328 4 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
What Lecex translates by young trees is in the Chinese 
text Ze KH nii sang, female (women’s) mulberry. The com- 
mentary says a small mulberry. {| See the Rh ya, 303.) 
99:—Before the mulberry tree has shed its leaves, low 
rich and glossy are they! Ah! thou dove, eat not its fruit, — 
When the mulberry tree sheds its leaves, they fall yellow on 
the ground. ¥£ shen in the text. Mao explains it by & 
(mulberry fruit). [See the Rh ya, 302]. The character 
also written HE and Bb, as in the Shi king [620]. 
236 :—Creeping about were the caterpillars, all ove ie j 
mulberry grounds. 234:—I gathered the roots of the 
mulberry tree, 3& -. The commentary explains that the 
root of the tree is meant. The white rind of the root o the . 
mulberry tree is still used as a medicine. | | 
The mulberr ry tree is cultivated in all the provinces 
China. The principal object of its culture is the leat 
which the silk-worm feeds. Silk is raised wherever the 
grows. The cultivation of the mulberry tree and the bret 
of silk-worms for the manufacture of silk can be trac 
back to the remotest time of Chinese civilisation. Accord 
to an ancient tradition related in Huai NAN WANG’s treat 
on the rearing of silk-worms [first century B.C), B 
SILING, Babtiesh of Huane v1 [ B.C. 2697] first taught 
people the art of rearing the silk-worm, She was 
sequently deified and worshipped. | 
The mulberry trees cultivated in China for the be 4 
of silk-worms are all varieties of Morus alba, L., as also 
trees grown in Western Asia and Southern Burope fo 
same purposes. VW. nigra, a native of Western Asia, 
much cultivated there for its excellent dark red fruit, 
not fit for rearing silk-worms. The name J. alba was 
= the silk-worm mulberry by C. BauHiIN [ Pinas th 
, 45%] on account of its white fruit. But im 4! 
- ‘Poking at least) the fruit of IM, alba is generally 
