330 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



tillate in oblong densely flowered spikes, 1' long, on short hairy peduncles, a few male 

 flowers being sometimes mixed with them; calyx divided nearly to the base into 4 thick 

 concave lobes rounded at apex, rounded or slightly keeled on the back, the 2 outer lobes 

 twice as wide as the others, as long as and closely investing the glabrous light green ovary. 

 Fruit: syncarp at first bright red when fully grown, I'-lj' long, becoming dark purple or 

 nearly black and sweet and juicy when fully ripe; drupes about -%' long, with a thin fleshy 

 outer coat and a light brown nutlet; seed ovoid, acute, with a thin membranaceous light 

 brown coat. 



A tree, 60-70 high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 3-4 in diameter, stout spread- 

 ing smooth branches forming a dense broad round-topped shapely head, and slender 

 slightly zigzag branchlets dark green often tinged with red, glabrous, more or less coated 

 with pale pubescence, and covered with oblong straw-colored spots when they first appear, 

 becoming in their first winter light red-brown to orange color and marked by pale lenticels 

 and by large elevated horizontal nearly orbicular concave leaf-scars displaying a row of 

 prominent fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and in their second and third years dark brown 

 slightly tinged with red. Winter-buds ovoid, rounded or pointed at apex, \' long, with 

 6 or 7 chestnut-brown scales, those of the outer rows broadly o^ate, rounded, and slightly 

 thickened on the back, puberulous, ciliate on the margins, and much shorter than those 

 of the next rows, the inner scales scarious, coated with pale hairs, oblong-lanceolate, 

 rounded or acute at apex, and \'-\' long at maturity. Bark \'-\' thick, dark brown tinged 

 with red and divided into irregular elongated plates separating on the surface into thick 

 appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, rather tough, coarse-grained, very durable, 

 light orange color, with thick lighter colored sapwood; largely used for fencing, in cooper- 

 age, and in boatbuilding. 



Distribution. Intervales in rich soil and on low hills; western Massachusetts, Connecti- 

 cut, and Long Island to southern Ontario, central Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, 

 eastern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, central Kansas and Okla- 

 homa, and southward to the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, and to 

 the canon of the Devil's River, Valverde County, Texas; most abundant and of its largest 

 size in the basin of the lower Ohio River and on the foothills of the southern Appalachian 

 Mountains; ascending to altitudes of 2000. 



Occasionally planted, especially in the southern states, for its fruit valued for fatten- 

 ing hogs and as food for poultry. A few natural varieties, distinguished for the large size 

 and good quality of their fruit, or for their productiveness, are occasionally propagated by 

 pomologists. 



2. Morus microphylla Buckl. Mulberry. Mexican Mulberry. 

 Morus celtidifolia Sarg. not H. B. K. 



Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or rarely truncate, or often on vigorous 

 shoots cordate at the broad base, and 3-lobed with shallow lateral sinuses and broad 

 coarsely serrate lobes, when they unfold coated below with pale tomentum, and puberu- 

 lous above, at maturity thin and firm in texture, dark green and often roughened on the 

 upper surface by minute pale tubercles, and paler, smooth or scabrate, and glabrous or 

 coated with soft pubescence on the lower surface, and often hirsute with short stiff pale 

 hairs on the broad orange-colored midrib, and on the primary veins connected by conspicu- 

 ous reticulate veinlets, rarely more than 1^' long and f wide; turning yellow in the autumn; 

 petioles slender, hoary-tomentose, becoming pubescent, %' in length; stipules linear-lanceo- 

 late, acute, sometimes falcate, white and scarious, coated with soft pale tomentum, about 

 long. Flowers usually direcious, staminate short-pedicellate, in short many-flowered 

 spikes, |'-f long; calyx dark green, covered on the outer surface with soft pale hairs, 

 deeply divided into equal rounded lobes reddish toward the apex; stamens with bright 

 yellow anthers, their connectives conspicuous, dark green; pistillate sessile in few-flowered 

 spikes, rarely f ' in length; calyx divided to the base into thick rounded lobes, the 2 outer 



