MORUS NIGRA. ORD. XU. Scabride, 713 
divided into four leaves, which are oval, concave, and erect: 
there is no corolla: the filaments are four, longer than the calyx, 
and furnished with simple antherz: the calyx of the female flower 
is divided into four obtuse persistent segments: there is no corolla: 
the germen is roundish, and supports two rough styles, supplied 
with simple stigmata: the fruit is a large succulent berry, com- 
posed of a number of smaller berries, each containing an oval 
seed, and affixed toa common receptacle. It flowers in June, and 
its fruit ripens in September. 
The Mulberry-tree is a native of Italy, and is now ‘etervated 3 in 
most parts of Europe,® not only for the grateful fruit which it 
affords, but in many places for the more lucrative purpose of 
supplying Silk-worms with its leaves. npon which they feed.‘ 
The ripe fruit abounds with a deep violet-coloured juice, which 
in its general qualities agrees with that of the other acido-dulces, 
allaying thirst, partly by refrigerating, and partly by exciting an 
_ excretion of mucus from the mouth and fauces; a similar effect is 
also produced in the stomach, where, by correcting putrescency, a 
powerful cause of thirst is removed." This is more especially the 
case with all those fruits in which the acid much prevails over the 
saccharine part, as the currant, which we have already noticed ;* 
and to which the medicinal qualities of this fruit may be referred ; 
but both these, and most of the other summer fruits, are to be con- 
sidered rather as articles of diet than of medicine. The London 
College directs a syrupus mori, which is an agreeable vehicle for 
various medicines. 
» Gerard is the first who is known to have cultivated it in England. 
© The leaves of the white Mulberry are preferred for this purpose in Europe ; 
but in China, where the best silk is made, the silk worms are fed with those of 
the Morus tartarica. (Forster, in a letter to Professor Murray. See App. Med. 
vol. iv. p. 597. dated 1787.) From the bark of another species of Mulberry, 
(M. Papyrifera) the Japanese make paper, and the inhabitants of some of the 
islands of the South Sea make a kind of cloth. 
4 See Cullen’s account of the fructus acide-dulces. Mat. Med. vol. i. p. 242. 
© Page 535, vol. 4, See also Rubss and Citrus. 
No, 52.—vou. 4. 8s 
