258 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



To purify the bark, they keep it three or four hours in 

 water ; and when it is sufficiently softened, the cuticle, 

 which is of a dark colour, together with the greenish 

 surface of the inner bark, is pared off; at the same time 

 the stronger bark is separated from the more tender, the 

 former making the best and whitest paper ; the latter a 

 dark and inferior kind. 



A cloth also is made from this bark, which is worn by 

 the principal people in Otaheite, and the Sandwich 

 islands, and is the finest and whitest they have. Some- 

 times they dye it red. 



They have an inferior kind of cloth made from the 

 bread-fruit tree, which is chiefly worn by the lower 

 orders ; and a coarse and harsh kind from a tree resem- 

 bling the wild fig tree of the West Indies; this is as 

 dark as the darkest brown paper, but it is the most valuable 

 cloth they have, because it resists water. This cloth is 

 perfumed and worn by the chiefs in Otaheite, as a morn- 

 ing dress*. 



The Mulberry tree is an excellent guide to the gar- 

 dener, since the appearance of its leaves is an infallible 

 sign that the severity of the season is over ; there is no 

 longer any danger from frost. " When the leaf of the 

 Mulberry bursts forth," says Evelyn, " the gardener may 

 safely expose his green-house plants." Pliny recommends 

 the gardener to pay attention to this circumstance, as a 

 guide on various occasions. 



Horace recommends ripe Mulberries as a wholesome 

 fruit : 



* See Cook's Voyages, vol. ii. ; or Martyn's edition of Miller's 

 Gardener's Dictionary. 



