=Distribution.=--Southern Maine, southern Ontario, southern Michigan, to
Missouri and south to Florida and west to Texas. Found in all parts of
Indiana. Frequent to very common in all beech-sugar maple woods of the
State. It is very rare or absent in the prairie area of the northwest
part of the State, although it has been found in upland woods in all of
the counties bordering Lake Michigan. It is also a frequent or more
common tree in most parts of the State associated with white oak, or in
the southern part of the State with black and white oak. It prefers a
dry habitat, and is rarely found in wet situations.
=Remarks.=--Wood hard, heavy, strong, close-grained and takes a high
polish. The Indians made a scarlet dye from the roots. It was used much
by the pioneers for wedges, mallets and handles for tools. The trees are
so small that they do not produce much wood. The present supply is used
principally for shuttles, golfheads, brush blocks, engraver's blocks,
etc.
The mature fruit is much relished by squirrels and birds.
The tree is quite conspicuous in the flowering season, and when the
fruit is maturing. These features recommend it for ornamental planting,
and it is used to some extent. The tree has a flat crown, and is quite
shade enduring. It is very difficult to transplant, and when the tree is
transplanted, if possible, some earth taken from under a live dogwood
tree, should be used to fill in the hole where it is planted.
=ERICÀCEAE.= The Heath Family.
=Oxydéndrum arbòreum= (Linnæus) DeCandolle. Sour Wood. Sorrel Tree.
Plate 122. Small trees with a gray and deeply fissured bark, much
resembling that of a young sweet gum tree; twigs and branchlets greenish
and smooth; leaves alternate, on petioles about a cm. long, oblong-oval,
generally 10-15 cm. long, narrowed at the base, acute or acuminate at
the apex, margins entire toward the base or sometimes all over, usually
about three-fourths is irregularly serrate with very short incurved
teeth, glabrous above and beneath except a puberulence on the midrib and
sometimes on the petiole to which an occasional prickle is added
beneath; flowers appear in June when the leaves are full grown, in large
panicles at the end of the year's growth, white, the whole inflorescence
covered with a short gray pubescence; fruit a capsule about 0.5 cm. long
on an erect and recurved pedicel of about the same length, maturing in
autumn.
[Illustration: Plate 122.
OXYDENDRUM ARBOREUM (Linnæus) DeCandolle. Sour Wood. Sorrel Tree.
(× 1/2.)]
=Distribution.=--A tree of the elevated regions of the area from
southeastern Pennsylvania to Florida and west to southern Indiana and
south to Louisiana. In Indiana it is definitely known to occur only in
Perry County at the base of a beech spur of the Van Buren Ridge about 7
miles southeast of Cannelton. Here it is a common tree over an area of
an acre or two. The largest tree measured was about 1.5 dm. in diameter
and 12 meters high. Here it is associated with beech, sugar maple,
dogwood, sassafras, etc. When coppiced it grows long slender shoots
which the boys of the pioneers used for arrows. A pioneer who lived near
this colony of trees is the author of this use of the wood and he called
the tree "arrow wood."
=EBENÀCEAE.= The Ebony Family.
=Diospyros virginiàna= Linnæus. Persimmon. Plate 123. Small or medium
sized trees with deeply and irregularly fissured bark, the ridges broken
up into short lengths; twigs pubescent; leaves alternate, oval,
oblong-oval or ovate, generally 8-15 cm. long and 3-7 cm. wide,
narrowed, rounded or cordate at the base, short pointed at the apex,
margin entire but ciliate, slightly pubescent above when young, becoming
glabrous on age, more or less pubescent beneath, sometimes glabrous
except the midrib and margin; flowers appear in May or June on the
year's growth when the leaves are about half grown, greenish yellow, the
staminate on one tree and the pistillate on another; fruit ripens in
August, September or October, depressed-globose or oblong in shape, 2-3
cm. in diameter, generally with 1-4 very hard flat seed.
=Distribution.=--Connecticut to Iowa and south to the Gulf. In Indiana
it is confined to the south half of the State. We have no record of wild
trees being found north of Indianapolis, except Prof. Stanley Coulter
reports three trees growing in Tippecanoe County in situations such as
to indicate that they are native. It is doubtful if it was ever more
than a frequent tree in the original forest. In some of the hill
counties of the south central part of the State, it has become a common
tree in clearings and abandoned fields. It grows long surface roots from
which numerous suckers grow which form the "persimmon thickets." It
seems to thrive in the poorest and hardest of soils. However, it reaches
its greatest size in the alluvial bottoms of the Lower Wabash Valley.
Here large and tall trees have been observed on the low border of
sloughs, associated with such water-loving plants as water-locust,
button-bush, swell-butt ash, etc. It thrives equally well on the high
sandy ridges of Knox and Sullivan Counties.
[Illustration: Plate 123.