The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-09-30
WONDERFUL TREEs.


One would hardly expect to ind
anything like soap growing on q
tree, but there is such product in
tropical America-the rind of what
is called the soap tree fruit, forming
a strong lather when it is immersed
in water.
The substance known as vegetable
ivory is the product of tree that
bears q fruit about the size Of a
mans head and weighing about 80
pounds, each fruit containing 40
nuts, which are very solid, hard and
white. With such load to carry it
is not surprising that the stem OF
the tree, which is less than a foot in
diameter. may be seen, not only very
much bent from its naturally up
right position, but actually crawling
on the ground.
There are several kinds of trees
from which our ordinary cork is de-
rived, and by a wise provision of ma
ture, when the outer coating of the
bark has ripened on these cork trees
it may DO removed without injury
to the inner bark, which continues
growing.
The bamboo blowpipe, as il is
generally called, is curious tree.
Although it is only about IL inches
in diameter it grows to height of so
or go feet, and for about 16 feet it
has no joints. 1t is known as ':the
rife of the Indian" and in his
hands, or rather in his mouth, be-
comes a formidable weapon for
blowing poisoned arrows.
The silk cotton tree grows in the
| Bahama islands, where there is
scarcely any depth of soil, and in or
der to meet this emergency the roots
extend over a very long stretch of
ground, showing themselves near the
surface while the slim trunk is sup
ported by six or eight regularly
formed buttresses that are large
enough to conceal a man from view.
The baobab or monkey bread tree
is most extraordinary production
of nature. Imagine tree IS feet in
diameter at the base and only 40
feet high, with the trunk rapidly di-
minishing toward the top and then
spreading out into what looks like a
little forest. In one of these old
trees the branches form spherical
head 100 to $50 feet in diAmeter, the
center branch rising to a height OF
; GO feet, while others droop over the
= main trunk and conceal it from
view.
Some of these trees have been hol
: lowed out and the space made large
2 enough to hold 20 or 80 men without
any apparent injury to the tree
The baobab must be one of the slow
est growing trees in the world, as il
q is supposed to be one of the Oldest
I A tree has been cultivated in the
gardens at Kew for more than AZ
= years, and thus far it has attained
a height of only Az feet. Some oi
r, these trees are estimated to be 5, 0O(
2 years old, and there are dates cut il
the bark that were made in the four
/ teenth century.
There is a tree called the cinchons
r tree, from the bark of which, for
n merly known +as Peruvian bark, II
derived the invaluable quinine.
Coca is a native of South America
and its leaves have long been useC
} by the people of the region where i
: grows as a s+inlRlant and a support
or of animal strength, enabling me1
to work hard for days with very lit
tie food and to perform long anC
rapid journeys on foot without ia
: tigue. More especially in operations
+ on the eye and in dental surgery tn,
: product of the plant is found to b
of great value, as cocaine produces
insensibility to local pain withou
2 affecting the general system lik
ether and chloroform.
Then there is the eucalyptus tree
which has made such malarious re-
giCns as the Pontinemarshes safean,
Observation-Disclosures Times.