American Forest Trees Part 49

SILVERBELL TREE

(_Mohrodendron Carolinum_)

This tree belongs to the storax family, which is not a very numerous family as forest families are generally counted, but it is old and highly respectable. Its members are found in the old world and the new in both North and South America, in Europe, Asia, and the Malay Archipelago. Trees of the storax family produce, or they are supposed to produce, resins and gums, balsams, and aromatic exudations, but some give little or none. The priests and soothsayers of idolatrous nations of ancient times laid great stress on storax. They insisted on having the resin as an adjunct to their superst.i.tious rites. It was the incense offered in their worship, and they compa.s.sed sea and land to obtain it for that purpose. It is not improbable that the southern peninsulas of Asia and the far-off Molucca islands were visited in ancient times to procure the incense which ultimately found its way to the Mediterranean regions.

It is, therefore, interesting to find that two members of the old storax family are quietly living in the coast region and among the mountains of the southeastern part of the United States. No one has ever suspected that they might be capable of yielding resinous incense suitable for the altars of heathen G.o.ds. They are the silverbell tree, and its little cousin, the snowdrop tree (_Mohrodendron dipterum_). They have had common names a long time, but their botanical names are the result of a recent christening. They are named from Charles Mohr who wrote an interesting book on the flora of Alabama. The silverbell tree is the larger of the two and deserves first consideration.

It has a somewhat extensive range, but in some parts it is so scarce that few persons ever see it. It is found from the mountains of West Virginia to southern Illinois, south to middle Florida, northern Alabama, and Mississippi, and through Arkansas and western Louisiana to eastern Texas. Under cultivation, this tree is known as the snowdrop tree in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. In Rhode Island, under cultivation, it is also sometimes known as the silverbell tree, and bears the same name in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. In parts of Tennessee it is known as the wild olive tree, and in other parts of the state as the bell tree.

In various localities in Alabama it is referred to as the four-winged halesia; and in others as opossumwood. It is indiscriminately known in various sections of Texas as the rattlebox and calicowood, and some of the furniture manufacturers in North Carolina list it as box elder, though it is only distantly related to the true box elder. In the Great Smoky mountains in Tennessee, where the species reaches its greatest development, it bears a variety of names, among them being tisswood, peawood, bellwood, and chittamwood.

The tree varies in size from a shrubby form so small that it is scarcely ent.i.tled to the name of tree, up to a height of eighty, ninety, and even more than 100 feet with diameters up to nearly four feet. The largest sizes occur only among the ranges of the Great Smoky mountains in Blount, Sevier, and Monroe counties, Tennessee. No reason is known why this tree in that region should so greatly exceed its largest dimensions in other areas; but most species have a locality where the greatest development is reached, and this has found the favorable conditions in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. Some of the trees measure sixty feet or more to the first limbs.

Lumbermen of the country are not generally acquainted with silverbell, as is natural since its commercial range is so limited. It is not listed in statistics of sawmill cut or of veneer mills. The wood-using industries of the country do not report it, except in the one state, North Carolina, and there in very small amounts. Doubtless, it is occasionally used elsewhere, but it escapes mention in most instances.

It has been made into mantels at Knoxville, Tennessee, and pa.s.ses as birch.

The wood is light, soft, usually narrow-ringed, color light brown, the thick sapwood lighter. It weighs thirty-five pounds per cubic foot, and when burned it yields a low percentage of ash. The wood's chief value is due to its color and figure. Best results are not obtained by sawing the logs into lumber, because the handsomest part of the figure is apt to be lost. It is preeminently suited to the cutting of rotary veneer. By that method of conversion the birdseye and the pitted and mottled effects are brought out in the best possible manner. Veneers so cut from logs selected for the figure, possess a rare beauty which no other American wood equals. There is a pleasing blend of tones, which are due to the direction in which the distorted grain is cut. This distinguishes the wood from all others and gives it an individuality. Much of the figure appears to be due to the presence of advent.i.tious buds, similar to those supposed to be responsible for the birdseye effect in maple.

The leaves of silverbell are bright green at maturity and are from four to six inches long and two or three wide. They turn yellow before falling in autumn. The flowers give the tree its name, for they resemble delicate bells, about one inch in length. They appear in early spring when the leaves are one-third grown, on slender, drooping stems from one to two inches long. The trees are loaded throughout the whole crown, and present an appearance that is seldom surpa.s.sed for beauty in the forests of this country.

The fruit is peculiar and is not particularly graceful. It has too much the appearance of the load carried by a well-fruited vine of hops. It ripens late in autumn and persists during most of the winter. There is nothing in its color, shape, or taste to tempt birds or other creatures to make food of it, though, under stress of circ.u.mstances, they may sometimes do so. The fruit is two inches or less in length and an inch wide, and has four wings, which seem to be practically useless for flight. The seed is about half an inch long.

The bark of the trunk is bright red-brown and about half an inch thick, with broad ridges which separate on the surface into thin papery scales.

The young branches wear an early coat of thick, pale wool or hairs, light, reddish-brown during the first summer, but later changing to an orange color.

The botanical range of the species is extensive, though the tree-form is confined to a few counties among the southern Appalachian mountains. The northern limit of its range is in West Virginia where it is so scarce that many a woodsman never recognizes it. Unless it is caught while in the full glory of its bloom, it attracts no attention. It is not there a tree, but a shrub, hidden away among other growth, along mountain streams or on slopes where the soil is fertile. The blooming shrub might, at a distance, be mistaken for a dogwood in full blossom, but a closer inspection corrects the mistake.

It is true of this species as of many others that the range has been greatly extended by planting. The bell-like white flowers early drew attention of nurserymen who were on the lookout for trees for ornamental planting. It was carried to Europe long ago, and graces many a yard and park in the central and northern countries of that continent. It now grows and thrives in the United States six hundred miles northeast of its natural range, where it endures the winters of eastern Ma.s.sachusetts, blooms as bounteously as in its native haunts among the shaded streams of the Alleghany mountains.

SNOWDROP TREE (_Mohrodendron dipterum_) is a near relative of the silverbell tree, and looks much like it, except that it is smaller, has larger leaves, and the flowers are creamy-white. The two occupy the same territory in part of their ranges, but they differ in one respect. The silverbell tree grows with great luxuriance among the mountains while the snowdrop tree keeps to the low country and is seldom or never found growing naturally at any considerable elevation. It prefers swamps or damp situations near the coast. While the silverbell tree's range includes West Virginia, that of the snowdrop extends no farther north than South Carolina. It follows the coast to Texas, and runs north through Louisiana to central Arkansas. Its range has been greatly enlarged by planting, and the northern winters do not kill it on the southern sh.o.r.es of Lake Erie. The largest trees are about thirty feet high and six inches in diameter, but the growth in most places is shrubby. Leaves are four or five inches long and three or four wide.

Flowers are one inch long and are borne in profusion. They const.i.tute the tree's chief value as an ornament, though the foliage is attractive.

The bloom lasts a month or six weeks, from the middle of March till the last of April. The fruit has two wings instead of four, as with silverbell, but occasionally two rudimentary wings are present. The wood is light, soft, strong, color light brown, with thicker, lighter sapwood. The smallness of the trunks makes their use for lumber impossible. The species is valuable for ornamental purposes only, and has been planted both in this country and Europe. It has a number of names by which it is known in different localities, among them being cowlicks in Louisiana, and silverbell tree in the North where it has been planted outside of its natural range.

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SYCAMORE

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SYCAMORE

(_Plata.n.u.s Occidentalis_)

Probably no person with a practical knowledge of trees ever mistakes sycamore for anything else. The tree stands clear-cut and distinct.

Until the trunk becomes old, it sheds its outer layer of bark yearly, or at least frequently, and the exfoliation exposes the white, new bark below. The upper part of the trunk and the large branches are white and conspicuous in the spring, and are recognizable at a long distance. No other tree in the American forest is as white. The nearest approach to it is the paper birch of the North, or the white birch of New England.

Notwithstanding the tree's individuality, it has a good many names. It is generally known as sycamore throughout the states of the Union, but it is frequently called b.u.t.tonwood in Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Ontario; b.u.t.tonball tree in several of the eastern states and occasionally in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, and Nebraska; the plane tree in Rhode Island, Delaware, South Carolina, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa; the water beech in Delaware; the platane, cottonier, and bois puant in Louisiana.

Probably the finest growth of the sycamore ever encountered was in Ohio and Indiana, and these states still contain isolated patches of magnificent specimens of the wood. The Black Swamp of Ohio was originally a famous sycamore country, of which Defiance was the center of lumber manufacture. Many parts of Indiana produced a good sycamore growth, and a considerable amount of timber of excellent quality still exists, but is now largely owned by farmers who are generally holding it out of the market.

The range of sycamore extends from Maine to Nebraska, and south to Texas and Florida. It is one of the largest of American hardwoods, and in diameter of trunk it is exceeded by none. Trees are on record that were from ten to fourteen feet in diameter, and it was not unusual in the primeval forests for them to tower nearly or quite 125. In height a number of hardwoods exceed it, the yellow poplar in particular; but none of them has a larger trunk than the largest sycamores. However, the mammoths are generally hollow. The heart decays as rings of new growth are added to the outside of the sh.e.l.l. So large were the cavities in some of the sycamores in the original forests that more than one case is on record of their being used by early settlers as places of abode.

The tree thrives best in the immediate vicinity of rivers and creeks. It needs abundance of water for its roots, but is not insistent in its demand for deep, fertile soil, for it grows on gravel bars along water courses, provided some soil and sand are mixed with the gravel. Great age is doubtless attained, but records are necessarily lacking in cases where the annual rings of growth must be depended upon; because the hollow trunks have lost most of their rings by decay.

Sycamore bears abundance of light seed which is scattered short distances by wind and much farther by running water. Its ideal place for germinating is on muddy sh.o.r.es and wet flats. Here the seeds are deposited by wind and water, and in a short time mult.i.tudes of seedlings spring up. Though most of them are doomed to perish before they attain a height of a few feet, survivors are sufficient to a.s.sure thick stands on small areas. The trunks grow tall rapidly, and until they reach considerable size, they remain solid and make good sawlogs; but at an age of seventy-five or 100 years, deterioration is apt to set in; some die, others become hollow, and the result is a good stand of large sycamores is unusual. The veterans are generally scattered through forests of other species.

The statement has often been made in recent years that sycamore is becoming very scarce and that the annual output is rapidly declining.

Statistics do not show a declining output. The cut of sycamore in 1909 was approximately twice as great as in 1899. It is true that the supply is not very large, and it never was large compared with some other hardwoods; but it appears to be holding its own as well as most forest trees. The cut in the United States in 1910 was 45,000,000, and it was credited to twenty-six states. Indiana was the largest contributor, and it had held that position a long time. States next below it in the order named were Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois.

Doubtless some of the sycamore lumber now going to market has grown since old settlers cut the primeval stands when they cleared their fields. It will continue to grow, and since it usually occupies waste places, it may be depended upon to contribute pretty regularly year by year during time to come. It is one of the forest trees which have never suffered much from fires, because it grows in damp situations.

The wood of sycamore weighs 35.39 pounds per cubic foot, is hard, but not strong, difficult to split and work; the annual rings are limited by narrow bands of dark summerwood. The rings are very porous. The medullary rays are rather small, but can be easily seen without a gla.s.s.

They run in regular, radial lines, close together, and the pores are in rows between. The rays of sycamore vary from the rule with most woods, in that they are darker than the body of the wood.

One of the earliest uses of sycamore was by farmers who cut hollow trunks, sawed them in lengths of three or four feet, nailed bottoms in them, and used them for barrels for grain. They were called gums. Solid logs two or three feet in diameter were cut in lengths of a foot or less, bored through the center, and used as wheels for ox carts. The ox yoke was often made of sycamore. Butchers used sycamore sections about three feet high for meat blocks. The wood is tough, and continual hacking fails to split it. The use for meat blocks continues at the present time. In Illinois 1,600,000 feet were so employed in 1910.

One of the earliest employments of the wood for commercial purposes was in the manufacture of boxes for plug tobacco; but it has now been largely replaced by cheaper woods. Its freedom from stain and odor is its chief recommendation for tobacco boxes. Some of it is in demand for cigar boxes.

The modern uses of sycamore are many. It is made into ordinary crates and shipping boxes in most regions where it grows. Rotary cut veneer is worked into berry crates and baskets, and into barrels. Ice boxes and refrigerators are among the products. Slack coopers are among the largest users, but some of the manufactured stave articles belong more properly to woodenware, such as tubs, washing machines, candy buckets, and lard pails.

Furniture makers demand the best grades, and most of the quarter-sawed stock goes to them, though the manufacturers of musical instruments buy some of the finest. Use is pretty general from pipe organs and pianos down to mandolins, guitars and phonographs. It enters extensively into the making of miscellaneous commodities. As small a toy as the stereoscope consumes much sycamore. Makers of trunks find it suitable for slats, and it serves as small squares and borders in parquetry. It is a choice wood for barber poles and saddle trees, and its fine appearance when worked in broad panels leads to its employment as interior finish for houses, boats, and pa.s.senger cars.

CALIFORNIA SYCAMORE (_Plata.n.u.s racemosa_) is one of the three species of sycamore now found growing naturally in the United States. They are survivors of a very old family and appear to have been crowded down from the far North by the cold, or to have made their way south for some other reason. Sycamores flourished in Greenland in the Cretaceous age, some millions of years ago, as is shown by fossil remains dug up in that land of ice and eternal winter. They grew in central Europe, about the same time, but long ago disappeared from there. Sycamores were growing in the United States an immense period of time ago, and were doubtless lifting their giant white branches high above the banks of ancient rivers while the gorgeous bloom of yellow poplars brightened the forests on the rich bottom lands farther back. Several species of sycamores which grew in the United States during the Tertiary age are now extinct. All seem to have been much like those which have come down to the present day.

The California sycamore is found in the southern half of that state, and in Lower California. It grows from sea level up to 5,000 feet, and has the same habits as the larger sycamore of the East, and prefers the banks of streams and the wet land in the bottoms of canyons. It attains a height of from forty to eighty feet, and a diameter of from two to five. Some trees are larger, one in particular near Los Angeles having a trunk diameter of nine feet.

The tree is usually extremely distorted and misshaped, leaning, twisted, and forking and reforking until a practical lumberman would p.r.o.nounce it a hopeless proposition. This applies, however, to trunks which grow in the open, and that is where most of them grow.

When they are found crowded in thick stands in the bottoms of canyons, their trunks are shapely enough for short sawlogs. The wood is very similar to that of eastern sycamore, and it is used for similar purposes, when used at all. The b.a.l.l.s are strung five on one tough stem, which is from six to ten inches long. The eastern sycamore usually has a stem for each ball. The seeding habits of both trees are the same.

ARIZONA SYCAMORE (_Plata.n.u.s wrightii_) has its range in southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, and neighboring regions in Mexico, where it grows in the bottoms of canyons up to 6,000 feet above sea. The tree attains a height of from thirty to eighty feet, and a diameter of two to five. The trunk is seldom shapely, but often divides in large branches, some of which are fifty or sixty feet long. There are usually three b.a.l.l.s on a stem, and the leaf is shaped much like the leaf of red gum, but there is considerable variation in form.

The wood resembles eastern sycamore in color and most other features, but when quarter-sawed the flecks produced by the medullary rays are generally smaller, and give a mottled effect. The wood has not been much used, but apparently it is not inferior to eastern sycamore.

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BLACK CHERRY

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