TREES OF AMERICA. 191 



you shall soon hear of useful trees, very 

 useful trees : but first of all, I ha\re two kinds 

 of nettle-trees to describe to you. One is 

 called the American nettle-tree ; it grows in 

 the Middle States, but is not very common 

 anywhere. It is tall, but remarkably slender, 

 for the trunk of a tree eighty feet high is 

 scarcely ever seen more than a foot and a 

 half thick : the leaves are about three inches 

 long, and very sharp-pointed, and notched at 

 the edges : the flowers are white, and very 

 small ; and the fruit is a red berry, much like 

 that of the holly, only that it does not grow 

 in bunches : the wood is dark-brown, hard, 

 and tough, but I believe it is not used for any 

 particular purpose, probably because it is so 

 scarce." 



" Uncle Philip, why is it called nettle-tree ? 

 are there nettles on it ?" 



" No ; and I do not know whence it has 

 its name, any more than the other kind, which 

 is called hack-berry. This is a western tree, 

 and a very fine one, too ; the trunk is per- 

 fectly straight, and very slender : the leaves 

 are about six inches long, and remarkable for 

 their colour, which is a dusky green, almost 

 black ; and the fruit is of the same size as 



