170 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



They are mentioned by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and also by 

 Atlienjeus and Galen, and, among the Romans, Virgil, Horace,; 

 Pliny, Columella, and Palladius speak of them as common and 

 well known. All these writers ai'e supposed to refer to tlie Black 

 Mulberry only (Morus nigra), now but little valued and seldom 

 to be met "with in Italy, although at the first introduction of silk- 

 worms it is supposed to have been exclusively made use of in 

 raising them. It is even said to be indigenous to the Italian 

 sea coasts as well as to Persia. We have, however, been unable 

 to find any wild specimens in any of our herbaria, and modern 

 botanists meet with it only in a cultivated state in East India, as 

 in Europe. The only native station given with any confidence in 

 modem floras is the chain of the Caucasus and some adjoining 

 mountains. 



The White Mulberry (Morus alba), now spread over all parts of 

 Eui'ope and Asia where the silkworm is raised, and almost every- 

 where the only species cultivated for that purpose, is a native of 

 Northern India and China. It is said to have been unknown to 

 the ancients. A passage of Ovid, quoted by Prof. Targioni, 

 alludes indeed to the white fruits of the mulberry, but this is 

 considered by the late Prof. Moretti, who devoted a great part of 

 his scientific life to the mulberry, to be a mere poetical license. 

 Another of Berytius, also quoted by Targioni, states that the 

 Mulberry bears white fruits when grafted on the white poplar, but 

 in our days this can only provoke a smile at its evident 

 absurdity. Yet a variety of the white mulberry, said to be deli- 

 cious eating, but unknown in Europe, is now abundant in 

 Reloochistan, Affghanistan, and probably in Persia, and apparently 

 of very ancient cultivation there. It is therefore by no means 

 impossible that some knowledge of it may have reached such of 

 the ancient writers as may have been in the East, or had 

 communication with it. 



However that may be, it appears certain that the introduction 

 of the white mulberry into Italy is of a date long posterior to 

 that of the silkworm. These valuable insects were imported into 

 Sicily, in 1148, by King Piuggieri, after he had in his wars with 

 Manuel Comnenus conquered Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, It 

 is commonly said that the Lucchese learnt the art of raising 

 them from the Sicilians, and introduced it into Florence, when, 

 in 1815, they took refuge there from the sack of their own city. 

 Pagnini has however proved that silk was produced in Florence 

 in and previous to the year 1225, and from the histories and 



