The cotton-wood varies in magnitude in proportion to the fertility of the soil; and on the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Arkansa, it attains the size of our largest forest trees. It is sometimes exceeded in girth, and in the number and extent of its branches, by the majestic sycamore; but in forests where the two are intermixed, as is commonly the case, it is seen to overtop all other trees. A cotton-wood tree mentioned in the journal of the exploring party who ascended Red river in 1806, and spoken of as one of many similar trees standing in a corn field three or four days' journey above Natchitoches, measured one hundred and forty-one feet and six inches in height, and five feet in diameter. [_Freeman's_ MS. Journal.] Though we have not actual admeasurements to compare with this, we are of opinion that many trees on the Arkansa would rather exceed than fall short of these dimensions. The cotton-wood affords a light and soft timber, not very durable, except when protected from the weather. Before expansion, the buds of this tree are partially covered with a viscid, resinous exudation, resembling that so conspicuous on the buds of the populus balsamifera, and diffusing in the spring and the early part of summer an extremely grateful and balsamic odour.--JAMES.
[85] This estimate of distances is excessive, unless sinuosities of the trail are included, but this is not clear from the text. The distance from Fort Smith to the western boundary of Texas, near where the party reached the Canadian proper, is less than six hundred miles; to Santa Fé, less than eight hundred miles. If the length of Major Long's Creek be added, the estimate is still more than a hundred miles too great.--ED.
[86] For Point Sucre and Cavaniol Mountains and the Poteau River, see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, notes 167, 169.--ED.
[87] For the Arkansas Cherokee, see _ibid._, note 145.--ED.
[88] We have adopted this name from the author of the "Manual of Botany," as a substitute for that of the 1712 genera of Persoon, which has been so severely censured by President Smith in Rees's Cyclopedia. It is equally appropriate with the old name, and contains no offensive allusion.--JAMES.
[89] At this time, Hugh Glenn had a trading-house about a mile above the mouth of the Verdigris. See Nuttall's _Journal_, volume xiii of our series, note 35. Whether there was another person named Robert, or whether the name is an error, is uncertain.--ED.