1S69.] THE MCLBEEEY TEEE. 151 



After the bulbs have started, water may be applied, but in very moderate 

 quantities through the winter. When, on the approach of spring, growth be- 

 comes active, they will require plenty of water ; and at that time a portion may 

 with advantage be placed close to the glass on the shelf of a greenhouse, which 

 will accelerate their flowering. The remainder may be left in the pit until they 

 throw up their flower-spikes, and may then be removed to the conservatory as 

 occasion requires. Several other species and varieties of Ixia and Sparaxis are 

 amenable to the same treatment, but I know of none more showy than Ixia 

 crocata, nor one which increases more abundantly, coupled apparently with the 

 great desideratum of a hardy constitution. 



Redleaf. John Cox. 



THE MULBERRY TREE. 



'HE Black-fruited Mulberry tree (3forus nigra) was introduced into this 

 country from Italy about 300 years since ; yet, notwithstanding the 

 delicious flavour of the fruit, and its being produced abundantly upon 

 the tree, we seldom see a Mulberry at any of our fruit exhibitions, and 

 rarely find it dished and sent to table as a dessert fruit ; I think I may add that 

 I have never seen it marketed like other garden produce. Stranger still, the 

 gardening periodicals do not enter it in their programme. Yet, after all, the 

 Mulberry tree is a plant of no ordinary merit, and seems to have kept itself 

 quite out of the hands of common people, for I do not recollect to have seen a 

 fine fruit-bearing Mulberry tree out of the grounds of the aristocracy. 



There is a Mulberry tree, full grown, and in good fruiting order, in the 

 garden of Lord Stanley of Alderley, in Cheshire ; and there is another, 

 a fine old cripple, supported on crutches, on the lawn at Syon House, the resi- 

 dence of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland. This latter is a noted tree, and 

 no doubt was one of the earliest planted in England. Lord Stanley's Mulberry 

 tree at Alderley is of the greatest importance to planters, as it proves beyond 

 cavil that this tree will grow and fruit freely in the North, in what may be best 

 known as the Manchester district, for Alderley is only about ten miles from 

 Manchester as the crow flies. There is a fine old Mulberry tree at Ixworth 

 Priory, near Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, that bears fruit freely. 



The Mulberry tree is not by any means an inviting specimen for the young 

 botanist to practise upon, for its flowers are inconspicuous, and although the 

 fruit be wholesome, the root of the tree is as nearly poisonous as possible, being 

 hot, bitter, and purgative. It belongs to the Urtical alliance, which includes also 

 the Hemp, the Hop, and the Fig, — all useful to man, but almost incomprehensi- 

 ble to the botanist, — for if we closely examine the Fig, for example, it appears to 

 be a compound flower turned outside in, seeking to hide its florets from the light 

 of day and from the prying gaze of man within a pouched pericarp full of seeds 

 and sweet pulp, as if the flowers, such as they are, sans petals and almost sans 



