218 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



feet. Its leaves are large, and sometimes entire, and at others 

 divided into two or three lobes, rounded, cordiform and dentic- 

 ulated, of a dark green color, a thick texture and a rough, 

 uneaven surface. The sexes are usually separate, though they 

 are sometimes found upon the same tree. The male flowers 

 form pendulous, cylindrical aments, about an inch in length ; the 

 female blossoms are small and scarcely apparent ; the fruit is of 

 a deep red color, an oblong form and an agreeable, acidulous, 

 sugary taste : it is composed by the union of a great number of 

 small berries, each of which contains a minute seed. 



The trunk of the red mulberry is covered with a grayish bark 

 more furrowed than that of the oaks and the hickories. The 

 perfect wood is of a yellowish hue, approaching to lemon color. 

 The concentric circles are distant and distinct ; the wood is, 

 nevertheless, fine-grained and compact, though lighter than that 

 of the white oak. It possesses strength and solidity, and, when 

 perfectly seasoned, it is almost as durable as the locust, to which, 

 by many persons, it is esteemed perfectly equal. At Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore and in the more southern ports, as much of it as can 

 be procured is employed for the upper and lower parts of the 

 frame of vessels, for the knees, the floor timbers, and, in 

 preference to every other wood, except locust, for trunnels. In 

 South Carolina it is selected for the ribs of large boats. For 

 posts it is almost as durable and as much esteemed .as the locust. 

 As the leaves of this species are thick, rough and hairy while 

 young, they are improper for the food of silk worms, which feed 

 with advantage only on the smooth, thin and tender foliage of 

 the white and Chinese mulberry. 



