X. 2. THE HACK BERRY. 311 



mounted with stigmas twice its own length. Fruit-stalks half 

 an inch long. Drupe of the size of a large pea, and of a brown- 

 ish red. — Spach y XI, 431. 



Michaux says, " This is one of the finest trees that compose 

 the dusky forests on the upper part of the Ohio. It associates 

 with the button wood, black walnut, butternut, bass wood, black 

 sugar maple, elm and sweet locust, which it equals in stature 

 but not in bulk, being sometimes more than eighty feet high, 

 with a disproportionate diameter of eighteen or twenty inches. 



'•The wood is fine-grained and compact, but not heavy, and 

 when freshly exposed it is perfectly white : sawn in a direction 

 parallel or oblique to its concentrical circles, it exhibits the fine 

 undulations that are observed in the elm and the locust. On 

 laying open the sap of this tree in the spring, I have remarked, 

 without being able to account for the phenomenon, that it 

 changes in a few minutes from pure white to green. On the 

 Ohio and in Kentucky, where the best opportunity is afforded 

 of appreciating this wood, it is little esteemed, on account of its 

 weakness and its speedy decay when exposed to the weather. 

 It is rejected by wheelwrights, but is sometimes employed in 

 building, for the covering which supports the shingles. As it is 

 elastic and easily divided, it is used for the bottom of common 

 chairs, and by the Indians for baskets. On the banks of the 

 Ohio, it is frequently taken for the rails of rural fence, and is 

 wrought with the greatest ease, as it is straight-grained and 

 free from knots : it is said, also, to afford excellent charcoal. 



" The hack berry is certainly one of the most beautiful trees 

 of its genus, and one of the most remarkable for height and for 

 majesty of form. In rich soils, the luxuriance of its vegetation 

 is shown by sprouts, six, eight, and ten feet in length, garnished 

 on each side with large, substantial leaves. In France, it is 

 principally esteemed for the rapidity of its growth." — Sylva, 

 III, 47—48. 



Spach says it grows readily on all kinds of soil, and is re- 

 markable for its beauty and for the rapidity of its growth. 



There are two trees of this family of such value for their 

 wood, and of such beauty, that they ought not to be passed 



