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W. P. A. History of Pontotoc County, Mississippi

Chapter IV:  FLORA

Freak and Unusual Trees

From the top of one of the HEAVEN Trees, twenty five feet high, in front of Miss Ellen Carr's residence on South Main Street, in Pontotoc, a catalpa tree has been growing  for five years.  (1)

From the parent trunk of a COTTONWOOD TREE, five other trees of the same kind are growing.  They sprout four and one-half feet from the ground, and one of them is three feet in circumference.  This freak tree is in the pasture back of the Reuben Brown place, near the end of South Main Street.

In the meadow belonging to Clarke Wilson, one mile north of town, there is another freak tree.  For a height of eight feet there are two trees, ASH and WHITE OAK, with specific branches on each, but here the trees unite and become a well marked white oak.

In the pasture back of the home of Dr. R. P. Donaldson, there is a TWIN TREE which develops three feet from the ground; one side is a hickory nut and the other an elm. (2)

There are a number of unusually large OAKS in the county, among these are the following:  a red oak on the Irving Edwards place, thirteen miles south of Pontotoc, with a circumference of twenty one feet and two inches; on the Clark place three miles northeast of Pontotoc, on  the old Tuscumbia Road, is another which is fifteen feet in circumference; a half-mile east of Woodland Church is a red oak, which is sixteen feet and two inches in circumference ; on the vacant lot directly south of Ray Tillman's residence, one mile northeast of the county courthouse is a red oak thirteen feet and nine inches in circumference; in the front yard of the residence of John Beddingfield , one mile northeast of the county courthouse, there is another, the circumference of which is eleven feet and three inches; on the property of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Carr are two oaks, one measuring eleven feet and six inches in circumference, the other, twelve feet and five inches; a red oak in the front yard of Mrs. Ida Patterson is eleven feet and six inches in circumference; growing in the yard of the antebellum Wilson home are two oaks, measuring thirteen feet, eleven inches and twelve feet, six inches, respectively, the former being the largest tree in Pontotoc.

A fine specimen of hickory grows in the front yard of Tom Webster's home, one and one-half miles south of Pontotoc; its circumference  is seven feet five and one-half inches.

An unusually large ELM tree stands in the yard of Robert McDonald's home, one mile northeast of the courthouse; its circumference is thirteen feet and four inches. (3)

(1) Miss Ellen Carr, Pontotoc, Miss.

(2) Mrs. Mildred Caldwell, Pontotoc, Miss.

(3)  Martha Donaldson, Pontotoc, Miss.

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