the TULIP-TREE, in botany: A genus of the polygynia order, belonging to the polyandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 52d order, Coadunate. The calyx is triphyllous; there are nine petals; and the seeds imbricated in such a manner as to form a cone.—There is but one species, viz. the tulipifera, a deciduous tree, native of most part of America. It rises with a large upright trunk, branching 40 or 50 feet high. The trunk, which often attains to a circumference of 30 feet, is covered with a grey bark. The branches, which are not very numerous, of the two-years-old wood, are smooth and brown; while the bark of the hummer's shoots is smoother and shining, and of a bluish colour. They are very pithy. Their young wood is green, and when broken emits a strong scent. The leaves grow irregularly on the branches, on long footstalks. They are of a particular structure, being composed of three lobes, the middlemost of which is shortened in such a manner that it appears as if it had been cut off and hollowed at the middle: The two others are rounded off. They are about four or five inches long, and as many broad. They are of two colours; their upper surface is smooth, and of a stronger green than the lower. They fall off pretty early in au- LIS

tum; and the buds for the next year's shoots soon after begin to swell and become dilated, insomuch that, by the end of December, those at the ends of the branches will become near an inch long and half an inch broad. The outward laminae of these leaf-buds are of an oval figure, have several longitudinal veins, and are of a bluish colour. The flowers are produced with us in July; at the ends of the branches: They somewhat resemble the tulip, which occasions its being called the Tulip-tree. The number of petals of which each is composed, like those of the tulip, is six; and these are spotted with green, red, white, and yellow, thereby making a beautiful mixture. The flowers are succeeded by large cones, which never ripen in England.

Propagation. This is very easy, if the seeds are good; for by these, which we receive from abroad, they are to be propagated. No particular compost need be bought for; neither is the trouble of pots, boxes, hotbeds, &c. required: They will grow exceedingly well in beds of common garden-mould, and the plants will be hardier and better than those raised with more tenderness and care. Therefore, as soon as you receive the seeds, which is generally in February, and a few dry days have happened, so that the mould will work freely, sow the seeds, covering them three quarters of an inch deep; and in doing of this, observe to lay them lengthwise, otherwise, by being very long, one part, perhaps that of the embryo plant, may be out of the ground soon, and the seed be lost. This being done, let the beds be hooped; and as soon as the hot weather and drying winds come on in the spring, let them be covered from ten o'clock in the morning till sun-set. If little rain happens, they must be duly watered every other day; and by the end of May the plants will come up. Shade and watering in the hottest summer must be afforded them, and they will afterwards give very little trouble. The next winter they will want no other care than, at the approach of it, sticking some furze-bushes round the bed, to break the keen edge of the black frosts; for it is found that the seedlings of this sort are very hardy, and seldom suffer by any weather. After they have been two years in the seed-bed, they should be taken up and planted in the nursery, a foot asunder, and two feet distant in the rows. After this, the usual nursery care of hoeing the weeds, and digging between the rows in the winter, will suffice till they are taken up for planting out.

Uses. The tulip-tree, in those parts of America where it grows common, affords excellent timber for many uses: particularly, the trunk is frequently hollowed, and made into a canoe sufficient to carry many people; and for this purpose no tree is thought more proper by the inhabitants of those parts. With us, it may be stationed among trees of forty-feet growth.