
size on the upper waters of the Savannah River in South Carolina up to altitudes of 4000.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern states, and in the temper-
ate countries of Europe; hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.

8. Magnolia pyramidata Pursh.

Leaves obovate-spatulate, the apex usually abruptly narrow ed into a short blunt point,
auriculate at base, with more or less spreading lobes, thin, glabrous, light yellow-green
on the upper, pale and glaucous on the lower surface, particularly while young, 5|'-8^'
long, from 3i'-4^' wide, with a slender yellow midrib, numerous slender forked primary
veins and conspicuously reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, 1|'-2|' in length. Flowers
creamy white, 3|'-4' across when fully expanded; sepals oblong-obovate, abruptly nar-
rowed to the short-pointed apex, much shorter than the oblong-acuminate petals grad-
ually narrowed from near the middle to the base. Fruit oblong, 2'-2^ long, bright rose



MAGNOLIACE.E



351



color, the mature carpels ending in short incurved persistent tips; seeds ovoid, com-
pressed.

A slender tree, 20-30 high, with ascending branches, slender branchlets bright red-
brown and marked by small pale lenticels and by the small low oval leaf-scars with many
crowded fibro-vascular bundle-scars, later becoming ashy gray.




Distribution. Low rich soil in the neighborhood of streams; near Cuthbert, Randolph
County, Georgia; near Mariana, Jackson County, and Bristol, Liberty County, Florida;
valleys of the Choctawhatchee River, Dale County, and of the Pea River, Coffee County,
and near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; rare and local.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in western Europe.



2. L1RIODENDRON L.

Trees, with deeply furrowed brown bitter bark, and slender branchlets marked by ele-
vated leaf-scars and narrow stipular rings, and compressed obtuse winter-buds, their scales
membranaceous stipules joined at the edges, accrescent, strap-shaped, often slightly fal-
cate, oblique at the unequal base, tardily deciduous after the unfolding of the leaf. Leaves
recurved in the bud by the bending down of the petiole near the middle, bringing the apex
of the blade to the base of the bud, sinuately 4-lobed, heart-shaped, truncate or slightly
cuneate at base, truncate at apex by a broad shallow sinus, and minutely apiculate.
Flowers appearing after the unfolding of the leaves, cup-shaped, conspicuous, inclosed in
the bud in a 2-valved stipular membranaceous caducous spathe; sepals spreading or re^
flexed, ovate-lanceolate, concave, greenish white, early deciduous; petals erect, rounded at
base, early deciduous; filaments filiform, half as long as the linear 2-celled extrorse anthers
adnate to the outer face of the connective terminating in a short fleshy point; pistils imbri-
cated on the elongated sessile receptacle into a spindle-shaped column; ovary inserted by
a broad base; style narrowly acuminate, laterally flattened, appressed; stigmas short, re-
curved at the summit; ovules 2, suspended from near the middle of the ventral suture.
Fruit a narrow light brown cone formed of the closely imbricated dry and woody indehis-
cent carpels consisting of a laterally compressed 4-ribbed pericarp, the lateral ribs confluent
into the margins of the large w r ing-like lanceolate compressed style marked vertically by a
thin sutural line, the carpels deciduous when ripe in the autumn from the slender elongated
axis of the fruit persistent on the branch during the winter. Seeds suspended, 2 or single
by abortion; testa thin, coriaceous, and marked by a narrow prominent raphe; embryo
minute at the base of the fleshy albumen, its radicle next the hilum.

Liriodendron, widely distributed in North America and Europe during the cretaceous



352



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA



period, is now represented by two species, one in eastern North America, the other L.
chinensis Sarg. in central China.

Liriodendron, from \ipiov and devSpov, is descriptive of the lily-like flower.

1. Liriodendron Tulipifera L. Yellow Poplar. Tulip-tree.

Leaves dark green and shining on the upper, paler on the lower surface, 5'-G' long and
broad; turning clear yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, angled, 5'-6' in
length. Flowers l^'-2' deep, on slender pedicels f'-l' long; petals green conspicuously
marked with orange at base. Fruit %%'-3' long, about \' thick, ripening late in Septem-
ber and in October, the mature carpels \'-\\' long and about \' wide.

A tree, sometimes nearly 200 high, with a straight trunk 8-10 in diameter, destitute
of branches for 80-100 from the ground, short, comparatively small branches forming a




Fig. 318

narrow pyramidal, or in old age a broader spreading head, and slender branchlets light
yellow-green and often covered with a glaucous bloom during their first summer, reddish
brown, lustrous, and marked during then* first winter by many small pale lenticels and
roughened by the elevated orbicular or semiorbicular leaf-scars marked by numerous small
'scattered fibro- vascular bundle-scars, and dark gray during their third year. Winter-buds
^dark red covered by a glaucous bloom, the terminal \' long, much longer than the lateral
buds. Bark thin and scaly on young trees, becoming deeply furrowed, brown, and l'-2'
thick. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong, easily worked, light yellow or brown, with thin
creamy white sap wood; largely manufactured into lumber used in construction, the interior
finish of houses, boatbuilding, and for shingles, brooms, and wooden ware. The intensely
acrid bitter inner bark, especially of the roots, is used domestically as a tonic and stimulant,
and hydrochlorate of tulipiferine, an alkaloid separated from the bark, possesses the prop-
erty of stimulating the heart.

Distribution. Deep rich rather moist soil on the intervales of streams or on mountain
slopes; Worcester County, Massachusetts, to southwestern Vermont (Pow r nal, Bennington
County), and westward to southern Ontario, southern Michigan and northeastern Mis-
souri, and southward to Orange County (Rock Spring Run), Florida, southern Alabama,
Mississippi and Louisiana, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas; most abun-
dant and of its largest size in the valleys of the lower Ohio basin, and on the slopes of
the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee up to altitudes of 5000.

Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and in western and central
Europe.



ANONACE.E



353



XVH. ANONACE^E.

Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets marked by conspicuous
leaf-scars, and fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, conduplicate in the bud, entire, feather-
veihed, petiolate, without stipules. Flowers perfect, solitary, axillary or opposite the
leaves; sepals 3, valvate in the bud; petals 6, in 2 series, imbricated or valvate in the bud;
stamens numerous, inserted on the subglobose or hemispheric receptacle, with distinct fila-
ments shorter than their fleshy connectives terminating in a broad truncate glandular ap-
pendage; anthers introrse,.2-celled. opening longitudinally; pistils inserted on the summit
of the receptacle; ovary 1-celled; ovules 1 or many, anatropous. Fruit baccate or com-
pound. Seeds inclosed in an aril ; seed-coat thin, crustaceous, smooth, brown, and lustrous;
albumen ruminate, deeply penetrated by the folds of the inner layer of the seed-coat; em-
bryo minute; radicle next the hilum. Two of the forty-eight or fifty genera of the Custard-
apple family, confined almost exclusively to the tropics and more numerous in the Old
World than in the New, occur in North America.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Petals imbricated in the bud; ovules numerous; fruit developed from one pistil. 1 . Asimina.
Petals valvate in the bud; ovule solitary; fruit developed from several confluent pistils.

2. Anona.

1. ASIMINA Adans.

Trees or shrubs, emitting a heavy disagreeable odor when bruised, with minute buds
covered with cinereo-pubescent caducous scales, and branchlets marked by conspicu-
ous leaf-scars. Leaves membranaceous, reticulate-venulose, deciduous. Flowers, solitary
pedicellate, nodding; sepals ovate, smaller than the petals, green, deciduous; petals
imbricated in the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate or obovate-oblong, reticulate-veined,
accrescent, the three exterior alternate with the sepals, spreading, those of the interior row
opposite the sepals, erect, and much smaller than those of the outer row; stamens linear-
cuneate, densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter than the fleshy connective;
anther-cells separated on the connective; pistils 3-15, sessile on the summit of the recepta-
cle, projecting from the globular mass of stamens; ovary 1-celled; style oblong, slightly re-
curved toward the apex and stigmatic along the margin; ovules 4-20, horizontal, 2-ranked
on the ventral suture, the raphe toward the suture. Fruit baccate, sessile or stipitate, oval
or oblong, smooth. Seeds in 1 or 2 ranks, ovoid, apiculate, compressed, marked at the
base by a large pale hilum.

Asimina is confined to eastern North America. Six species are distinguished; of these
one is a small tree; the others are low shrubs of the south Atlantic and Gulf regions.

Asimina is from Asiminier, the old colonial name of the French in America for the
Pawpaw.

1. Asimina triloba Dtmal. Pawpaw.

Leaves obovate-lanceolate, sharp-pointed at apex, gradually and regularly narrowed to
the base, when they unfold covered below with short rusty brown caducous tomentum and
slightly pilose above, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower
surface, 10'-12' long, 4'-6' wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins. Flowers
nearly 2' across when fully grown, on stout club-shaped pedicels from axils of the leaves
of the previous year, l'-l|' long and covered with long scattered rusty brown hairs; sepals
ovate, acuminate, pale green, densely pubescent on the outer surface: petals green at first,
covered with short appressed hairs, gradually turning brown and at maturity deep vinous
red and conspicuously venulose, those of the outer row broadly ovate, rounded or pointed
at apex, reflexed at maturity above the middle and 2 or 3 times longer than the sepals,
those of the inner row pointed, erect, their base concave, glandular, nectariferous, marked



354 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA

by a broad band of a lighter color. Fruit attached obliquely to the enlarged torus, ob-
long, nearly cylindric, rounded or sometimes slightly pointed at the ends, more or less fal-
cate, often irregular from the imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3'-5' long, l'-l|'
in diameter, greenish-yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and October dark
brown or almost black, with pale yellow or nearly white barely edible flesh on some plants
and on others with orange-colored succulent flesh; seeds separating readily from the aril,
1' long, \' broad, rounded at the ends.

A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35-40 high, with a straight trunk rarely exceeding a
foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and slender glabrous or rusty pubescent, light




Fig. 319

brown branchlets tinged with red and marked by longitudinal parallel or reticulate narrow
shallow grooves. Winter -buds acuminate, flattened, \' long, and clothed with rusty brown
hairs. Bark rarely more than f ' thick, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored blotches,
covered by small wart-like excrescences and divided by numerous shallow reticulate de-
pressions. Wood light, soft and weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light yellow shaded with
green, with thin darker colored sapwood of 12-20 layers of annual growth. The inner bark
stripped from the branches in early spring is used by fishermen of western rivers for string-
ing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and
towns in those parts of the country where the tree grows naturally.

Distribution. Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey and western New York (Greece,
Monroe County) to the northern shores of Lake Ontario, westward to southern Michigan,