326 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaoa, N. Y. 



ticular comment. The same volume also mentions the Black 

 mulberi-y of Spain, as having been fniited by Felix Gillet, of 

 Neveda City, California. This I take to be Morus nigra. There 

 must be large regions in this country which are congenial to the 

 true black mulberry, and it is strange that it is so little knowm 

 The fruit of this species is much larger than that of any other, 

 and it possesses an agreeable sub-acid llavor. The fruits of 

 Morus alba, however, are often too sweet for most tastes when* 

 fully ripe, and in such case they should be picked before they 

 have fully matured. 



5. The Red or Native Mulberry Group. — Morus ruhra^ Linn, 

 Leaves usually large, very various, those on the young shoots 

 deeply lobed with very oblique and rounded sinuses in the base 

 of which there aire no teeth, the upper surface rough and the 

 lower one soft or variously pubescent, the teeth medium or com-, 

 paratively small and either rounded or bluutish. The native 

 mulberry is generally distributed from western New England to 

 Nebraska and southward to the gulf, being much more abundant 

 and attaining a larger size in the south. The fruit is deep red, 

 or when fully ripe, almost black, variable in size, often very 

 good, nearly always having an agreable slight acidity. Thi^ 

 native mulbei-ry has been tried for the feeding of silk-worms, but 

 with indifferent success. I am satisfied that at least three of the 

 named fruit-bearing mulberries belong to it, and a yellow leave^ 

 mulberry, which is somewhat grown for ornament, also appears 

 to be of this species. The curious lobiiig of the leaves on the 

 young growth is shown in the middle spray in the accompanying 

 engraving (page 327). This lobing is distinct from that in any 

 other mulberry which I have seen, and it has been one of the? 

 chief characters in influencing me to refer the Hicks and Stubbs 

 mulberries to Morus rubra. The nearest approach to this lobing 

 which I have seen in any other mulberry is in the Japanese 

 (Morus Japonica) and this affords another of those interesting 

 parallelisms which exist between the Japanese and eastern Ameri- 

 can floras. The red mulberry is the largest tree of the genus. 



