SILVER BELL TREE; SNOWDROP TREE (Mohrodertdron,, tetraptera, Britt.). Tree or shrub to 80 feet high, with erect branches and narrow head. Bark scaly, brown, with shallow furrows and broad ridges, new shoots pubescent; twigs smooth. Wood pale brownish, soft, light, close. Buds hairy, small, reddish, blunt. Leaves ovate, oblong, acuminate entire, 2 to 4 inches long, dark green above, paler and stellate pubes cent beneath, pale yellow in fall. Flowers in May, white, bell-shaped, in lateral clusters of 2 to 4, perfect; stamens 8 to 16, pistil 2 to 4-celled, 4 ovules in each cell. Fruit 4-winged, dry, oblong drupe. Preferred habitat, well-drained, rich soil in sheltered situations. Dist.: Mountains of West Virginia
to Illinois; south to Florida, northern Alabama and Missis sippi to Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas.
Another Snowdrop Tree, M. diptera, grows along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts and follows the Mississippi to Ar kansas. It is hardy in cultivation no farther north than Philadelphia. It is smaller in stature than the silver bell tree, but has larger leaves and more showy flowers. Between the two species the chief difference is that two of the seed's wings in this one have become obsolete, leaving it 2-winged, di-ptera.