Maine,--this tree grows not beyond Black Point (Scarboro, Cumberland county) eastward (Josselyn's _New England Rarities_, 1672); not reported again by botanists for more than two hundred years; rediscovered at Wells in 1895 (Walter Deane) and North Berwick in 1896 (J. C. Parlin); New Hampshire,--lower Merrimac valley, eastward to the coast and along the Connecticut valley to Bellows Falls; Vermont,--occasional south of the center; Pownal (Robbins, Eggleston); Hartland and Brattleboro (Bates), Vernon (Grant); Massachusetts,--common especially in the eastern sections; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common. South to Florida; west to Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas. =Habit.=--Generally a shrub or small tree but sometimes reaching a height of 40-50 feet and a trunk diameter of 2-4 feet; attaining a maximum in the southern and southwestern states of 80-100 feet in height and a trunk diameter of 6-7 feet; head open, flattish or rounded; branches at varying angles, stout, crooked, and irregular; spray bushy; marked in winter by the contrasting reddish-brown of the trunk, the bright yellowish-green of the shoots and the prominent flower-buds, in early spring by the drooping racemes of yellow flowers, in autumn by the rich yellow or red-tinted foliage and handsome fruit, at all seasons by the aromatic odor and spicy flavor of all parts of the tree, especially the bark of the root. =Bark.=--Bark of trunk deep reddish-brown, deeply and firmly ridged in old trees, in young trees greenish-gray, finely and irregularly striate, the outer layer often curiously splitting, resembling a sort of filagree work; branchlets reddish-brown, marked with warts of russet brown; season's shoots at first minutely pubescent, in the fall more or less mottled, bright yellowish-green. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Flower-buds conspicuous, terminal, ovate to elliptical, the outer scales rather loose, more or less pubescent, the inner glossy, pubescent; lateral buds much smaller. Leaves simple, alternate, often opposite, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, downy-tomentose when young, at maturity smooth, yellowish-green above, lighter beneath, with midrib conspicuous and minutely hairy; outline of two forms, one oval to oblong, entire, usually rounded at the apex, wedge-shaped at base; the other oval to obovate, mitten-shaped or 3-lobed to about the center, with rounded sinuses; apex obtuse or rounded; base wedge-shaped; leafstalk about 1 inch long; stipules none. =Inflorescence.=--April or early May. Appearing with the leaves in slender, bracted, greenish-yellow, corymbous racemes, from terminal buds of the preceding season, sterile and fertile flowers on separate trees,--sterile flowers with 9 stamens, each of the three inner with two stalked orange-colored glands, anthers 4-celled, ovary abortive or wanting: fertile flowers with 6 rudimentary stamens in one row; ovary ovoid; style short.