OSAGE ORANGE, OR YELLOW WOOD. 129 
for feeding silk worms, for which purpose it is scarcely 
inferior to the famous Morus Multicaulis. t 
The branches are flexuous and round, clothed with a 
smooth grey bark. The leaves are alternate, upon long 
foot-stalks, and are usually oval and acuminated; on the 
bearing branches they are, however, often considerably 
larger and heart-shaped at the base, very entire, with 
the point mucronated and a little pungent, the upper 
surface is smooth and shining, but the petiole and 
nerves on the under side of the leaf are somewhat hir- 
sutely pubescent. The petiole is often an inch or more 
long; the leaf itself 2 to 4 inches, and \\ to 3 inches 
wide. The staminiferous plant appears uniformly weaker, 
more delicate, and smaller leaved than the fertile plant. 
The flowers in it are axillary, in pedunculated small 
umbels, each umbel containing about 15 to 20 flowers, 
consisting merely of a small 4-cleft calyx, with oval 
hairy segments, and 4 stamens, on lengthened and ex- 
serted filaments. The anthers are 2-cdled, large and 
oval, opening lengthwise. In both plants, single, undi- 
vided thorns come out in the upper axills of the leaves. 
The female capitulum consists of a congeries of flowers 
united into a globular form, about the size of a cherry; 
these consist also in a calyx of 4 divisions, but less 
regular than in the male. The styles and stigmas, one 
to each germ, are f of an inch long, giving to the ament 
the appearance of a tuft of long pubescent threads. 
The berry filled with a milky juice, becomes about the 
size of a moderate but not large Orange, having an 
irregular tessellated appearance, almost like that of the 
Bread-fruit; these tessellations are the unduly enlarged 
t Different opinions are now entertained of the value of the 
leaves of the Maclura as a food for silk-worms, some approving 
and others discouraging their use. 
17 
