I30 



TREES GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 





of those that have an eye for colour. In their composition 

 there is an abundance of yellow, and they give an effect as 

 though they were continually glowing with sunshine. 



The Indians of the southern states have some way of obtain- 

 ing fibres from the tree's inner bark, and these they weave 

 into cloth. The wood is light yellow, soft and very durable 

 fr^-^, _ when in contact with the ground. It is 



quite valuable. 



M. alba, white mulberry, {Plate LXI.) 

 <^;'::'0^^^-'-utr^'J is a similar and very familiar tree which 

 -"«►- -^i-- - ,j^ ^]gQ ggg,-, about old farmhouses. It 

 has escaped from cultivation. The tree 

 is small and has leaves that differ from 

 those of the red mulberry in being 

 smooth and shiny on both sides. Its 

 short, compact, staminate spikes grow on 

 slender peduncles. The fruit is white 

 or slightly tinted with pink and has an 

 insipid, sweetish flavour. In about 1830 the tree was intro- 

 duced from China, and in the old world, as is well known, its 

 leaves have for a long time been fed to silkworms. 



Mbrus alha. 



H 



PAPER MULBERRY. {Plate LXII) 



Broiissonitia papyrifera. 



Bark : liglit; filirous: rather smooth. Learu-.i : simple ; alternate; with long, 

 round petioles; broadly ovate, with pointed apex and slightly pointed or cor- 

 date base, or frequently occurring with from two to three unequal lobes when 

 the sinuses are rounded ; serrate ; thick ; the upper surface rough, like velvet, 

 the lower surface downy. Flcnoers : dioecious ; the sterile ones growing in 

 spike-like catkins, the fertile ones in rounded heads; scaly; bristly. Ftuit : 

 fleshy ; not edible. 



Very frequently about old houses or in dilapidated grave- 

 yards we find this tree which has escaped from cultivation. 

 Its low-growing branches afford in such places a desirable 





