IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST 221 



regions. Now this particular tree is well adapted 

 to living under a great variety of conditions, for 

 even in this locality it grows in brackish and 

 fresh-water swamps, in all kinds of hammock, 

 and out into the borders of the pineland. The 

 ancestors of this tree probably lived in the 

 tropics and one of them migrated into colder 

 regions and became inured to a more rigorous 

 climate. Our mulberry possibly inherits all the 

 courage and fighting instincts, if I may so ex- 

 press it, of its forbears and relatives of the Torrid 

 Zone. 



The distribution of this tree is very extensive 

 and somewhat peculiar. It occurs from Texas to 

 Eastern Nebraska, eastward through Michigan, 

 Ontario, and Western Massachusetts, south to 

 Cape Romano and Biscayne Bay, occupying al- 

 most the entire eastern part of the United States. 

 It is not known from extreme Lower Florida or 

 the keys. One may reasonably suppose that the 

 line of its migration is from the highlands of 

 Mexico through the southwestern states, into the 

 far north and east and southward into the lower 

 part of the Florida Peninsula. Is it another 

 Prodigal Son who, after leaving the parental roof 



