125. MORACEJE. [3. Morus. 



exceeding the perianth. Fern, peduncles •3--4" with 2-3 bracts 

 •07--08" long at the top supporting the flower, tepals free but closely 

 wrapping round the ovary -OS-'l". Fruit yellow succulent (including 

 the succulent perianth), -15". 



Throu;^hout the province but chiefly in the moister districts. Very common in 

 Purneah ! Also very common in parts of Ang-ul and Puri, less so in other districts 

 and then near nalas ! Fl. March-April. Fr. May-June. Evergi-een. Renews 

 leaves in March, 



Bark tough, stringy, light grej^; hlaze with a thin chlorophyll layer, then white, 

 followed by a gradual darkening and a slight exudation of small' drops of latex. 

 Leaves usually obscui-ely toothed, acuminate, scabrid both sides, sec n. 7-9 of 

 which 1 (each side) close to base and sub-primary, others irregular and looping, 

 reticulate between with nervules raised beneath. Stipules "l". Style below 

 bifurcation about "07", arms "S" long. 



A favourite food of goats, which often prevent the tree developing otherwise 

 than as a small, gnarled, intricately branched bush. The wood is \evj tough. 

 Gamble gives the weight as 40-45 lbs. and states that the leaves are used for 

 polishing ivory and wood. 



3. MORUS, L. Mulberry. 



Trees or shrubs with alternate entire toothed or 3-lobed palmi- 

 nerved leaves and caducous stipules. Flowers spicate, mon- or di- 

 <]ecious, tepals 4-3 imbricate, those of the female fleshy and swollen 

 in fruit, enclosing the achene and more or less confluent into a syncarp. 

 Pistillode turbinate. Ovary straight with central 2 -partite style. 

 Ovule pendulous. Seed subglobose, albumen fleshy. Embryo 

 incurved, cotyledons oblong equal, radicle ascending incumbent. 



M, spikes lax, 'o-I'd". F. spikes ovoid, styles connate high up . . 1. indicu. 

 M. and F. spikes l*o-o" long linear dense. Stj-les bifurcate from near 



the base 2. Itevigata. 



1. M. indica, L. Syn. M. alba, var. cuspidata, Bureau (the Purneah 



plant so named in the Calcutta Herbarium) ; Siah tut, H. ; 



Tut, Beng. 

 A shrub or small tree up to 25 ft. high with ovate or broadly ovate, 

 caudate, sharply serrate, often deeply lobed leaves 2-5" long. 

 Flowers with the young leaves. Male spikes rather lax-flowered 

 broadly cylindric or ovoid •5-1-5" long, haivy all over, pedicels short, 

 tepals elliptic -OS-'l" long, stamens twice as long. Fem. spikes 

 short-ovoid on slender peduncles about half as long, tepals obovate 

 with white margins, styles long, connate below, hairy. Fruit ovoid 

 or subglobose, red, then black. 



Common in dry forests and stony places in the Terai and Duars to the east ! and 

 in the sub-Himalayan tract west of our area, no doubt therefore occurring within 

 it. Hamilton says (in his account of Purneah) " both kinds of Morns are here very 

 common." Also cultivated in Bihar, Tirhut and Chota Nagpur ! Fl. Oct.-Feb. 

 Fr. April-Maj'. Deciduous for short })eriod in .January or February. 



Bark light grey. Buds perulate. Leaves scaberulous, pubescent when very 

 young, basal nerves .3 and 3-4 sec. n. on the centi-al one. Petiole •o-l'o" Dioecious 

 (where I have seen it). Male peduncles short slender. 



Brandts says " a deciduoas tree, for silkworms grown as a shrub," but in its truly 

 wild state along stony sub-Himalayan nalas in Mixed Forest I have frequently seen 

 it flowering as a shrub, as, in fact, he himself describes it in his old Forest Flora. 



2. M. laevigata, Wall. Kimbu, Nep. 



A large handsome tree, young shoots hairy or villous. Leaves 

 ovate or broadly ovate, caudate, with base mostly cordate and often 



821 



