March] THE NURSERY 279 



Curse them! (exclaims the peevish planter,) I shall never live to 

 cork a bottle with them. Have patience, good sir, you have no 

 objection to throw by a few dollars in an iron chest tor posterity, 

 never to come in contact with the light of the sun during your 

 existence, and which will always be depreciating in value as the 

 circulation of paper currency increases, and from several other cir- 

 cumstances; a few of which, if laid out on planting cork trees, 

 would be rapidly accumulating wealth for your children, and ren- 

 dering a real service to your country; besides, every day you 

 walked out you would have the pleasure of beholding your little 

 family of trees prospering in health and beauty, humbling their 

 boughs before you, and in their silent language returning you 

 grateful thanks for your fostering care, and promising to reward 

 your offspring for the friendly protection which you afforded them 

 in their minor days. 



Tanner 's Sumack. 



The Rhus coriaria, or elm-leaved sumack, is a plant which should 

 be introduced and cultivated, particularly in the southern states, 

 where it will prosper in great perfection. It grows naturally in 

 Italy, Spain, the south of France, the Levant, about Aleppo, Rama, 

 and' near Algiers, in Africa. The branches are used instead of 

 oak bark for tanning leather: but the great and particular necessity 

 of its introduction into the United States is, that without it our 

 tanners, who are both numerous and industrious, cannot manufac- 

 ture what is called Turkey or Morocco leather in good perfection; 

 for it is with this plant exclusively that that valuable article is 

 tanned in the eastern world; and a substitute for it has not yet 

 been discovered in America. 



It has a strong woody stem, divided into many irregular branches, 

 and rises to the height of eight or ten feet or more; the bark is 

 hairv, and of an herbaceous brown colour when young. The leaves 

 are composed of seven or eight pair of leaflets, terminated by an 

 odd one: these leaflets are about two inches long, and half an inch 

 wide in the middle, and are of a yellowish green colour. The 

 flowers grow in loose pannicles at the ends of the branches, each 

 pannicle being composed of several thick spikes of flowers sitting 

 close to the foot-stalks: they are of a whitish herbaceous colour, and 

 appear in June and July, and are followed by numerous roundish 

 compressed seeds. 



It may easily be propagated by seed, which, if sown soon after 

 being ripe, or preserved in sand or earth till spring, will grow freely 

 the first year; but if kept dry till spring, they do not generally 

 vegetate till the next season. It can also be propagated by suckers, 

 which it produces pretty freely, or by layers. It is tolerably hardy, 

 and will thrive in warm exposures in the middle states. 



Mulberry Trees and Silk Worms. 



The Moms alba, or white mulberry, is a native of China, Cochin- 

 China and Japan, and according to Gmelin, of Persia. It grows 



