280 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE MULBERRY TREE. MORUS. L. 



The flowers of the two sexes are usually on the same plant, 

 sometimes on distinct plants. The male flowers are in a droop- 

 ing, axillary spike, with a calyx of four-parted sepals and four 

 stamens. Female flowers in ovate, dense, erect spikes; calyx of 

 four sepals, concave, becoming pulpy and juicy. Ovary of two 

 cells, one having one pendulous ovule, the other none. Stigmas 

 two, long. When ripe, each ovary is a fleshy nut covered by 

 the fleshy calyx; the aggregate from a spike of flowers forming 

 the compound berry. 



The several species are trees, with white sap, and alternate, 

 rough, usually lobed, leaves, which are the favorite food of the 

 silk-worm, the caterpillar of the Bombyx Mori 7 but are hardly 

 attacked by any other insect. There are ten or more species, 

 two of which have been known from remote times. 



The only species natural to New England, is — 



The Red Mulberry. M. rubra. L. 



Figured in Michaux, Sylva, III, Plate 11(5 ; and in Loudon's Arboretum, VII, 



Plate 183. 



This species naturally grows farther north than any other 

 mulberry. Pursh speaks of it as growing in the Middle States; 

 Michaux thinks it is not found east of the Connecticut River, 

 or north of Lake Champlain. According to Darlington, it some- 

 times reaches the height of thirty feet in Pennsylvania, and a 

 diameter of from twelve to twenty inches, with numerous 

 spreading branches at top. But Michaux found it, in the upper 

 part of that State and in Virginia, sixty or seventy feet high, 

 and sometimes two feet in diameter. According to all who 

 have spoken of it, the wood is exceedingly hard, strong, and 

 durable. Michaux says it is almost as durable as the locust, 

 and by many persons esteemed quite equal to it. In the south- 

 ern ports, all that can be obtained of it is employed in ship- 

 building, and it is preferred to every other wood except locust, 

 for treenails. For posts, also, it is highly valued, from its dura- 

 bility when exposed to the weather. In boat-building, and for 



