DAPHNACEAE (Mezereon Family)
This moose or leatherwood fiber (Dirca palustris, L.) was encountered eleven times in as widely separated states as Arkansas and Wisconsin. It was used both in the raw state, as strips twisted into cord, and as treated fiber in finer cords and threads. A prehistoric mat made by the inhabitants of Bushwick Cave, Arkansas, is composed of this material (MAIHF 19-4635). Cloth of the Adena culture made, in part, from this bast fiber (1200) is in the Ohio State Historical and Archaeological Museum. In the Milwaukee Public Museum is a Wisconsin Potawatomi bag (23447) in which the weft is nicely prepared fiber from this plant. In the collections of this Museum is a Winnebago bag (50-784D) woven with two kinds of cord; light colored cord of Dirca palustris and dark colored cord of Tilia americana.