THE WITCH HAZEL, SORREL TREE, ETC. 77 



deep-green leaves are variable in figure and texture ; 

 some of them are sparingly toothed, others are ex- 

 tremely oblique or lopsided, and a few- 

 are heart-shaped (scalloped) at the 

 base ; tliey are all conspicuously 

 taper - pointed, and the teeth, 

 extending over two thirds of 

 the edge from the tip down, 

 are sharp. The leaves are rare- 

 ly over three inches long, and 

 are generally rough to the 

 touch. 



This tree is widely dis- 

 tributed ; it is common from 

 New England southward, and 

 westward to Minnesota and even 

 to Washington, on river banks and in the woods; 

 it rarely reaches a height of over 20 feet, but in 

 the South, and especially in the lower Ohio basin, 

 it attains the proportions of a large tree, sometimes 

 130 feet high. 

 Red Mulberry. The red mulberry grows variously 



Alarm rubra. f rom }5 to 70 feet high, and bears 



dark red, or, when finally ripe, black-purple ber- 



Hackberry. 



Mass., not far from the Harvard Botanical Gardens, is crowded 

 with thousands of berries as late as the end of January. 



