=Adèlia acuminàta Michaux.= Pond Brush. Crooked Brush, Plate 131. Small trees, or shrub like, with gray smooth bark, becoming rough or fissured on large trees, the ridges short and broken; branchlets numerous and somewhat spiny; twigs glabrous; leaves opposite on petioles about 1 cm. long, ovate to elliptic-ovate, 4-11 cm. long, with a long narrow base, long acuminate at the apex, margins entire near the base, the remainder more or less coarsely serrated with short rounded teeth, rarely entire, smooth above and beneath; flowers appear last of March to the first of May, the staminate in small sessile clusters along the branchlets, the pistillate in short panicles; fruit a dark purple drupe, oblong, about 15 mm. long; stone with many longitudinal ribs. =Distribution.=--Southwestern Indiana and southern Illinois south to northern Florida and Texas. In Indiana it has been found only in Knox, Gibson, Posey and Perry Counties. It grows on the low borders of river sloughs, swamps and river banks. It is very tolerant of shade and may be found growing under larger trees. It usually forms dense thickets on the bank that surrounds standing water and is usually associated with button-bush. A straight specimen is rarely seen because the area where it grows overflows each winter, and the small trees are usually covered more or less with debris, and then the following season the side branches assume a vertical growth. The top may be released by the next inundation, and then other branches may assume leadership, and so on until the top is a mass of branches growing in several directions. The specimens found in Perry County grew on the low bank of the Ohio River about 6 miles east of Cannelton. The species is quite local in the area where it is found. It may border one river slough, and be entirely absent from another nearby. =Remarks.=--Of no economic use. In books it is called "swamp privet" but in the area where it grows it is not known by that name. [Illustration: Plate 131. ADELIA ACUMINATA Michaux. Pond Brush. Crooked Brush. (× 1/2.)] =BIGNONIÀCEAE.= The Trumpet Creeper Family. =CATÁLPA.= The Catalpas. Leaves simple, opposite or whorled, with long petioles; flowers in terminal panicles or corymbs; fruit a long round pod which splits into halves; seed many, flat, papery with a tuft of long hairs at each end. A small genus of widely distributed trees. The species freely hybridize, and have been cultivated and planted so extensively that it is difficult to find typical specimens. Bark of old trees thin and scaly; odor of bruised leaves fetid; lower lobe of corolla entire. 1 Catalpa bignonioides. Bark of old trees fissured and ridgy; odor of bruised leaves not fetid; lower lobe of corolla notched at the apex. 2 Catalpa speciosa.