Indians discovered that ropes and a coarse cloth could be woven out of the bast fibre of mulberry bark. The berries have some medicinal properties, and are eagerly devoured by hogs and poultry. The chief value of the tree lies in the durability of its wood, which commends it to the boatbuilder, the cooper, and to the man with fences to build.
One of the mulberry's chief characteristics is its tenacity to life. Its seeds readily germinate, and cuttings strike quickly, whether from roots or stems. Evelyn's instructions for propa gating the European mulberry by cuttings are quaint and worth hearing. "They will root infallibly, especially if you twist the old wood a little or at least hack it; though some slit the foot, inserting a stone or grain of an oat to suckle and entertain the plant with moisture." The Mexican Mulberry (M. eeltidifolia, H.B.K.), with small, ovate leaves, somewhat like the hackberry's, and small black fruit, is found from western Texas to Arizona, and follows the moun tains to Peru and Ecuador. It is a small tree whose wood fur nished the early Indians with bows; and the Mexican often sets it out in his garden, for the inferior fruit is grateful in the hot, dry sections where berries are scarce.
The Black Mulberry (M. nigra), native of Persia, is the one cultivated in Europe for its fruit. It is occasionally grown in California and the Southern States, but is not hardy in the North. It has its name from its dark red, fleshy fruit, as well as its sombre foliage.
No mulberry is ranked among profitable fruit trees. The berries rarely appear in the markets, though the trees are common in gardens. The fruits are too sweet, and they lack piquancy of flavour. They ripen a few at a time, and may be gathered on sheets by shaking the trees. Planted in hog pastures, the fruit is highly appreciated as it falls. As an attraction for birds the tree justifies planting in towns, and in country yards and gardens. Some of our most desirable song birds build near mulberry trees which promise summer fruit for their families. When a bird basin is added with promdse of water supply for drink and bath, the place will be chosen by many birds.
The Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrif era, Vent.) is one of two or three oriental species of its genus. Its inner bark has long furnished a good grade of paper in its own country, Japan.
In the United States it has a southern range, and is an ornamental of considerable popularity owing to the luxuriance of its foliage. But as a street tree it is less planted than formerly, for its habit of throwing up suckers makes it troublesome. It has escaped from cultivation in many places. In sheltered situations it is hardy to the city of New York.
2. Genus TOXYLON, Raf.
Osage Orange (Toxylon pomiferum, Raf.)—Handsome, round-headed tree, 40 to 6o feet high, with short trunk, sharp spines, fleshy roots and milky, bitter sap. Bark dark, scaly deeply furrowed; branches orange brown; twigs pubescent, Wood orange-yellow, hard, heavy, flexible, strong, durable in soil. takes fine polish. Buds sunk deep in twigs, blunt, all lateral; Leaves alternate, simple, 3 to 5 inches long, ovate, entire, taper. pointed, thick, dark green, polished above, paler and dull beneath, yellow in autumn; petioles slim, hairy, grooved; thorns axillary. Flowers dicecious, in June; staminate small, in peduncled racemes, terminal on leafy spur of previous season; greenish; pistillate in globular, many-flowered heads, axillary. Fruit globular, 4 to inches in diameter, green, compound by union of i-seeded drupes, which are filled with milky juice; seed oblong. Preferred habitat, deep, rich soil. Distribution, southern Arkansas, southeastern Indian Territory and southern Texas. Naturalised widely. Uses: Indians used wood for bows and clubs. Now used for posts, piles, telegraph poles, paving blocks, railroad ties; sometimes for interior woodwork of houses. Trees planted in parks and grounds for shade and ornament, also for hedges. Roots and bark yield yellow dye and tannic acid.
The Osage orange hedge marked one period in the pioneer's work of taming the wilds of the Middle West. Farms had to be enclosed. Board fences were too costly, and were continually needing repairs. Fencing with wire was new and ineffectual, for barbed wire had not yet come into use; so hedges were planted far and wide. The nurserymen reaped a harvest, for this tree grows from cuttings of root or branch. All that is needed is to hack a tree to bits and put them into the ground; each fragment takes root and sends up a flourishing shoot.