or soap bush, an evergreen of southern and western Texas, is usually a shrub, but occasionally reaches 8 inches in diameter and 30 feet in height. It is a source of early spring honey in the Rio Grande Valley. Its wood is heavy, hard, and exceptionally durable. Guayacan, sometimes called guaiacum, is the hardest wood in Texas and the United States. The lignum-vitae of commerce is produced from another species. BARETTA (Helietta parvifolia [A. Gray] Benth.) a native of the Rio Grande Valley and abundant in Starr County where it may form considerable thickets, this small, slender evergreen is seldom more than 5 or 6 feet tall. On limestone ridges of the Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon it reaches 20 to 25 feet high. Its leaves are trifoliate, 1½ to 2 inches long, and conspicuously marked with black glandular dots. The branches are brownish-red, but with bright yellow, new growth. The species is not native to any other section of the United States. TREE OF HEAVEN (Ailanthus altissima [Mill.] Swingle) is native to the Orient but has been introduced to this country where it has grown wild and occurs generally throughout Texas. The long, pinnately compound leaves, 24 to 48 inches long, with 11 to 41 leaflets, are glandular toothed at the base. The flowers and bruised leaves have a disagreeable odor. The tree is fast growing and spreads by suckers as well as by seed. CHINABERRY (Melia azedarach L.) although a native of Asia, is so widely grown in Texas as an ornamental that it can be seen almost anywhere. It is a member of the mahogany family. The bark is furrowed, with the ridges flat-topped. The alternate leaves are twice-compound and 10 to 32 inches long. The leaflets are alternate, ovate to elliptic, sharply toothed or lobed, ¾ to 2 inches long, light green and usually smooth. The flowers are showy, lilac-colored, fragrant, nearly an inch across, and arranged in loose clusters which appear in April. The fruit is nearly round, ½ to ¾ inch in diameter, fleshy, and yellow when mature. The wood is moderately heavy and moderately hard, light reddish-brown in color, with a rather narrow, yellowish sapwood. Formerly it was much used for cabinet-work. AMERICAN SMOKETREE (Chittamwood) (Cotinus obovatus Raf.) a member of the sumac family, it grows along the Medina and Guadalupe Rivers and in Kendall County, Texas. Occasionally it reaches a height of 30 feet and 12 inches in diameter, but usually grows as a shrub or small tree, its trunk dividing into several stems 10 feet or so above the ground. The wood is bright, clear, rich orange color, and yields the same color dye. Sometimes it is used for fence posts. C. coggygria, the smoketree of gardens, is cultivated in the United States.