Osage Orange

Osage Orange (Maclura aurantiaca), a tree of the natural order Moraceæ, a native of North America. It attains a height varying, according to soil and situation, from 20 to 60 feet. It is of the same genus with Fustic (q.v.), and its wood, which is bright yellow, probably might be used for dyeing. The wood is fine-grained and very elastic, and takes a high polish; it is much used for fence-posts, sleepers, paving-blocks, &c. The tree is largely employed in America, especially in the west, as a hedge-plant; it has also been introduced into Britain for that purpose, but has not met with general appreciation. Its fruit is about the size of a large orange, has a tuberculated surface of a golden colour, and is filled internally with radiating, somewhat woody fibres, and with a yellow milky juice, the odour of which is generally disliked, so that the fruit, although not unwholesome, is seldom eaten.