Two mulberries grow naturally in this country. The red species ranges from Massachusetts west to Kansas, and south to Texas and Florida. Its best growth is found in the lower Ohio valley and the southern foot hills of the Appalachian mountains. The largest trees are seventy feet high and three or four in diameter. If this tree were abundant the wood’s place in furniture and finish would be important. The heartwood is dark, of good figure, and fairly strong. It takes a fine polish, and resembles black walnut, though usually of a little lighter shade. Its largest use is as fence posts. It is durable in contact with the soil. The effect when made into furniture, finish, and various kinds of turnery, is pleasing. Farm tools, particularly scythe snaths, are made of it, and it has been reported for slack cooperage and boat building, but such uses are apparently infrequent. The wood is evidently sold under some other name, or without a name, for the total sawmill output in the United States is given in government statistics at only 1,000 feet, which is probably not one per cent of the cut. MEXICAN MULBERRY (_Morus celtidifolia_) ranges from southern Texas to Arizona. Trees are seldom more than thirty feet high and one in diameter. The berry is about half an inch long, black, and made up of a hundred or more very small drupes. It is edible, but its taste is insipid. The wood is heavy and is of dark orange or dark brown color. It is suitable for small turnery and other articles, but no reports of uses for it have been found. The tree is occasionally planted for its fruit by Mexicans, but Americans care little for it. Two foreign mulberries have been extensively planted in this country, and in some localities they are running wild and are mistaken for native species. One is the white mulberry (_Morus alba_), a native of China; the other is the paper mulberry (_Broussonetia papyrifera_) a different genus, but of the same family. It is a native of Japan, and has been naturalized in some of the southern states. Nine varieties of the white mulberry have been distinguished in cultivation. [Illustration] PERSIMMON [Illustration: PERSIMMON] PERSIMMON (_Diospyros Virginiana_)