Chapter XVI: Part 16

BLACK MAPLE (_Acer nigrum_) has been by some considered a variety of
sugar or hard maple, and by others a separate species. It is as
large as the sugar maple and its range is much the same, but it is
more abundant in the western part of its range than in the East. The
name refers to the color of the bark of old trunks. If the name had
considered the bark of young twigs it would have been yellow or
orange maple, because the twigs are of that color. In summer the
peculiar drooping posture of the leaves calls attention to this
tree. However, the bark, twigs, and leaves combined are not
sufficient to set it apart, in the eyes of most people, for it
generally passes without question as sugar maple, even when it
stands side by side with that tree. It yields sugar abundantly. The
wood is a little heavier than that of sugar maple, but the
difference cannot be noticed except when the two woods are weighed.
Their uses are the same. No maker of furniture, flooring, or finish
ever protests against black maple. The tree generally prefers lower
and damper ground than sugar maple, and is often found along
streams.

SERVICEBERRY

SERVICEBERRY

(_Amelanchier Canadensis_)

This tree will never be other than a minor species in the United States, but it is not a worthless member of the forest. It belongs to the rose family, and therefore is near akin to the haws, thorns, and crabapples. The genus is found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as in the United States. Two tree species occur in this country, or, according to some botanists, three, one west of the Rocky Mountains, two east.

The serviceberry has a number of names: June berry, service-tree, May cherry, Indian cherry, wild Indian pear, currant tree, shadberry, savice, and sarvice. The northern limit of its range is in Newfoundland, the southern in Florida. It grows westward to Minnesota and Arkansas; but it is not plentiful except in certain restricted localities. It is most abundant among the ranges of the Appalachian mountains, and of its largest size toward the south. It is dispersed through forests generally, a tree or bush here and there; but it prefers the borders of forests, the brinks of cliffs, banks of streams, or some other open space where light is abundant. It prospers most in rich soil but does fairly well in ground thin and dry.

The bloom, where it occurs, is a conspicuous feature of the landscape, though generally a tree on ten or twenty acres represents the density of its stand. The white, showy bloom comes early in spring, when most trees are yet bare of leaves. Occasionally, however, the serviceberry is more abundant, and the rows and clumps of blooming trees along creek banks or about the margins of glades or other openings in the forests, look like distant snowdrifts.

The fruit is a berry a half inch or less in diameter, bright red when fully grown in early summer, and changing to purple when ripe. The seeds are brown and very small, and each berry contains from five to ten. When circumstances are favorable, the tree is a prolific bearer, the slender branches bending beneath the weight. The tree need not reach any particular size before beginning to bear. On some of the severely burned summits of the Alleghany mountains in West Virginia, 4,000 feet or more above sea level, this tree, when only two or three feet high, bears abundantly. Such trees are probably sprouts from roots of older trunks destroyed by fire. At its best, it reaches a height of forty or fifty feet and a diameter of one or possibly two feet. Trunks of largest size occur among the southern Appalachian ranges.

The wood is heavy and very hard and strong. It is liable to check and warp in seasoning, is satiny, and is susceptible of a good polish. Medullary rays are very numerous, but obscure; color, dark brown, often tinged with red. The wood is stronger, stiffer and heavier than white oak. It possesses most of the properties to make it a wood of great value, but its scarcity, and the usual small size of the trees, relegate it to the class of minor woods. Some use is made of it in turnery and for other small articles. It is frequently planted in gardens for its bloom and berries. In such situations it lacks some of the charm which it holds as part and parcel of the wildwoods where its early spring bloom is thrown against a background of leafless branches.

WESTERN SERVICEBERRY (_Amelanchier alnifolia_) is also called pigeonberry and sarvice. Its botanical name refers to the resemblance of its leaves to those of alder. Its range covers a million square miles, and the species reaches its best development on islands and rich bottom lands of the lower Columbia river. It is found as far south as California, north to Yukon territory, east to Lake Superior and northern Michigan. It is nowhere a tree of attractive size, and is usually a shrub about ten feet tall and one inch thick. Trees are sometimes thirty feet high and six or eight inches in diameter. The fruit is blue-black and sweet, and pleasant to the taste if not overripe. Indians in the northern and western range of this tree gather the berries industriously while they last, and many of the white settlers do likewise. The birds flock to the thickets for their share, and though the berries are small, the bears in the region consider them worthy of prompt and continued attention. The berries are generally a little more than half an inch in diameter, and ripen in July or August, depending on latitude. Cattle, sheep, goats, and deer find this small tree or bush a source of food. They do not object to eating the berries when obtainable, but their principal attack is on the leaves and tender shoots which afford excellent browse. Fortunately, the serviceberry is so tenacious of life that it is next to impossible to browse it to death. If eaten down to the ground, with little left but bare and barked trunks sticking up like bean poles, the roots will throw up sprouts year after year, making the service thicket a permanent browse-pasture. Fire is not able to destroy such a thicket, for, when the tops are burned off, the sprouts will quickly spring up with vigor unimpaired. As a source of food for insects, birds, beasts, and men, few trees, in proportion to size and quantity, are the equal of western serviceberry. Flowers, fruit, leaves and sprouts are all food for something.

LONGLEAF SERVICE TREE (_Amelanchier obovalis_) is by some regarded a variety rather than a species. It occupies in part the same range as serviceberry, but runs much farther north, reaching the valley of Mackenzie river in latitude 65. It is found in North Carolina and Alabama, but it is only a shrub in the extreme southern part of its range. The fruit ripens in early summer and is reddish purple. Trees are seldom more than thirty feet high and eight inches in diameter. A variety with large fruit is occasionally planted as an ornamental tree. Unless the crop of serviceberries is unusually plentiful in a locality, the most of it is eaten by birds which temporarily abandon nearly all other sources of food and give their undivided attention to the perishable harvest which must be garnered in at once or it will be lost.

NARROWLEAF CRAB (_Malus angustifolia_) is one of the wild crabapples of the United States. They are of the genus _Malus_ and the thousands of varieties of cultivated apples are derived from them, or from other species found in the old world which are very similar. They belong to the rose family. The narrowleaf crab is found from Pennsylvania to Florida and westward to Tennessee and Louisiana. It thrives best in open spaces in the forest and is often found in glades and along the banks of streams in the North, while in the South it occurs in depressions in the pine barrens. The flowers are much like those of apple, very fragrant, and in color are white, pink, or rose. When in full bloom, the tree is a beautiful object, and its odor is carried long distances. The fruit is an apple in all respects except size and taste. It is somewhat flattened, and is an inch or less across. It is fragrant when fully ripe, and many a person has been led by appearances to taste, only to meet disappointment. The flesh is hard and sour, and unfit for food in its natural state, but by cooking and artificial sweetening, it is made into preserves. The tree reaches a height of twenty or thirty feet and a diameter of eight or ten inches. It is smaller than the sweet crab. The wood is hard, heavy, light brown, tinged with red, with thick yellow sapwood. It is not put to many uses, but is occasionally made into small handles, and levers. It has been much used as stock on which to graft apples. Farmers who wanted orchards formerly dug up small crabapples in the surrounding woods and fields, planted them in an orchard, and when securely rooted, the apples of desired kinds were grafted on. If successful, the apple finally replaced the crab by spreading its own bark and wood over the entire trunk, until no part of the original stock remained visible. The sweet crab was also employed as a stock on which to graft apples.

SWEET CRAB (_Malus coronaria_) is the wild crab of the northeastern states, although it intrudes on the region to the southwest to a limited extent. It finds use in ornamental planting in the region of best growth. It is known as American crab, sweet scented crab, crab apple, wild crab, crab, American crab apple, and fragrant crab. Its range extends from the shores of Lake Erie in Canada, south through New York and Pennsylvania, along the Alleghany mountains to Alabama; west to Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. It needs moist soil for good growth and the best types are found in the lower Ohio basin. In height this tree rarely exceeds thirty feet and it is bushy, having short rigid limbs. The leaves are rounded and sharply toothed, the blossoms generally white and very fragrant; the fruit small, dry, yellow, tinged with red. The wood is heavy, not strong, heart light red, sapwood yellow. It is used for tool handles, small turned articles, and for carving and engraving.

OREGON CRABAPPLE (_Malus rivularis_) grows wild from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, southward to central California, and is of largest size in Washington and Oregon where trees are occasionally forty feet high and eighteen inches in diameter, but they are generally about ten feet high and form dense thickets. The fruit is oblong, ripens late in autumn, is greenish, or reddish, or clear lemon yellow in color, and rather pleasant to the taste. The tree grows slowly, the wood is hard, and light reddish-brown in color, and is suitable for tool handles.

IOWA CRAB (_Malus ioensis_) grows from Minnesota to Texas and is the common crabapple of the Mississippi basin. Large trees are twenty-five feet high and a foot in diameter. It is believed that this tree crosses with the common apple, and produces a variety known as the soulard apple (_Malus soulardi_). Wild apple (_Malus malus_) is a European species introduced into this country and now running wild.

MOUNTAIN ASH (_Pyrus americana_) is closely related to the crabs. It
occurs from Newfoundland to Manitoba, and southward along the
mountains to North Carolina. Trees have compound leaves, red berries
the size of small cherries, and reach a height of thirty feet and a
diameter of a foot or more. There are several forms or varieties,
among them the small fruit mountain ash (_Pyrus americana
microcarpa_) of the Alleghany mountains.

RED HAW

RED HAW

(_Cratægus Coccinea_)

This tree belongs to the rose family, and the genus _Cratægus_ consists of a large group of small, thorny trees, scattered through many parts of the world. They are known by their thorns, but comparatively few of them are known by name to the ordinary observer, and they afford a perpetual source of study, victory, and bewilderment to the trained botanist. “No other group of American trees,” says Sudworth, “presents such almost insurmountable difficulties in point of distinctive characters. It is impossible, and fortunately unnecessary, for the practical forester to know them all, and exceedingly difficult even for the specialist.” More than one hundred species of these thorn trees occur in the United States, exclusive of shrubs. Their bloom resembles that of apple and pear trees. Bees and insects swarm round the flowering trees, assisting in cross fertilization. The various species are aggressive. They force their way into vacant spaces, and their thorns protect them against browsing animals. The wood is sappy and heavy, and for most of the species it is valueless. The growing brambles, however, perform an important service in forest economy. Seeds of various valuable trees are blown by wind or carried by birds and mammals into the thickets where they germinate and get a start under the protecting shelter of the thorns. Finally the seedlings overtop the brambles, gain the mastery, shade the thorns to death, and develop valuable forests. The thorn trees shed their leaves annually. Their seeds are slow to germinate, some not sprouting until the second year. The fruit is worthless for human consumption, but some of it has a tart and not unpleasant taste. It is of many colors and sizes, depending on species.

No attempt is here made to name or to list the species. Such a list would, for most people, be a dull catalogue of names, and many of them in Latin because there are no English equivalents. A few representative species are given. The red haw, though not the most abundant, is widely distributed, and is probably as well known as any. Its range extends from Newfoundland westward through southern Canada to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, thence south to Texas and Florida. It covers one-half of the United States. In the northern part of its range the red haw is confined to the slopes of low hills and along water courses, but south in the Appalachian mountains it grows at an elevation of several thousand feet.

It has various names in different regions. It is called scarlet haw, red haw, white thorn, scarlet thorn, scarlet-fruited thorn, red thorn, thorn, thorn bush, thorn apple, and hedge thorn. The fact is worthy of note that it is well known and is clearly recognized in every region where it grows, though various names are given it.

The red haw never reaches large size. In rare cases it may attain a height of thirty feet and a diameter of ten inches, but it is usually less than half that size. Where it grows in the open it develops a round crown. The branches are armed with chestnut-brown thorns from an inch to an inch and a half in length. The bright scarlet color of the fruit gives name to the tree. It ripens late in September or in October, and at that time the tree presents a beautiful appearance. The branches frequently remain laden with fruit after the leaves have fallen.

The wood of red haw is of a high character and but for its scarcity would have wide commercial use. It is among the heavy woods of this country. A cubic foot of it, thoroughly seasoned, weighs 53.71 pounds. The tree is of slow growth and therefore the annual rings are narrow, and the wood is dense. The evenness and uniformity of the rings of yearly growth make the wood susceptible of a high polish. The medullary rays are very obscure in red haw, and for that reason the appearance of the wood is much the same, irrespective of the direction in which it is cut. In that respect it is similar to the wood of most members of the thorn family--usually being too small to be quarter-sawed. However, even if the trees were large enough, quarter-sawing would bring out little figure.

Red haw is a lathe wood. It is well suited to some other purposes, and has been used for engraving blocks, small wedges, and rulers, but the best results come from the lathe. If it is thoroughly seasoned it is not liable to crack or check, though cut thin in such articles as goblets and napkin rings. The turner sometimes objects to the wood because of its hardness and the rapidity with which it dulls tools. This drawback, however, is compensated for by the smoothness and fine polish which may be given to the finished article. Red haw checker pieces have been compared with ebony for wearing quality. In color the ebony is more handsome, and on that account is generally preferred.

Perhaps the most extensive use of red haw is in the manufacture of canes. Most of the species of thorn are suitable for that purpose on account of their weight, strength, and hardness. Red haw is not specially preferred, but is used with others. As a source of wood supply, the tree will never be important, but as an adornment to the landscape it will always be valuable, and at the same time will fill a minor place in the country’s list of commercial woods.

SUMMER HAW (_Cratægus æstivalis_) is a southern species which contributes more or less to the food supply of the people within its range. It is known also as May haw and apple haw. The flowers appear in February and March, are about one inch in diameter, and flushed with red toward the apex. The fruit ripens in May, is bright red, very fragrant, and is from half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The flesh is of a pleasant taste, and is gathered in large quantities by country people for making preserves and jelly. It is sold in town and city markets, particularly in New Orleans. The range of this thorn tree is from South Carolina and Florida, to Texas. It attains a height of twenty or thirty feet, and a diameter sometimes as great as eighteen inches. It reaches its largest size in Louisiana and Texas. It grows well on land which may be submerged several weeks in winter. The wood has not been reported for any use.

COCKSPUR (_Cratægus crus-galli_) may be taken as the type of more than twenty species of cockspur thorns growing in this country. Its other names are red haw, Newcastle thorn, thorn apple, thorn bush, pin thorn, haw, and hawthorn. It grows southwestward from Canada to Texas, and extends into Florida. The largest trees are twenty-five feet high and a foot in diameter. The fruit is dull red, half inch in diameter, ripens in September and October, and hangs on the branches until late winter. Hogs eat the fruit when they can get it, and boys utilize the small apples as bullets for elder pop guns. The thorns are formidable slender spines from three to eight inches long, strong, and extremely sharp. They were formerly used as pins to close wool sacks in rural carding mills. The many species of cockspur thorns are multiplied by numerous varieties. Fence posts and fuel are cut from the best trunks.

PEAR HAW (_Cratægus tomentosa_) is a representative of at least ten species. It is called pear haw without any very satisfactory reason, since the fruit bears little resemblance to pears. It is half an inch in diameter, dull orange red in color, and sweet to the taste, but it is of little value as food. The tree has been occasionally planted for ornament, but never for fruit. The flowers are showy. Trees at their best are fifteen or twenty feet high and five or six inches in diameter. They have few thorns and such as they have are small. The tree’s range extends from New York to Missouri, and along the Appalachian mountains to northern Georgia, and west to Texas and Arkansas. It is known in different parts of its range as black thorn, red haw, pear thorn, white thorn, common thorn, hawthorn, thorn apple, and thorn plum.

HOG HAW (_Cratægus brachyacantha_) is distinguished by its blue fruit. The name indicates that the fruit is unfit for human food but is eaten by swine. In some parts of Louisiana the dense thickets produce considerable quantities of forage for hogs. The range is not extensive, being confined to Louisiana and eastern Texas where the tree occurs in low, wet prairies. The largest specimens are forty or fifty feet high and eighteen inches in diameter. It is one of the largest of the thorns, and the best trunks are of size to make small, very short sawlogs, but it does not appear that the wood has ever been manufactured into commodities of any kind. The tree is occasionally planted for ornament.

BLACK HAW (_Cratægus douglasii_) reaches its best development on the Pacific coast where trees occur thirty or more feet in height and a foot and a half in diameter. The principal range is west of the Rocky Mountains, from British Columbia to northern California, but it extends eastward to Wyoming, and the tree is found also in northern Michigan. The fruit is black or very dark purple, is edible, and matures in early autumn, falling soon after. The heartwood is brownish-red. No use for the wood has been found on the Pacific coast.

WASHINGTON HAW (_Cratægus cordata_), also known as Washington thorn, Virginia thorn, heart-leaved thorn, and red haw, grows on banks of streams from the valley of the upper Potomac river southward through the Appalachian ranges to northern Georgia, and westward to Missouri and Arkansas. Flowers are rose-colored, the fruit ripens in the fall and hangs till late winter. Trees are twenty or thirty feet high, and a foot or less in diameter. Washington haw is frequently planted in this country and in Europe.

ENGLISH HAWTHORN (_Cratægus oxyacantha_) was introduced into this country from Europe and has become naturalized in some of the eastern states. Thirty or more varieties are distinguished in cultivation. It is worthy of note that, although the United States has more than 130 species of thorn trees of its own, with varieties so numerous that no one has yet named or counted all of them, a foreign thorn has been introduced and added to the number.

MAHOGANY

MAHOGANY

(_Swietenia Mahagoni_)

This tree belongs to the family _Meliaceæ_ which has about forty genera, all of which are confined to the tropic except _Swietenia_ to which mahogany belongs. This tree has made its way up from southern latitudes and has secured a foothold in Florida where it is confined to the islands and the most southern part of the mainland.

No attempt is here made to settle or even to take part in the disputes among dendrologists as to what mahogany is. There are said to be more than forty different trees which pass as mahogany in lumber markets. Various descriptions and keys have been published for the purpose of separating and identifying different woods which are bought and sold as mahogany. These woods grow on every continent except Europe; but those which pass as mahogany nearly all come from Africa or America. Some are well known, both as to origin and botany, while others are doubtful. Logs sometimes appear in markets and no one knows where they come from, or the species which produce them. It has been maintained that annual rings will separate true mahogany from the false--that the true has no annual rings. At the best, this evidence is only negative and is worth little, since many tropical trees show no annual rings, and yet are no kin to mahogany. Neither is it certain that true mahogany shows no yearly rings. Some trees do not, but others may. The ring, as is well known, is produced because the tree grows part of the year and rests part. In the tropics where growth is continuous, the ring may not exist, but it sometimes does exist, and thus upsets the theory. Besides, it proves little in the case of mahogany which has a range extending from south of the equator northward into the temperate zone, where there are seasonal changes. It also grows near sea level and at considerable altitudes, and elevation alone might make considerable variation in the character of the wood.

The two most important mahoganies of commerce--leaving botany out of the question--grow in Africa and in America. The most important of the African mahoganies is _Khaya senegalensis_, and of the American is _Swietenia mahagoni_. It is the latter which extends its range into the United States, and it alone will be considered in these pages as true mahogany; the status of foreign woods which pass as mahogany will not be discussed.

Leaves of the mahogany tree are three or four inches long, and an inch or more wide. They are compound, with from three to five pairs of leaflets. The tree is an evergreen and presents a fine appearance. The flowers appear in July and August, are small and cup-shaped. Fruit is four or five inches long and two or more wide. It ripens in late fall or early winter. The nearly square seeds are three-fourths of an inch long. In Florida the tree rarely exceeds fifty feet in height and two in diameter; but in tropical countries it may exceed a height of 100 and a diameter of eight or ten. The bark is thin.

The wood is practically of the same weight as white oak, but is stronger and more elastic. It is exceedingly hard, very durable, and is susceptible of high polish. Medullary rays are numerous but small and obscure. The color is rich reddish-brown, turning darker with age, but the thin sapwood is yellow. It is known in Florida as mahogany, madeira, and redwood.

The uses of mahogany are so many and so well-known that it is unnecessary to speak of them in detail. There were importations into the United States nearly three hundred years ago, and it has been coming ever since. One thing about this wood deserves mention: the price has not varied much in three hundred years. Different prices have prevailed, owing to distance from supply and differences in grade and quality; and that holds true today; but for similar grades, the prices have been remarkable for their evenness.

Florida never figured largely in the world’s supply of mahogany. At their best, the trees were neither large nor numerous, but their quality was good. Cutting of this timber ceased in Florida about three-quarters of a century ago. The islands and the small area of the mainland where the timber grew, were stripped. The logs were shipped to the Bahama islands and it is said they found their ultimate market in England. A few trees were overlooked here and there, and some that were small seventy-five years ago, have grown to merchantable size since. These have been cut, a few at a time, and the cutting is still going on. The total is now only a few thousand feet a year, and one of the markets for the logs, probably the chief market, is Miami, Florida. The logs are small, and are generally cut and brought in by negroes who find a tree now and then, cut the logs, and float them as near to market as possible, and haul them the rest of the way. The scarcity of the trees may be inferred from the fact that the average resident of south Florida, where the range of the mahogany lies, never saw one. In appearance the tree when seen at a little distance, resembles a young, vigorous black walnut tree.

CHINA TREE (_Melia azedarach_) belongs to the same family as mahogany but is of a different genus. It is not native in the United States, but has been extensively planted and is running wild. It is a forest tree in some parts of Louisiana, but is found under pure forest conditions only here and there. As such, the trunk and thin crown look like a forest grown butternut tree in Wisconsin. It is abundant in yards and along streets, where it is often called Chinaball tree. A little of the wood is used. The color resembles mahogany, but the texture is much coarser. Annual rings are clearly marked by rows of large pores, and the wood does not polish well. It is sometimes known as pride of India, which country is its native home, or it was carried there from Persia at an early date. A variety, commonly known as the Texas Umbrella tree (_Melia azedarach umbraculifera_), has been widely planted, and is known by its short trunk and dense, round crown.

SOAPBERRY (_Sapindus saponaria_), known also as false dogwood, is a species of south Florida, and is one of three soap trees in this country. It has no family kinship with mahogany, but the appearance of the trees leads some persons to conclude that they are related to the China tree. In fact, one of the species is locally known as wild China and Chinaberry. They are called soap trees because their fruit has a property which causes water to foam, and the natives of the West Indies once used it for soap. The botanical name _Sapindus_ means “Indian soap.” The tree is twenty-five or thirty feet high, and ten or twelve inches in diameter. The bloom appears in November in Florida, and the fruit ripens the following spring. The wood is heavy, rather hard, and is light brown, tinged with yellow. It reaches largest size on the Thousand Islands, Florida. Another species is _Sapindus marginatus_ which attains size similar to that of the first. It is found in southern Florida, but is not abundant. It grows as far north as the mouth of the St. John river. A third species is _Sapindus drummondi_ which has its range from western Louisiana, Arkansas, and southern Kansas, through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, to Mexico. The flowers appear in May and June, and the fruit ripens in September and October, but it hangs on the trees until the following spring. When first ripe, it is half an inch in diameter, and yellow, but when it dries it turns black. Trees attain diameters up to two feet, and heights of forty or fifty. It is commonly supposed to be the Chinaberry, by persons who judge by general appearances, but the two are not related. The wood’s appearance suggests the heartwood of ash. It probably reaches its best development in Texas where it is manufactured into boxes, crates, and even furniture, but not in large amounts. It is reputed to be a rapid grower, and it may be under the most favorable circumstances, but it is usually of rather slow growth. The wood splits readily into thin strips which are employed in making baskets for harvesting cotton. In western Texas it is made into pack saddle frames.

MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY (_Cercocarpus ledifolius_) is not a mahogany, and
is not even in the same family. It belongs to the rose family, and
is closely related to the crabapple; but since it is commonly known
as mahogany, it is proper to mention it here. Extensive
consideration is unnecessary, for the tree is not important as a
source of wood. Three species are recognized by some botanists, four
by others. All are western, and are noted for their long-tailed
fruit. The generic name refers to that feature. The seed, with its
tail, is carried by the wind, or it catches in the wool of sheep and
the hair of cattle and goats, or the feathers of birds, and is
carried far and near. The mountain mahogany sometimes is thirty feet
high, and two in diameter. It grows from 5,000 to 9,000 feet
elevation, sometimes on steep cliffs. Its range extends from Wyoming
and Montana to Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The wood
is bright, clear red, or rich dark brown. It reaches its largest
size on the mountains of central Nevada. Another species is known as
valley mahogany (_Cercocarpus parvifolius_). It ranges from Nebraska
to Oregon, and Texas to California. Its rate of growth is very slow,
and it seldom exceeds a height of thirty feet and a diameter of ten
inches. The wood is reddish-brown. A third species, called Trask
mahogany (_Cercocarpus traskiæ_) is chiefly notable on account of
its restricted range. It occurs as far as known, in a single canyon
of Santa Catalina island, off the southern coast of California. Some
of the specimens are twenty feet high and six inches in diameter. A
fourth species, or a variety, is known as short-flower mahogany
(_Cercocarpus parvifolius breviflorus_). It occurs in western Texas,
southern New Mexico and Arizona, usually at elevations about 5,000
feet above sea level where the largest trees are not more than eight
inches in diameter and twenty-five feet high.

VAUQUELINIA (_Vauquelinia californica_) belongs to the same family
as the so-called western mahoganies, that is, the rose family; but
it is of a different genus. Its range is largely south of the
international boundary, but it extends into southern Arizona where
the best development of the species occurs about 5,000 feet above
the sea on grassy slopes. It is seldom more than a bush, and the
wood is very heavy and hard, and is dark-brown, streaked with red.

BLACK WILLOW

BLACK WILLOW

(_Salix Nigra_)

The willows and the cottonwoods belong to the same family of trees, _Salicaceæ_, and the family is fairly numerous, and it has some well-defined traits of character. The quinine-bitter of the bark is ever present, but more marked in willows than in cottonwoods. Though quite unpleasant to the taste, it is harmless. The leaves never grow in pairs, and in most instances they fall early in autumn, and some without changing color. Male and female flowers are borne on different trees, and fertilizing is done by insects, often by honey bees and bumblebees. Fruit ripens in late spring, and the seeds are equipped for flight by being provided with exceedingly fine silky hairs. The wind carries them long distances. The trees generally grow in the immediate vicinity of streams or in situations where the soil is damp, but there are exceptions.

The willow family consists of two genera, one the cottonwoods or poplars, the other the willows proper. There are about seventy-five species of willow in America, twenty of them trees. Some, however, are quite small and only occasionally attain sizes which place them in the tree class. The willows are old residents of this continent. They grew in the central portion of what is now the United States in the Cretaceous age, as is proved by their leaf prints in the rocks. They have held their ground ever since, and there is no likelihood that they are about to give it up. Few species are better fitted for holding what they have. A few trees are capable of seeding a large region in a few years, and if soil and situation are suitable, reproduction will be abundant. The willows’ tenacity of life is often remarkable. It sometimes seems next to impossible to kill them by cutting off their tops. There are said to be instances in Europe where willows have been pollarded successively during hundreds of years, the crops of sprouts being used for wickerwork and other purposes. No such records exist in this country, but the willow’s sprouting habit is well known. A shoot stuck in the ground will grow, and a fence post will sprout. Many willows develop large stools, or roots, and repeatedly send up numerous sprouts, and it makes little difference how often they are cut, others will come up.

Comparatively few willows that start in life ever become trees. They are suppressed by crowding, or meet misfortunes of one kind or another which keep them small, but occasionally a tree of good size results. Willow trees are usually not old. Probably few reach an age exceeding 150 years. Large trunks, in old age, are apt to be hollow or otherwise defective, though a willow tree will live many years after much of its trunk has disappeared. A little green bark on the side, and sprouts from the stump will maintain life long after all usefulness has ceased.

Young willows are usually pliant and tough, old are stiff and brash. They range from sea level up to 10,000 feet or more; grow profusely in the wet lands about the gulf of Mexico, and likewise on the bleak coasts of the Arctic ocean. Commander Peary found willows blooming in considerable profusion on the extreme northern shore of Greenland, where they produce enough growth during the few weeks of summer sunshine to afford the muskox the means of eking out a living during his sojourn in those inhospitable regions.

The identification of willows is one of the most difficult tasks that fall to the botanists. Black willow is unquestionably the most important willow in this country from the lumberman’s standpoint. It is the common tree willow that attains size suitable for sawlogs. If a forest grown willow of large size is encountered east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, it is pretty safe to class it as black willow. There are some others which grow large, but not many. Planted willows, both large and small, may be foreign species, and white willows, which are not native in this country, but have been widely planted, and are running wild, may be occasionally found of ample size for saw timber.

Black willow’s range extends from New Brunswick to Florida, west to the Dakotas, and south to Texas, thence passing into Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It attains its best size in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, though large trees are found in other parts of its range. It is difficult to say what its average size is, for some black willows are only a few feet high and an inch or two in diameter. The largest trees exceed 100 feet in height and three in diameter. An extreme size of seven feet in diameter has been reported. It is not unusual to see willow logs three feet in diameter in mill yards in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and logs four feet in diameter are not so unusual as to excite much comment. The average sizes, however, of willow sawlogs in that region are from eighteen inches to two feet.

The wood of black willow is pale reddish-brown. When freshly cut it is sometimes purple, almost black. When sawed in lumber and exposed to the air the dark color fades. The wood is soft but firm. It has about fifty per cent of the strength of white oak, and forty per cent of its stiffness. It weighs 27.77 pounds per cubic foot; and considering its weight, it is tolerably strong and stiff.

Probably no other wood in the United States is as systematically cheated out of its just credit as this one. Many of the oaks are seldom given their proper names, but they are listed as oak in sawmill output, and thus the genus, if not the species is given credit. But willow is almost totally ignored. The United States census in 1910 credited to all the willow lumber in this country an amount less than a million and a half feet; yet a single mill in Louisiana, and not a large mill at that, cut and sold four times that much during that year. The wood was cut by hundreds of other mills, some a few logs only, others considerable quantities.

It is sold for various purposes, and much of it goes as cottonwood. In some instances it is called brown cottonwood. Probably ninety per cent is made into boxes, but it has many other uses. It is cut into excelsior, made into rotary cut veneer, and finds place in the manufacture of furniture; it is a common woodenware material; slack coopers make barrels of it; and it is turned for baseball bats.

The supply of black willow in this country is not small. It is usually found in wet situations along streams. Sometimes islands and low flats are taken possession of and pure stands result. The growth is sometimes phenomenal. Trunks may add nearly or quite an inch to their diameter per year when conditions are exceptionally favorable. Instances, apparently well authenticated, are reported of abandoned fields along the Mississippi, which in sixty years grew 100,000 feet of willow per acre.

LONGSTALK WILLOW (_Salix longipes_) sometimes grows to a height of
thirty feet with a diameter of six or eight inches. Its range
extends from Maryland to Texas, and is at its best in the Ozark
region of southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas.

ALMONDLEAF WILLOW (_Salix amygdaloides_) grows across northern
United States and southern Canada from New York to Oregon, and
occurs as far south as Missouri and Ohio, and is abundant in the
lower Ohio valley. At its best it is seventy feet high and two feet
in diameter. The wood is light, soft, and the heartwood is brown.

SMOOTHLEAF WILLOW (_Salix lævigata_) attains a diameter of one foot
and a height of forty or fifty. It is a Pacific coast tree,
occurring in California on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas
up to an altitude of 3,000 feet. It is known as black willow. The
wood is pale reddish-brown.

SILVERLEAF WILLOW (_Salix sessilifolia_) looks like longleaf willow,
and though usually a shrub it sometimes is twenty-five feet high and
ten inches in diameter. It grows from the mouth of the Columbia
river to southern California.

YEWLEAF WILLOW (_Salix taxifolia_) ranges from western Texas,
through southern Arizona into Mexico and Central America. Trees are
occasionally forty feet high and more than one foot in diameter. A
little fuel and fence posts are cut from this willow.

BEBB WILLOW (_Salix bebbiana_) is nearly always shrubby, but
occasionally reaches a trunk diameter of six or eight inches and a
height of twenty feet. Its northern limit lies within the Arctic
circle, its southern in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Arizona. West of
Hudson bay it forms almost impenetrable thickets, and in Colorado it
ascends mountains to elevations of 10,000 feet.

GLAUCOUS WILLOW (_Salix discolor_), commonly known as silver or
pussy willow, ranges from Nova Scotia to Manitoba, and southward to
Delaware, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. It is one
of the best known willows within its range, on account of its
flowers which are among the earliest of the season, and very showy.
The largest specimens are scarcely twenty-five feet high and twelve
inches in diameter.

MACKENZIE WILLOW (_Salix cordata mackenzieana_) is not abundant, and
is one of the smallest of the tree willows. It is nearly always a
shrub. Its range extends from California nearly to the Arctic
circle, where it occurs in gravelly soil on the borders of mountain
streams.

MISSOURI WILLOW (_Salix missouriensis_) is so named because it
occurs principally in Missouri, but its range extends into Kansas
and Iowa. It is occasionally forty feet high and a foot in diameter.
It is used for fence posts.

BIGELOW WILLOW (_Salix lasiolepis_) is generally called white willow
on account of its gray bark. It occurs in California and Arizona,
and at its best it is twenty-five feet high and ten inches in
diameter. Some use is made of it as fuel, where other wood is
scarce.

NUTTALL WILLOW (_Salix nuttallii_), called also mountain willow in
Montana, ranges from British America, east of the Rocky Mountains,
to southern California. Its usual height is twenty or twenty-five
feet, and its diameter six or eight inches. In southern California
it grows 10,000 feet above sea level.

HOOKER WILLOW (_Salix hookeriana_) occurs in the coast region from
Vancouver island to southern Oregon, and varies in height from a
sprawling shrub to a height of thirty feet and a diameter of one.
Little use is made of it.

SILKY WILLOW (_Salix sitchensis_), known also as Sitka willow,
ranges from Alaska to southern California. The largest specimens are
twenty-five feet high and ten inches in diameter. Trunks are largely
sapwood and are of little commercial importance.

BROADLEAF WILLOW (_Salix amplifolia_), known also as feltleaf
willow, was discovered in Alaska in 1899. The leaves are woolly. The
largest trees rarely exceed a height of thirty feet and a diameter
of six inches. Its range extends to the valley of the Mackenzie
river.

A number of foreign willows have become naturalized in the United
States. Among them is white willow (_Salix alba_), which grows to
large size, probably as large as black willow; crack willow (_Salix
fragilis_), so named on account of the brittleness of its twigs; and
weeping willow (_Salix babylonica_). The botanical name is based on
the supposition that it was this willow, growing by the rivers near
Babylon, on which the captive Hebrews hung their harps. Basket
willow is planted for its osiers in several eastern states. It is
not a single species, but a group of varieties developed by
cultivation.

HARDY CATALPA

HARDY CATALPA

(_Catalpa Speciosa_)

This tree belongs to the family _Bignoniaceæ_ which has its name from Abbé Bignon, librarian of Louis XV. About one hundred genera belong to this family, only three of which reach the size of trees in the United States. These include the catalpas, the desert willow, and the black calabash tree.

Seven species of catalpa are known, two of them occurring in the United States. Others are found in China and the West Indies. The name is an Indian word and was first heard among the tribes of the Carolinas. It seems probable that the name catalpa as applied to a tree and catawba, applied to a grape, have the same origin, and in some way refer to the Catawba Indians, a small tribe--said to be Sioux--that lived two hundred years ago in the western part of the Carolinas and neighboring regions where one of the catalpa species was first heard of by Europeans. The tree in that region is still often called catawba.

The two catalpas of this country are known to botanists as _Catalpa speciosa_ and _Catalpa catalpa_. Much confusion has resulted from attempts to distinguish one from the other. Botanists are able to clear the matter up among themselves, but the general public has not been so successful. John P. Brown, of Connersville, Indiana, specialized on catalpas during many years, and published numerous tracts, pamphlets, and books for the purpose of educating the public to the point where the differences between common catalpa and hardy catalpa could be distinguished. His labor was likewise directed toward inducing land owners to plant catalpa for commercial purposes. Due to his efforts, and otherwise, catalpa was for a time the most advertised plantation tree in this country. Some supposed that hardy catalpa was the wood which was to save the country from a threatened timber famine. Claims made for it were wide and far reaching.

The judgment of history has been--if it may be classed as a matter of history--that the tree fell short of expectation. This does not imply an inferiority of the wood itself, or a slower rate of growth than was claimed for it; but exceptional cases were interpreted as averages, and for that reason the whole situation was overestimated. When all conditions are perfect, hardy catalpa grows rapidly and grows large, but it demands nearly perfect conditions or it will disappoint. It wants ground rich enough and damp enough to grow good crops of corn, and farmers are not generally willing to put that class of land to growing fence posts and railroad ties.

The range of hardy catalpa before the species was spread by artificial planting, was through southern Illinois and Indiana, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas, western Louisiana and eastern Texas, and western Kentucky and Tennessee. Its position on the fertile banks of streams, and on flood plains subject to frequent inundation, indicates that the spread of the species was effected by running water. In that case, the dispersal of seeds would be down stream, implying that the starting place of the species was along the lower reaches of the Wabash river.

The catalpa may reach a height of 100 or 120 feet and a diameter of four feet; but few trees attain that size. The leaves are ten or twelve inches long and seven or eight wide, and are considerably larger than those of common catalpa. The flowers appear late in May or early in June, and are showy. The prevailing colors are white and purple, and the blossoms are about two inches long and two and a half wide.

The fruit is a pod from eight to twenty inches long, and the enclosed seeds are nearly an inch long, shaped like beans. The trees are prolific bearers.

The tree is known by several names in different parts of its range, including the territory where it is known only from plantings. It is called western catalpa to distinguish it from the other species found farther east and south. In Missouri and Iowa it is known as cigar tree. The name Indian bean is an allusion to the large seeds. Shawneewood is another name referring to the supposed interest of Indians in the tree. Shawnee was the name of a tribe of Indians in the Ohio valley in early times.

The wood weighs less than twenty-six pounds per cubic foot, and is soft and weak. It is rated very durable in contact with the soil, and this is one of the chief advantages claimed for it. The annual rings are clearly marked by several bands or rows of large open ducts, and the denser summerwood forms a narrow band. The medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The heartwood is brown, the sapwood lighter. In appearance, the heartwood suggests butternut, but it is coarser, and lacks the gloss shown by polished butternut. Quarter-sawing produces no figure, but when sawed at right angles to the radial lines, the annual rings are cut in a way to give figure resembling that of ash or chestnut.

The wood of this catalpa has been thoroughly tried out for a number of purposes. Furniture and finish have been made of it with varying success, and molding and picture frames are listed among its uses. It is not a sawlog tree. Statistics of lumber cut seldom mention it, though now and then a log finds its way to a mill. Efforts have been made to pass the wood as mahogany, but with poor success. The counterfeit is easily detected, since the artificial color which may be imparted to catalpa is about the only resemblance to mahogany.

In the lower Mississippi valley some success, but on a very small scale, has resulted from attempts to induce catalpa to grow in crooks suitable for small boat knees. The young trunk, after being hacked on one side, is bent and induced to grow the crook or knee. Natural crooks have been utilized in the manufacture of knees for small boats in Louisiana.

Probably ninety per cent of all the catalpa ever cut has gone into fence posts. It is habitually crooked. A straight bole is the exception; though in plantations trees are crowded and pruned until they grow fairly straight, and sometimes trunks of forest grown trees of large size are nearly faultless in their symmetry.

It was once believed in some quarters that catalpa would solve the railroad tie problem by growing good ties quickly. It must be admitted, however, that in spite of extensive plantings, the railroad tie problem has not yet been solved by catalpa.

COMMON CATALPA (_Catalpa catalpa_) originated many hundred miles outside the range of hardy catalpa, to judge by the localities in which it was first found by white men. It is supposed to have been indigenous in southwestern Georgia, central Alabama, and Mississippi, and northwestern Florida. Its range has been greatly extended by planting, and it grows in most parts of the country east of the Rocky Mountains, as far north as New England. It has been planted in many parts of Europe. Its leaves, flowers, fruit, and the tree itself are smaller than hardy catalpa. The pods hang unopened all winter. The trunks sometimes are three feet in diameter and sixty high, but are generally small, crooked, rather angular, and poor in appearance, but the leaves and flowers are ornamental. The wood is durable in contact with the ground, and its largest use has been for posts, crossties, and poles.

DESERT WILLOW (_Chilopsis linearis_) does not even belong to the willow family, notwithstanding its names, all of which are based on the presumption that it is a willow. The shape and size of its leaves are responsible for that misapprehension. The very narrow leaves may be a foot long. It is called flowering willow and Texas flowering willow. Its flowers are always emphasized when it is compared with willow, for they are totally different from the willow’s characteristic catkins. The flowers appear in early summer in racemes three or four inches long, and continue open during several months in succession. The fruit is a pod seven or nine inches long, and as slender as a lead pencil. It is this pod which gives the plainest hint of its relationship to the catalpas, for it is in good standing in the family with them. The seeds resemble very small beans with wings at each end. They are light, and the wind disperses them. The tree is a prolific seeder.