298 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



5. The Bed or Native Mulberry Group.— iliorws rubra. 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 

 are no teeth, the upper surface rough and the lower one soft or variously 

 pubescent, the teeth medium or comparatively small and either rounded or 

 bluntish. The native mulberry is generally distributed from western New 

 England to Nebraska and southward to the gulf, being much more abund- 

 ant 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 agreeable slight acidity. This native mulberry 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 yel- 

 low-leaved mulberry, which is somewhat grown for ornament, also appears to 

 be of this species. The curious lobing of the leaves on the young growth 

 is shown in the middle spray in the accompanying engraving. 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 jajponica) and this affords another of those interesting parallel- 

 isms which exist between the Japanese and Eastern American floras. 

 The red mulberry is the largest tree of the genus. It often attains a height 

 of 70 feet in the south. The timber is much used for posts, fencing, and 

 light wood work. The two accompanying pictures are made from wild 

 specimens collected in Michigan. 



Johnson. — I have already said that this appears to 

 have been the first named variety of Mulberry, of any 

 species, originating upon American soil. The first 

 record of it, so far as I know, is in the first edition of 

 A. J. Downing's " Fruits and Fruit Trees," 1845, in 

 which it is said that the variety has been " lately 

 received from Professor Kirtland of Cleveland, one 

 of the most intelligent horticulturists in the country;" 

 and it is distinctly stated that it is a form' of our 

 native species. Charles Downing reafiirms this 

 latter statement in Purdy's Fruit Recorder, in 1872, 

 and in comparing the fruit with that of the wild 

 Morus rubra says that it is "of about the same Wiid red mulberry, 

 quality, but of larger size." In the second edition of 

 " Fruits and Fruit Trees," 1872, by Charles Downing, it is described as 

 follows: "A seedling from Ohio. Fruit very large, oblong cylindric; 

 blackish color, sub-acid and of mild agreeable fiavor. Growth of the wood 

 strong and irregular. Leaves uncommonly large." The Johnson is very 

 little known at the present time and will probably soon pass from sight. 

 Mr. Bergkmans of Georgia, writes that the " fruit is large, very good, but 

 too little of it," and that he has " long since discovered it." " The fruit is 

 fully two inches long by three fourths inch in diameter, very black and of 

 a rich vinous flavor." 



Hicks (Hicks^ Everbearing). This is a Georgian variety, as near as I 

 can learn, although Downing, in 1872, credits it to Kentucky. It was 

 brought to notice about 1850, or before, by Simri Rose of Macon, Georgia, 



