RED MULBERRY. 79 



feet and a diameter of 12 to 18 inches, it is most plentiful in the 

 Piedmont plateau, less so among the mountains, and is found 

 occasionally in the coastal plain region. 



The slippery elm produces seed at rather irregular intervals of 

 2 to 4 years, and for the most part not abundantly. Young seed- 

 lings are rare except in damp, somewhat shaded places near the 

 parent tree. 



The thick ovate oblong coarsely toothed leaves are very rough 

 on the upper surface and downy beneath. The flowers occur in 

 lateral clusters on short foot-stalks, and the flat-winged fruit is 

 round, but not fringed. The rounded reddish-brown winter-buds 

 are hairy. The slippery elm has numerous deeply seated lateral 

 roots. 



The wood is heavy, hard, strong, very close-grained, compact, 

 and durable in contact with the soil. The heartwood is dark 

 brown or red ; the sapwocd lighter. It is used for wheel-stock, 

 fencing, railroad ties, sills, and in shipbuilding. The muci- 

 laginous inner bark is medicinal. 



Morus rubra, Linnaeus. 

 (RED MULBERRY.) 



A tree, with dark brown, much-broken bark and smooth gray 

 branches, reaching a height of 65 arid a diameter of 7 feet. 



It is found generally in rich soil from western Massachusetts 

 and Long Island, N. Y., through southern Ontario, central 

 Michigan, and the Black Hills of Dakota, eastern Nebraska and 

 Kansas, south to southern Florida, and the valley of the Colorado 

 river, Texas; reaching its best development in the basins of the 

 lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 



In this State, where it grows to an average height of 30 to 50 

 and an average diameter of 1 to 2 feet, it is found throughout, 

 being most abundant on the Piedmont plateau and very rare in the 

 mountain region. 



