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HACK BERRY. 
Celtis crassifolia. C.foliis subcordatis, serratis , acuminatis ; fructibus nigris 
The banks of the Delaware, above Philadelphia, may be considered as 
the north-eastern limits of the Hack Berry. East of the mountains, it is 
restricted within narrow boundaries, and is a stranger to the lower part of 
Virginia and to the more Southern States : I have found it abundant only 
on the banks of the Susquehannah, and of the Potomac, particularly on 
the Susquehannah near Columbia and Harrisburg. It is profusely multi- 
plied, on the contrary, in the Western Country in all the valleys that 
stretch along the rivers, and wherever the soil is fertile throughout Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. On the Ohio, from Pittsburg to Marietta, it is 
called Hoop Ash, and in Kentucky, Hack Berry; a name whose origin I 
am unable to trace. 
This is one of the finest trees that compose the dusky forests on this part 
of the Ohio. It associates with the Button Wood, Black Walnut, Butter- 
nut, Bass Wood, Black Sugar Maple, Elm and Sweet Locust, which it 
equals in stature but not in bulk, being sometimes more than 80 feet high 
with a disproportionate diameter of 18 or 20 inches. 
The Hack Berry is easily distinguished by the form of its trunk, which 
is straight and undivided to a great height, and by its bark, which is gray- 
ish, unbroken and covered with asperities unequally distributed over its 
surface. Its leaves are larger than those of any other species of Nettle 
Tree, being 6 inches long and 3 or 4 inches broad. They are oval-acum- 
inate, denticulated, cor diform at the base, of a thick, substantial texture, 
and of a rude surface. The flowers are small, white, and often united in 
pairs on a common peduncle. The fruit is round, about as large as a pea, 
and black at its maturity. The 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 concentric 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 wheel- 
