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The Ked-fruited Mulberry (Morus Hubra) grows in East Baton 

 Ilouge and many other parts of the State. The perfect wood is fine 

 grained, compact, though light. It is of a yellowish hue, approach- 

 ing to lemon color. It possesses strength and solidity, and when 

 properly seasoned is almost as durable as that of the flowering 

 locust. It is employed in dockyards, in the construction of both the 

 upper and lower frames of vessels, for knees and floor timbers. It 

 is also used for posts and rural fences. The fruit is dark red, and 

 has an agreeable flavor. It forms a refreshing and grateful drink, 

 well adapted to febrile diseases. A syrup is made of their juice 

 and used as a pleasant addition to gargles in inflammation of the 

 throat. We are told by Du Pratz, in his history of Louisiana, that 

 many of the Indian women wore cloaks made of the lint of the 

 mulberry tree. They stripped the bark from the young mulberry 

 shoots which rise from the roots. After having been dried in the 

 sun, they beat it to make all the woody parts fall off, and then gave 

 to the threads that remained a second beating, after which they 

 bleached them by exposing them to the dew. When they were 

 whitened they spun them to the coarseness of pack thread, and then- 

 wove them by stretching a cord on two stakes, fixed in the ground, 

 and fastening double threads of bark to this cord to form the warp, 

 they interwove the filling, and thus made themselves a species of 

 cloak upon this very primitive loom. 



The Black-fruited Mulberry (Morus Nigra) is suppospd to be a 

 native of Persia; but it is naturalized in the United States, as a 

 valuable shade tree. Its flowers are dioecious, male and female 

 flowers being on separate trees, very few trees bear any fruit. The 

 wood is of little use except as.fuel. The roots are considered as an 

 active vermifuge. 



The Osage Orange (Maclura Aurantiaca) is indigenous in Arkansas,, 

 Texas aud Missouri. It is employed for hedges and live fences. 

 The wood is of a bright yellow color, and is said to afford a yellow 

 dye. It is solid, heavy and durable, uncommonly fine grained aud 

 elastic, and on account of this last property, it has been used for 

 bows by all the tribes of Indians of the regions where it abounds. 

 Hence its name of "Bow wood." It receives a beautilul polish of 

 the brilliancy and appearance of satin wood. The bark yields a fine 

 white fibre, which might be converted into thread and a beautiful 

 woven tissue. 



