CULTIVATED PLANTS. 171 



chronicles of Malespiui, Villani, and Ammirato, it would appear 

 that there were silk factories there before 1266. All this time the 

 leaves used were those of the black mulberry, as clearly appears 

 from a passage of Pier Crescenzio, who wrote about the 

 year 1280. Several statutes of the fourteenth century relate to 

 the plantation of the mulberry without any thing to indicate 

 which species they allude to, whilst all writers of the sixteenth 

 clearly distinguish the white silkworm mulberry from the black- 

 fruited. It would appear then that in the course of the fifteenth 

 century, the former had gradually, but entirely, superseded the 

 latter. It is indeed commonly supposed that the cuttings were 

 first brought into Tuscany from the Levant, by Francesco 

 Buonvicini, in 1434, and that already in the following year 1435, 

 a law dated 7th of April encouraging its cultivation related to this 

 new species. 



The Red Mulberry (Morus rubra), a Korth American species, is 

 to be found here and there in Italian gardens ; it is of recent 

 introduction and does not appear ever to have been planted for 

 silkworms. The one so called which Father Agostino del Riccio 

 says that Francis I. of Medicis had extensively sown in the 

 Boboli Gardens, and in the islands of the Cascine at Florence, 

 is supposed to have been a red-fruited variety of JMorus alba. 

 Several other varieties of this species have also, in modem days, 

 been brought from Eastern Asia or raised in European planta- 

 tions, and sent forth as new and most valuable species under the 

 names of Morus latifoUa, 7nacrophyUa or MorettUuia, midttcaulis, 

 sinensis, iMlippinensis, jajwnica, &c. 



A long chapter is devoted by Prof. Targioni to the Agrumi, 

 that is, to the oranges, lemons, citrons, and others belonging to 

 the genus Citrus of the family of AurantiacecR. They have long 

 been objects of great interest to the Italians and the subject of 

 many valuable works, being extensively cultivated for profit 

 wherever the climate will admit of it, and for ornament or 

 curiosity in public or private gardens in the more northern parts 

 of the Peninsula, where they still require protection in winter. 

 They are all of Eastern origin, and mostly introduced into Europe 

 in comparatively modern days, but of veiy ancient and general 

 cultivation in Asia. The varieties known are very numerous and 

 difficult to reduce accurately to their species, on the limits of 

 which botanists are much divided in opinion. Those who have 

 bestowed the most pains in the investigation of Indian botany and 

 in whose judgment we should place the most confidence, have 



