356 



The Hackberries 



15 meters or more; its bark is thick and usually corky-roughened or warty, though 

 sometimes smooth. The young twigs are hairy and green, but become smooth 

 and reddish brown. The leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, pointed, coarsely 

 toothed, though sometimes with few teeth, often 15 cm. long, and rather thin; they 

 are dark green and rough, with papillae on the upper surface, which is covered 

 with short stiff hairs until the leaf is nearly or quite mature; the lower surface 

 is rough-hairy, especially along the veins. The nearly black short-oblong or nearly 

 round fruit is about i cm. in diameter, its stalk longer than the leaf-stalk. , 



The wood is heavy, not very strong, light yellow; it has a limited use for furniture, 

 flooring, and fencing. 



4. MISSISSIPPI HACKBERRY — Celtis mississippiensis Bosc 



A tree which under favorable conditions attains a height of 30 meters, with a 

 trunk about i meter in thickness. It prefers the moist soil of river valleys and 

 banks, and ranges from Georgia and Florida westward to Tennessee, southern 



Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and northeast- 

 em Mexico, and also occurs in Bermuda. 

 It is usually easily distinguished from 

 the others by its long usually quite en- 

 tire-margined leaves and small fruit. 

 The thick bark is light gray and warty, 

 with corky projections. The young 

 twigs are either smooth or somewhat 

 hairy, greenish, but soon become red- 

 brown and shining. The leaves are thin, 

 5 to 12 cm. long, lanceolate to ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, or some of them ovate, long- 

 pointed, slender-stalked, nearly equally 

 bright green on both surfaces, or some- 

 what paler beneath, rarely with a few 

 small sharp teeth; the narrow stipules 

 faH away while the leaves are unfolding; 

 Fig. 314. — Mississippi Hackberry. jhe petioles vary from 7 to 16 mm. long. 



The fruit is ovoid-globose, orange or red, 4 to 7 mm. in diameter, its stalk longer 

 than the subtending leaf-stalk. 



The wood is yellow and soft, has a specific gravity of about 0.50, and is largely 

 used for fencing and to some extent for furniture an,d flooring. 



Berlandier's hackberry, Celtis Berlandieri Bosc, which occurs in the valley of 

 the Rio Grande in Texas and Mexico, has relatively shorter ovate leaves and 

 slightly larger fruit; it is not certainly distinct, however, from C. mississippiensis. 



