Part 57 (1/2)

MINOR SPECIES

A considerable number of trees grow in this country which, taken singly, are of small importance, but in the aggregate they fill a place which would be difficult to fill without them. Most of them are local, and are seldom heard of outside of the regions where they grow. Some are small, and for that reason are not demanded by the ordinary user of lumber; but small size is not necessarily a bar to the use of a wood. Many places may be filled by pieces too small for the sawmill. Sometimes a diminutive trunk contains material of extraordinary hardness, or it may be polished to a rare smoothness, or the colors may be exquisite.

Numerous commodities can be successfully manufactured from blocks or billets which are only a few inches in diameter and a foot or two in length. This is particularly true of some of the rare hardwoods of Florida and southern Texas where tropical species have extended their ranges northward over the borders of the United States. Some of the small trees in that group are known by name in only the immediate locality where they grow, and their qualities are scarcely appreciated even there. In some instances railroad ties are hewed from wood which is fit for the finest furniture.

It is no uncommon thing for Mexicans along the Rio Grande to warm their huts and cook their meals with fuel chopped from trunks of Texas ebony, algarita, cat's claw, bluewood, huisache, retama, and junco. Those who have traveled among the Indian rancherias of New Mexico and Utah have grown familiar with the peculiar odor filling the air in the vicinity of camp fires. It is the smoke of the rare junipers which the Indians burn for fuel; and yet it is wood of such soft tones and exquisite blending of colors that the shades of a Persian rug suffer by comparison. Among the ten thousand islands which fringe the coasts of south Florida, and also among the hummocks of the mainland, are rare trees whose wood is unsurpa.s.sed in hardness, fineness of texture, and beauty. These are not being used at all, or only as fuel to feed some fisherman's or camper's fire, or to make a smoke to drive away mosquitoes. The time will come when small and scarce woods will be sought, if they are valuable for any special purpose. In preceding pages of this book many minor species have been listed and briefly described in connection with those more important, and with which they are closely related. There are more than a hundred others which were necessarily omitted from former pages. A few of these deserve at least a brief mention, and are listed in the following paragraphs.

KBERLINIA (_Kberlinia spinosa_) is commonly considered a curiosity; a tree without a relative in the world, and without leaves, flowers, or fruit. The popular notion is wrong, of course, for no tree is without relatives, and none without leaves, flowers, and fruit, or something that takes their place. The flowers, leaves, and fruit of this tree are small and escape notice of the casual observer, but they exist. Its nearest relative in this country is the paradise tree of Florida and the ailanthus introduced from China. It has a small, th.o.r.n.y, crooked trunk; the wood is dark, turning nearly black with exposure; it is rich with oil; and it is very hard. The species grows in certain places along the Rio Grande. The wood is made into canes, rulers, knife handles, turned articles, and a little furniture of the smaller kinds. The trunks are too small for ordinary sizes of lumber.

GUM ELASTIC (_b.u.melia lanuginosa_) ranges from Georgia to Texas, and in Florida is called black haw. Children in Texas mix its berries with chewing gum, to increase the quant.i.ty, and the name which they apply to it is ”gum stretch it.” An exuded resin is also used for chewing gum.

Trees are sometimes sixty feet high and two in diameter, and a considerable number of logs go to hardwood mills, where they lose their name, and possibly appear as ash lumber, or occasionally as maple. The wood is white, tinged with yellow, and is manufactured into agricultural implements. A scarce and smaller species, known as buckthorn b.u.melia and ironwood (_b.u.melia lycioides_) covers nearly the same range. From a tree of the same family in southern Asia the gutta percha of commerce is obtained. Other woods of the same family in this country are mastic (_Sideroxylon mastichodendron_) of south Florida, a tree sometimes sixty feet high and three feet in diameter, useful for boat building; satinleaf (_Chrysophyllum monopyrenum_), also of Florida, a tree twenty-five feet high and one in diameter, the wood very heavy, hard, and strong; tough b.u.melia (_b.u.melia tenax_), ranging from South Carolina to Florida, a tree twenty feet high and six inches in diameter, called black haw in some parts of its range; saffron plum or ant's wood (_b.u.melia angustifolia_), growing in Florida and Texas, the trunk twenty feet high and six inches in diameter; wood orange colored, and the fruit sweet; bustic (_Dipholis salicifolia_), in south Florida, a tree forty feet high and eighteen inches in diameter, with wood exceedingly hard, strong, and heavy, and dark brown or red in color; wild sapodilla or dilly (_Mimusops sieberi_), a tree of south Florida with rich, very dark brown wood, height of tree twenty feet, diameter one foot.

DWARF SUMACH (_Rhus copallina_) is known by many names. It is distinguished from staghorn sumach by its smooth branches, those of staghorn being hairy. Sumach's chief importance is due to its value as tanning material. Leaves and small branches are used. The family has some well-known members in other parts of the world, among them the mangoes. The name dwarf sumach is not well selected, for the species is nearly as large as any other sumach. Trees are sometimes thirty feet high and ten inches in diameter. The tree's range extends from New England to Florida and Texas. It reaches its largest size west of the Mississippi river. In the East and North it is usually a shrub. Trees of largest size are not believed to exceed fifty years in age. The wood is richly striped with yellow and black. b.a.l.l.s turned of it, seven inches in diameter, are used for newel-post ornaments, and smaller b.a.l.l.s are made for use in darning stockings. Cups are turned on the lathe, and the bright stripes in the wood give the wares a striking appearance. It was formerly much employed for spiles in tapping maple trees for sugar making. Staghorn sumach (_Rhus hirta_) is of a different species but of the same genus. Its range extends from New Brunswick nearly to the Mississippi river. Its name refers to the down on the young branches resembling the velvet on the horns of a deer at certain seasons. The tree is known as Virginia sumach and hairy sumach. Its compound leaves are sometimes two feet long--two or three times the size of dwarf sumach's. Trunks have been reported forty feet high and more than a foot through. The uses of this wood are the same as of dwarf sumach, including tanning. It is more abundant east than west of the Alleghanies. Poisonwood (_Rhus metopium_) belongs to the same family. It is known in Florida as doctor gum, hog plum, coral sumach, b.u.mwood, and mountain manchineel. The juice is exceedingly poisonous, and gum produced by wounding the bark is reported to have medicinal value. Trees are sometimes forty feet high and two feet in diameter. The American smoke tree (_Cotinus cotinoides_) is another member of the sumach family. It is found in the southern states from eastern Tennessee to Texas. It is nowhere common, and its only reported use is as fence posts. Trees may be a foot in diameter and thirty feet high. The wood is a bright clear orange color, and a yellow dye has been manufactured from it. Poison sumach (_Rhus vernix_) is not the same as poisonwood, though sometimes the two are confounded. It is usually a shrub, and rarely twenty feet high. It is overloaded with names, as might be expected of a plant considered as dangerous as this. Among its names are poison elder, poison dogwood, swamp sumach, poison oak, poisonwood, poisontree, and thunderwood. It grows from New England to Georgia, and west to Minnesota and Louisiana. It is apt to occur in wet swamps, and Sargent p.r.o.nounces it ”one of the most dangerous plants of the North American flora.” A black, l.u.s.trous varnish can be made of the acrid poisonous juice, and this may sometime give the species a commercial value. When the skin is poisoned by contact with this tree, an effective remedy may be found in a saturated alcoholic solution of acetate of lead, if applied as a wash within an hour or two after the poisoning occurs. A wash with pure alcohol is also effective if applied within an hour. Following either treatment the skin should be thoroughly washed with soap and water.

Western sumach (_Rhus integrifolia_), a closely related California species, is a small evergreen, seldom more than twenty feet high and a foot in diameter. The wood is heavy, hard, and red, is used as fuel, and occasionally in small turnery. The fruit is a berry half an inch long.

CASCARA BUCKTHORN (_Rhamnus purs.h.i.+ana_) is of the buckthorn family, and is known by many names on the Pacific coast where the species is best developed. It grows as far east as Colorado and Texas. Cascara sagrada, its Mexican name, is often used for this tree. It is known also as bearberry, bearwood, yellow-wood, pigeonberry, coffeeberry, bayberry, and California coffee. The tree's usual size is from ten to thirty feet high and twelve to twenty inches in diameter. It is often shrubby, and is more valuable for its bark than its wood. Large quant.i.ties are peeled for medicinal uses, and many trees are thus destroyed. A little of the wood is burned as fuel, and some is made into handles. Yellow buckthorn (_Rhamnus caroliniana_), with a range from New York to Texas, and evergreen buckthorn (_Rhamnus crocea_), a California species, are closely related to cascara buckthorn, but are of comparatively little importance. Blue myrtle (_Ceanothus thyrsiflorus_) is a California species, sometimes called wild lilac or blue blossoms. It ranges in height from thirty-five feet, among the redwoods on the Santa Cruz mountains, to only one foot high on some of the wind-swept coasts. The wood is pale yellowish-brown, and is somewhat used for novelties. Tree myrtle (_Ceanothus arboreus_), often known as lilac, is also a California tree, closely related to blue myrtle, but is of smaller size and of very restricted range. Its prospective value lies more in its bloom than in its wood. Naked-wood (_Colubrina reclinata_), a Florida species, is of a kindred genus. Trees are sometimes fifty feet high and three in diameter. The wood is hard, very strong, and is dark brown tinged with yellow.

LIGNUM-VITae (_Guajac.u.m sanctum_) grows in Florida, and a species which is probably the same is found in south Texas along the Rio Grande. In Texas the tree is known as guayacon, which name has come down from the times when the Carib Indians ruled the West Indies. That was their name for the tree. The annual rings are usually too vague and too involved to be counted, but the tree is known to be of slow growth. The wood is pitted and it contains cavities and creases; but the clear wood is very hard and of fine and various colors. It is dark green, brown, black, yellow and of mixed colors, and clouded effects, all in the same block.

Small pieces of furniture, like bureau cabinets, present attractive combinations of colors. The wood is of such exceeding hardness that it turns, breaks, or batters the carpenter's tools. Candlesticks, egg cups, goblets, vases, checker pieces, dominos, boxes, trays, canes, paper knives, and souvenirs are manufactured in a small way. Trees attain a height of thirty feet and a diameter of two or more. The compound leaves adhere to the branches until those of the following season appear. The fruit is an orange-colored pod three-fourths of an inch long.

p.r.i.c.kLY ASH (_Xanthoxylum clava-herculis_). Some know this species as toothache tree, tear-blanket, sting-tongue, and Hercules' club. The wood shows little difference in color between heartwood and sap, and bears some resemblance to buckeye. It takes good polish and some of it looks like birdseye maple, but the figure does not seem to be due to advent.i.tious buds. It has been made into picture frames and looks well.

It is a rapid grower, and since its color fits it for the stencil, it might be worthy of consideration for box material. Trees reach a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of a foot or more. Its range extends from Virginia to Texas. Satinwood (_Xanthoxylum cribrosum_) is of the same genus, but it does not grow north of Florida where it is sometimes called yellow-wood. Mature trees are a foot or more in diameter and twenty-five or thirty-five feet high; wood heavy, exceedingly hard and brittle, but not strong; color light orange. It has some use as furniture material, and for certain cla.s.ses of handles which need not be strong. Wild lime (_Xanthoxylum f.a.gara_) is a similar tree, growing in both Florida and Texas, but it is of small size. Hoptree (_Ptelea trifoliata_) is another member of the family. Its fruit is sometimes subst.i.tuted for hops for brewing beer. It is known also as wafer ash, wahoo, and quinine tree; the last name being due to its bitter bark. It grows from Canada to Florida, and west to New Mexico, and seldom exceeds twenty feet in height. Baretta (_Helietta parvifolia_) which occurs as a small tree in southern Texas, is a near relative. Torchwood (_Amyris maritima_), so named because of its fine properties as fuel, grows in southern Florida, sometimes reaching a height of forty feet and a diameter of one. Canotia (_Canotia holacantha_) is a small, scarce tree of Arizona and California and has fine-grained, rich brown wood.

NANNYBERRY (_Viburnum prunifolium_), known as black haw, sloe, sheepberry, and stagbush, grows from Connecticut to Oklahoma and is usually a shrub which springs up along highways and hedges, but it sometimes reaches a height of twenty feet and a diameter of eight inches. It is valuable in some localities in the manufacture of canes and umbrella sticks. Rusty nannyberry (_Viburnum rufotomentosum_) is a similar species, but attains a larger size, and grows from Virginia to Texas. The wood may be known by its disagreeable odor. Sheepberry (_Vibernum lentago_) has a more northern range, from Quebec to Saskatchewan, and south along the mountains to Georgia.

BLUE ELDER (_Sambucus glauca_) is one of three tree elders in the United States, the others being Mexican elder (_Sambucus mexicana_) and red-berried elder (_Sambucus callicarpa_). They are ornamental rather than useful. The three species occur on the Pacific coast. The largest recorded size of an elder was forty feet high and twenty-eight inches in diameter. Its age was about fifty years.

FRINGE TREE (_Chionanthus virginica_) is known also as white fringe, American fringe, white ash, old man's beard, flowering ash, and sunflower tree. Its natural range extends from Pennsylvania to Florida and west to Texas, but it has been widely planted in this country and Europe. It is seldom more than twenty feet high and eight inches in diameter. The bark possesses medicinal value. Devilwood (_Osmanthus america.n.u.s_) belongs to the same family, but to a different genus. It grows from North Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana. The largest trunks are a foot in diameter and forty feet high. The wood is strong, heavy, hard, dark brown, and difficult to work.

BLACK IRONWOOD (_Rhamnidium ferreum_) of Florida is among the heaviest, probably is the heaviest, wood of the United States. It weighs 81.14 pounds per cubic foot, and when a hundred pounds of the wood is burned, it leaves eight pounds of ashes--the highest in ash of all woods of the United States. Its fuel value is very high. Trees are small, seldom more than thirty feet high and six inches in diameter. Bluewood (_Condalia obovata_) is a related Texas species, called also logwood and purple haw. It produces heavy, hard, close-grained wood, light red in color.

Trees six inches in diameter and twenty-five feet high are fully up to the average. Along the lower Rio Grande it forms dense, tangled thickets. Red ironwood (_Reynosia latifolia_) of southern Florida belongs to a related species, and is sometimes called darling plum, because its purple fruit is edible. The tree is small, the wood heavy, hard, strong, and of rich brown color. White ironwood (_Hypelate trifoliata_) belongs to a different family. It occurs in Florida where trees are sometimes thirty-five feet high and eighteen inches in diameter. The heavy, hard, rich brown wood is durable in contact with the ground, and is used for fence posts, handles, and boats. Inkwood (_Exothea paniculata_) is of the same family as white ironwood but of a different genus. It is also a Florida species and is known in some localities as ironwood. The tree is occasionally a foot in diameter and forty feet high, wood very hard, heavy, and strong, and bright red in color. It is used by boat builders, for wharfs, and as handle wood.

CINNAMON BARK (_Canella winterana_), also called whitewood and wild cinnamon, is a south Florida species seldom more than twenty-five feet high and ten inches in diameter. The wood is exceedingly heavy, hard, and strong, and of dark reddish-brown color. The wild cinnamon bark of commerce comes from this tree.

JOEWOOD (_Jaquinia armillaris_) grows in the Florida everglades. The dark and beautiful medullary rays of this wood may sometime make it valuable for turnery and small novelties. Trunks seldom exceed six or seven inches in diameter. Marlberry (_Icacorea paniculata_) belongs in the same family with joewood. Trunks are small, but the hard, rich brown wood is beautifully marked with dark medullary rays.

CRABWOOD (_Gymnanthes lucida_) is known chiefly by the fine canes made of it. The tree occurs in southern Florida where it is sometimes known as poisonwood. It is dark brown, streaked with yellow. Trunks more than eight inches in diameter are unusual. Manchineel (_Hippomane mancinella_) is of the same family, and occurs in Florida. The wood is light and soft.

SINGLELEAF PINON (_Pinus monophylla_). This is the only pine in this country with single needles. They are one and one-half inches long, and are curved like the old fas.h.i.+oned sewing awl used by shoemakers. The needles fall during the fourth and fifth years. The cones are one and one-half or two and one-half inches long. The trees are small, averaging fifteen or twenty feet high and eight or twelve inches in diameter. Its range covers portions of Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, but it occupies dry, sterile regions as nearly under desert conditions as can be found in this country. The tree maintains a foothold on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains at an alt.i.tude of 9,000 feet and it descends into the Colorado desert in California at an elevation of 2,000 feet. It endures winter cold below zero on the mountains, and summer temperature of 122 in the Mojave desert. It is fitted to live in a dry, sterile region. The leaves are small and the branches bear few of them.