162 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



the early adventurers and narrators of the colonization 

 and colonial periods of the country, and it was often 

 used as a food for the silk worn;. It appears to have 

 been originally found in the Massachusetts Bay region, 

 for Francis Higginson speaks of "mulberries." amongst 



Fib. 21. The wild red 



I berry, as it grows in central Now fork. 



other wild fruits, in his "New -England's Plantation," 

 published in 1630 ; bul it is not now indigenous to that 

 region. William Strachey, who was in Virginia about 

 1610 to 1612, and wrote a "Historie of Travaile into 

 Virginia Britannia," says that the Indian- were familiar 

 uiih the tree: "!•> their dwellings are some great 

 mulberrye trees, and these in some parti' of the country 

 are Pound growing naturallj in prettj groves: there 

 was an assaj made to make silke, and surely the 



