X. 2. THE AMERICAN NETTLE TREE. 307 



spread horizontally. The trunk is covered with a grayish and 

 rough bark. It seldom extends to a considerable height, with- 

 out throwing out numerous, slender branches. The ultimate 

 branchlets are extremely slender, downy when young, and cov- 

 ered with a reddish brown bark. The leaves, commonly from 

 one and a half to three inches long, and from one to two broad, 

 vary much on the fruit-bearing and on the vigorously growing 

 limbs. On the latter, they are large, rather thick, broad and 

 conspicuously serrate ; on the former, they are smaller and more 

 delicately shaped, more sharply serrate, and have a much longer 

 acumination. On both, they are downy when young, and rough 

 on both surfaces, but afterwards become nearly smooth. They 

 are ovate in their general outline, acute, rounded, or obtuse, 

 and sometimes slightly heart-shaped at base, commonly une- 

 qual-sided, but sometimes equal-sided ; very irregularly dentate 

 or serrate about the middle, and end in a long, taper, entire 

 point. They are borne on slender footstalks, which continue 

 slightly hairy till late in the season. The leaves are of a dark 

 green, which turns to a bright yellow in autumn, when they 

 fall nearly all together. 



The flowers come out very early, on long footstalks, from 

 one to three in the axils of the leaves. They have a calyx of 

 five, or sometimes six divisions, with five or six stamens. The 

 lower flowers have usually stamens only, and are barren ; the 

 upper, solitary flowers have also an ovary which becomes a 

 fruit. This is sweet to the taste, about the size of a wild cher- 

 ry, has a large stone, and, when perfectly ripe, is of a dark pur- 

 ple color. The tree might be described to one who wished to 

 be able to recognize it, as an elm, bearing purple, sweet cherries, 

 which continued on the stem through the winter. 



Douglas says that this tree is found on the rocky banks of 

 the Columbia River in places so dry that no other tree can 

 grow there. Michaux had never observed it northward of the 

 Connecticut River. I have found it, never in great numbers, 

 in almost every county in the State. It was pointed out to me 

 at Savin Hill, by Dr. Bigelow, and in Dorchester by Dr. Harris. 

 It is almost every where so rare, that its name is unknown, and 

 it might well be called, as it was by the French in Illinois, Bois 



