xX. 2. THE HACK BERRY. oll 
mounted with stigmas twice itsown length. Fruit-stalks half 
an inch long. Drupe of the sizeof a large pea, and of a brown- 
ish red.— Spach, XI, 431. 
Michaux says, ‘This is one of the finest trees that compose 
the dusky forests on the upper part of the Ohio. It associates 
with the buttonwood, black walnut, butternut, bass wood, black 
sugar maple, elm and sweet locust, which it equals in stature 
but not m bulk, being sometimes more than eighty feet high, 
with a disproportionate diameter of eighteen or twenty inches. 
“I'he wood is fine-grained and compact, but not heavy, and 
when freshly exposed it is perfectly white: sawn in a direction 
parallel or oblique to its concentrical circles, it exhibits the fine 
undulations that are observed in the elm and the locust. On 
laying open the sap of this tree in the spring, I have remarked, 
without being able to account for the phenomenon, that it 
changes in a few minutes from pure white to green. On the 
Ohio and in Kentucky, where the best opportunity is afforded 
of appreciating this wood, it is little esteemed, on account of its 
weakness and its speedy decay when exposed to the weather. 
It is rejected by wheelwrights, but 1s sometimes employed in 
building, for the covering which supports the shingles. As itis 
elastic and easily divided, 1t is used for the bottom of common 
chairs, and by the Indians for baskets. On the banks of the 
Ohio, it is frequently taken for the rails of rural fence, and is 
wrought with the greatest ease, as it is straight-grained and 
free from knots: it is said, also, to afford excellent charcoal. 
“he hack berry is certainly one of the most beautiful trees 
of its genus, and one of the most remarkable for height and for 
majesty of form. In rich soils, the luxuriance of its vegetation 
is shown by sprouts, six, eight, and ten feet in length, garnished 
on each side with large, substantial leaves. In France, it 1s 
principally esteemed for the rapidity of its growth.”—WSylva, 
II, 47—48. 
Spach says it grows readily on all kinds of soil, and is re- 
markable for its beauty and for the rapidity of its growth. 
There are two trees of this family of such value for their 
wood, and of such beauty, that they ought not to be passed 
