Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/846

808 made up of this species, the “bird's-eye” variety—formerly much prized for cabinet work—being there abundant. The other species of maple of less importance are the soft maple (A. dasycarpum), having a wide range, and attaining its greatest development in the valley of the lower Ohio, and the red maple (A. rubrum), also ranging from New Brunswick westward to the Lake of the Woods and south to Texas, and being largest and most abundant in the central portion of the Mississippi valley. The oaks range over the entire eastern forested region from Maine to Florida, and west nearly as far as arboreal vegetation extends. The number of species is large. The white oak (Q. alba) ranges over nearly the whole forest region of the east, reaching its greatest development along the western portion of the Appalachian belt, and in the valley of the Ohio and its tributaries. The burr oak (Q. macrocarpa) has almost as wide a range as the white oak, extending farther west and north-west than any oak of the Atlantic forests; it forms, with the scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), the principal growth of the “oak-openings” in the prairie region. The red oak (Q. rubra) has also a wide range; it extends farther to the north than any other species. The jack oak or black jack (Q. nigra) is a small tree of little value except for fuel, but widely disseminated in the west and south-west of the eastern forest region, and forming with the post oak (Q. obtusiloba) the growth of the so-called “cross timbers” of Texas. The live oak (Q. virens) is an evergreen tree of considerable value, chiefly developed along the Gulf coast and through western Texas into the mountains of northern Mexico. The chestnut oak (Q. Prinus) ranges through the Appalachian region, from Lake Champlain to northern Alabama, and west to central Kentucky and Tennessee. Its bark is used in preference to that of the other North American oaks in tanning. The ash is represented by several species. The white ash (Fraxinus americana) is of special value, and its range is very extensive, namely, east and west from Nova Scotia to Minnesota, and south-west to the extreme border of Texas. This species has its greatest development in the bottom lands of the lower Ohio valley. Towards the west and south-west it diminishes in size and importance, and is replaced to a considerable extent by the green ash (F. viridis). The range of the red ash (F. pubescens) is nearly as large as that of the white ash, except that it does not extend quite so far to the south-west. Its wood is less valuable. The chestnut (Castanea vesca, var. americana) is an important tree, with a wide range. The American chestnut is smaller and sweeter than the European. The species ranges from southern Maine west to Indiana, and south along the Appalachians to northern Alabama, attaining its greatest development along the flanks of the mountains in North Carolina. The birch is represented in the eastern forest region by several species. The white, canoe, or paper birch (Betula papyracea) reaches a higher latitude than any other tree of the American deciduous forest. It ranges south to the mountainous region of northern Pennsylvania, and west to British Columbia. The yellow or grey birch (B. lutea) is one of the largest and most valuable trees of the New England forest, ranging south along the higher portion of the Appalachians to North Carolina, and west to southern Minnesota. There are in the region several species belonging to the two genera of the Juglandaceæ, Juglans and Carya, which have a wide range, and are of importance both for their wood and for their fruit, and which also are among the most attractive ornaments of the forest. Prominent among these are the hickory (Carya alba), the butternut (Juglans cinerea), the black walnut (J. nigra), and the pecan (G. olivæformis). The pecan does not occur to the north-west of Indiana, has its greatest development in the rich bottom lands of Arkansas, and is the largest and most important tree of western Texas. The butternut occurs in New England, but is by no means an abundant tree in that region; farther west, especially in the valley of the Ohio, it attains its maximum development. The black walnut is hardly known in New England, unless on its extreme western border; but south-westward along the Appalachians and west to the Mississippi it is a tree of great value and importance. It attains its maximum development on the western slope of the southern portion of the Appalachian range and thence to Arkansas. Hardly any other wood is ever used for gunstocks. The American elm (U. americana) has a wide range, extending from southern Newfoundland to Texas and west to central Nebraska. This species is especially the tree of the river bottoms, and specimens occurring isolated in natural meadows often attain great size. The rock or white elm (U. racemosa) is a tree hardly occurring in New England, but largely developed in the region of the Great Lakes, west to north-eastern Iowa, and south to central Kentucky. Its wood is considerably denser than that of U. americana. The beech (Fagus ferruginea) occurs through nearly the whole of the eastern forest region, ranging from Nova Scotia south and south-west to Florida and Texas, and west to Missouri. The linden, lime, bass-wood, or white-wood (Tilia americana) is a tree of wide range, occurring more and more abundantly as we go west from New England through the region south of the Great Lakes into the Ohio valley, and found south along the Appalachians to Georgia. It has its maximum development towards the west and south-west

in the rich bottom-lands. The tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), called also yellow poplar and white-wood, is one of the largest and most beautiful trees of the eastern forest region. It is rare in New England, but has its maximum development from New Jersey south along the slopes of the Appalachians to Tennessee and North Carolina, and west in the Ohio valley. The genus Magnolia is represented by several species, two of which are of importance, especially for the great beauty of the tree and its flowers. These—M. glauca and M. grandiflora—like the other species of the magnolia, are pretty closely limited to the Atlantic coast and Gulf region, and the lower portion of the Mississippi valley. M. glauca, which has a variety of names, among which those of sweet bay and white laurel are most common, is found over a small area on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, and in no other place in New England,—its range being from New Jersey southward, chiefly along the coast to Florida, and west to Arkansas and Texas. M. grandiflora, called the big laurel or the bull bay, an evergreen, and one of the finest trees of the region, is pretty closely limited to the southern and south-western coast, ranging from North Carolina south to Tampa Bay, westward to south-western Arkansas, and along the Texas coast to the valley of the Brazos. There are two trees known familiarly as the locust which are of considerable importance. One is the Robinia Pseudacacia, commonly called either simply the locust or the yellow locust; the other is Gleditschia triacanthos, to which the popular names honey locust, acacia, sweet locust, and black locust are given. The former occurs naturally in the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia, reaching its maximum development on the western slopes of the mountains of West Virginia, but has been introduced and cultivated over the whole region east of the Rocky Mountains, wherever trees can be made to grow. This tree, however, over an extensive portion of the region where it was formerly cultivated has been exterminated by the attacks of the “locust borer” (Cyllene picta). The other locust, the three-thorned acacia, ranges from Pennsylvania, along the western flanks of the Appalachians, south as far as Florida, south-west through northern Alabama and Mississippi to Texas, and west from Pennsylvania through southern Michigan to eastern Kansas. It is the characteristic tree of the “barrens” of middle Kentucky and Tennessee, and attains its maximum development in the lower Ohio bottom-lands. It is widely cultivated throughout the region east of the Appalachians for shade and ornament, and for hedges. There are certain trees and shrubs in the eastern forest region of little or no economical importance, but which, especially when in flower, are highly ornamental. Of these only a few can be mentioned: the mountain ash (Pyrus americana), ranging over nearly the whole region, and much cultivated as an ornamental tree on account of the beauty of its fruit, of dark reddish or scarlet colour, and remaining long upon the branches; the sumach (Rhus glabra), a handsome shrub, from 4 to 10 feet in height and very striking both for foliage and fruit, and a very characteristic feature of the New England landscape, as seen along the borders of the forests and by the sides of country roads; the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), covering extensive areas of half-cleared forests in the hilly regions and very conspicuous at the flowering season, June and July, one of the most beautiful of all the characteristic native American shrubs; the dog-wood or cornel (Cornus alternifolia), a beautiful shrub, rising occasionally to sufficient height to be called a tree, ranging from the St Lawrence to Alabama, and in certain regions, especially in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, very conspicuous at the time of its flowering, the landscape from a distance looking as if it had been snowed upon. The red-bud (Cercis canadensis), a small tree, is a conspicuous feature of the forest in the extreme south-west, especially in southern Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and eastern Texas.

Although the forest vegetation of the eastern region is essentially deciduous in character, coniferous trees are widely spread over the whole country from Maine to the southern border of Georgia. The genus Pinus is by far the most widely distributed and most interesting of the conifers. First in value is the white pine (P. Strobus), a northern tree, having its maximum development in the region of the Great Lakes, ranging from Maine west to Lake Superior, and south-west along the Appalachians to Georgia, and attaining a height greater than that of any other species in the eastern forest region, namely, somewhat less than half that of the tallest trees in the Pacific coast belt. The most important pineries of the eastern States are in Maine, where this species occurs scattered through the deciduous forests, and where the most easily accessible trees of large size have already been pretty well thinned out; Michigan and Wisconsin are the chief pine-producing States of the western and north-western region. Saginaw Bay, on Lake Huron, may perhaps be designated as the headquarters of the north-western pine lumber industry. The somewhat less valuable southern pine (P. palustris), called also hard, yellow, long-leaved, and Georgia pine, is, in contrast with the white pine, decidedly a southern species, ranging from southern Virginia south to Florida, and south-west through the Gulf States to the valley of the Red River in Louisiana and that of the Trinity in Texas. It occurs over