MULBERRY FAMILY 



in contact with the ground. Sp. gr., 0.7736 ; weight of cu. ft., 

 48.21 lbs. 



IViitter Btnh. — All buds lateral. Depressed-globular, partly im- 

 mersed in the bark, pale chestnut brown. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, three to five inches long, two to three 

 inches wide, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, entire, acuminate, or acute 

 or cuspidate, rounded, wedge-shaped or subcordate at base. Feather- 

 veined, midrib prominent. They come out of the bud involute, pale 

 bright green, pubescent and tonientose, when full grown are thick, 

 firm, dark green, shining above, paler green below. In autumn 

 they turn a clear bright yellow. Petioles slender, pubescent, slightly 

 grooved. Stipules small, caducous. 



Flowers. — June, when leaves are full grown ; dioecious. Stam- 

 inate flowers in racemes, borne on long, slender, drooping peduncles 

 developed from the axils of crowded leaves on the spur-like branch- 

 lets of the previous year. Racemes are short or long. Flowers pale 

 green, small. Calyx hairy, four-lobed. Stamens four, inserted op- 

 posite lobes of calyx, on the margin of thin disk ; filaments flattened, 

 exserted ; anthers oblong, introrse, two-celled ; cells opening longi- 

 tudinally; ovary wanting. Pistillate flowers borne in a dense glo- 

 bose many-flowered head which appears on a short stoiit peduncle, 

 axillary on shoots of the year. Calyx, hairy, four-lobed ; lobes 

 thick, concave, investing the ovary, and inclosing the fruit. Ovary 

 superior, ovate, compressed, green, crowned by a long slender style 

 covered with white stigmatic hairs. Ovule solitary. 



FruiL — Pale green globe, four to five inches in diameter, made 

 up of numerous small drupes, crowded and grown together. These 

 small drupes are oblong, compressed, rounded, often notched at 

 apex, filled with milky juice. Seed oblong, the fruit is often seed- 

 less. 



The earliest account of Toxvloii poiiiifciiiiii was given by a 

 Scotch gentleman, ^Villialll ])iinl)ar, in his narrative of a jour- 

 ney made in 1804 from St. Catiierine's Landing on the Mis- 

 sissippi to the A\'ishita river. In iSio, Bratlbnry, who trav- 

 elled extensively in the interior of North America in 1S09, 

 1810 and 181 1, relates tliat he fonnd two trees growing in 

 the garden of Pierre Chouteau, one of the first settlers of St. 

 Louis. The)' were known as Osage Orange, the trees having 

 been introduced from a settlement of the Osage Indians. 

 The wood was highly prized by the Lidians as material for 

 bows and war clubs, and Ki-adl)ury relates that the price of 

 a bow was a horse ami blanket. The wood is very elastic, 

 practically incorruptible, and extensively used wherever wood 



260 



