o!--you who suck persimmons like a 'possum!--no use, eh?"

"Well, that's true enough," rejoined Francois, "but still we do not
cultivate these trees for their fruits--we find them in the woods,
growing naturally."

"Because," interrupted Lucien, "we have the advantage of the Indians.
We understand commerce, and get other and better sorts of fruits from
all parts of the world. We have cereals, too, such as wheat and rice,
and many kinds which they had not; we can therefore do without these
trees. With the Indians it was different. It is true they had the
Indian corn or maize-plant (_Zea maiz_), but, like other people, they
were fond of variety; and these trees afforded them that. The Indian
nations who lived within the tropics had variety enough. In fact, no
people without commerce could have been better off in regard to
fruit-bearing plants and trees than the Aztecs, and other tribes of the
South. The Natchez, however, and those in the temperate zone, had their
trees and plants as well--such as those we see before us--and from these
they drew both necessary food, and luxurious fruits and beverages.
Indeed the early colonists did the same; and many settlers in remote
places make use to this day of these spontaneous productions of Nature."

"Would it not be interesting, Basil," said Francois, appealing to his
elder brother, "if Lucien would give a botanical description of all
these trees, and tell us their uses? He knows all that."

"Yes," replied Basil, "I should like to hear it."

"That I shall do with pleasure," said Lucien. "Not, however, a
_botanical_ description, according to the sense of the Linnean school,
as that would weary you soon enough, without adding much to your stock
of information. I shall only state what I know of their properties and
uses; and I may remark that there is not a tree or plant that is not
intended for some use in the economy of Nature. If botanists had spent
their time in trying to discover these uses, instead of wasting it in
idle classifications, mankind would have been more enriched by their
labours.

"Let us begin, then, with the mulberry-tree, as there are many of them
growing around. Were I to tell you all about this valuable tree, I
should occupy a day or more. I shall only state those facts about it
that are most interesting.

"The mulberry-trees form the genus _morus_--for this was the name by
which they were known to the ancient Greeks. Of this genus there are