Vegetahle Silk. * 223 



are separate upon the same tree: the male aments, which appear 

 before the leaves, are small, oblong and scaly, with two yellow 

 anthers under each scale: the female flowers are also disposed 

 in aments, and are composed of floral leaves covering two ovaries, 

 which, in process of time, become small, erect, scaly cones three 

 or four lines long. At the base of each scale lie two minute 

 winged seeds. On some stocks, the cones are violet-colored in 

 the spring instead of green; but this is an accidental variation, 

 for the trees are in no other respect peculiar. 



The wood of the American larch is superior to any species of 

 pine or spruce: it is exceedingly strong and singularly durable. 

 In Canada it is considered as the most valuable timber, and has 

 no fault except its weight. In the state of Maine it is esteemed 

 more than any other species of resinous wood for the knees of 

 vessels, and is always used for this purpose when proper pieces 

 can be obtained. This wood is justly appreciated in the United 

 States, but it is little employed because it is rare and may be 

 replaced with other species which are cheaper and more abund- 

 ant. Sylva Americana. 



Vegetable Silk. 



The bark of the Papyfera, a species of the mulberry tree, not 

 only furnishes fibres for ropes, but can even be formed into cloth. 

 M. la Rouverie affirms, that he procured a beautiful v^egetable silk 

 from the young branches of this tree; cutting the bark while the 

 tree was in sap, and then beating it with mallets and steeping it 

 in water, he obtained a thread from the fibres, almost equal to 

 silk in quality, and this was woven into a cloth whose texture ap- 

 peared as if formed of that material. The women of Louisiana 

 obtain a similar production from the offshoots of the mulberry; 

 these are gathered when they are about four or five feet high. 

 The bark is stripped and dried in the sun: it is then beaten, to 

 get rid of the external part, which falls off, leaving the inner bark 

 entire. This is again beaten, to make it still finer, after which it 

 is bleached in dew. It is then spun, and various fabrics are 

 made from it, such as nets and fringes; and sometimes it is woven 

 into cloth. The finest sort of cloth among the inhabitants of 

 Otaheite and other of the South Sea Islands, is made of the bark 

 of this tree. 



