ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART nr.

' /!C^?CS

but slightly acid. It did not appear half ripe when we received it; and itdecayed without coming to maturity. We have since, at different times, re-ceived two other fruits, also from Dr. Mease; but perceived no differencebetween them and the one figured above. The seeds in the fruit last re-ceived appearing full, we distributed them ; and young plants have been raisedfrom them by M. Vilmorin of Paris ; Mr. Gordon of the London Horticul-tural Society’s arboretum ; Mr. Campbell of the Botanic Garden , Manches-ter; and others. Mr. R. Buist, in the American Gardener’s Magazine , vol. ii.p. 77., states that there are four trees in Mrs. M'Mahon’s Nursery, Phila­ delphia , which were among the first introduced into that part of America . Theyare planted two and two, each pair being about 400 ft. apart. In 1831, it was dis-covered that one of these trees produced larger fruit than the others, and thatthis fruit contained perfect seeds. Two of the other trees produced smaller fruit,but the seeds they contained were abortive; while one of the trees was entirelybarren. The next year, it was discovered that the barren tree was the male plant;and that the tree which produced perfect seeds was the fertile plant, whichstood by its side. The wood is of a bright yellow colour, uncommonly fine-grained, and elastic; and, on account of the latter property, it is used by all thesouthern tribes of American Indians for bows. It is said to be extremelydurable, and capable of receiving the finest polish. It resembles the wood ofthe Madura tinctoria, or fustick tree (a stove plant, a native of the West In­ dies ), in affording a yellow dye. The tree is said by the Americans to be veryornamental, not only from its general form, its shining foliage, and its goldenorange-like fruit, but on account of its retaining its leaves longer than anyother deciduous tree. The branches being thorny, it has been proposed bysome to employ it as a hedge plant, and by others as a stock to the mulberry;and it has been suggested that it might prove a valuable substitute for, orauxiliary to, the M. a. multicaulis, as food for the silkworm. A memorial tothe latter effect, it is said, has lately been presented to the French Institute.(See Amer. Gard. Mag., vol. i. p. 400.) M. Bonafous, visiting the Botanic Garden at Montpelier, in .1835, and observing the luxuriance with which themaclura grew there, had a number of the leaves gathered, and tried to feedsilkworms with them, in the same way as is done with those of the mulberry.He gave the leaves of the maclura to 18 silkworms, as their only food, andthey produced very beautiful cocoons; but it is not stated how these cocoonsturned out when they were reeled. A second experiment was made in 1836,by M. Raffeneau De Lile, director of the Montpelier Garden, by giving 50silkworms the leaves of the maclura only during the latter part of their ex-istence. The worms were not fed on the maclura till the 19th of May', whenthey cast their second skins. These worms never seemed to eat the leavesgreedily; but they increased in size as much as those that were fed on the