164 =- Captain T. Hutton on the 
remark that the red holds an intermediate place between the black 
and the white fruit. 
In 1858 the white mulberry appears in some quarters to have 
fallen in estimation, and the Morus multicaulis was likewise con- 
demned, as it was said, ‘‘ because it produces so few leaves, though 
they are larger, and partly because those few are too soft and 
milky for the worm, yielding a weak fibre.’’* 
This statement, however, unfortunately proved to be an egre- 
gious blunder, the tree thus denounced being in reality not the 
Morus multicaulis, which, as the specific name points out, instead 
of having few leaves of large size, has a multitude of branches 
thickly covered with a moderate-sized leaf. The large-leaved 
tree is now named Morus cucullata, from the leaf taking the form 
of a skull cap, and strange to say, although pronounced to be 
worthless when supposed to be MM. multicaulis, was subsequently, 
by the same authority, and under the equally erroneous name of 
Morus Sinensis, extensively cultivated as a first-rate silkworm 
diet. 
Whatever may be the value of M. multicaulis and M. cucullata 
in their own native climates, they do not appear to have given 
much satisfaction elsewhere, and certainly in a cold northern 
climate they can scarcely be expected to do so; at Mussooree, I 
regard them both as trash, and although in Oudh, Dr. Bonavia 
found that B. Mort and B. Sinensis both ate them readily enough, 
yet in the later stages of the worm a leaf of greater substance was 
required. In such case I would recommend the coarser leaf from 
the very beginning, for if the young worm lacks sufficient 
nourishment in the two first stages of its growth, it will be next 
to impossible, by any amount of subsequent good feeding, to 
recover the ground thus lost. 
It is, I am convinced, precisely because in the early stages the 
worms have been fed upon chopped and thin watery leaves, that 
the constitution has been at length brought to the very extreme 
of weakness. Starvation in childhood is surely not the best 
method of eventually producing either a strong healthy man, or 
any other animal ! 
The climate, the tree, and the species of silkworm to be reared 
should all, as much as possible, be adapted to each other; 
whereas under the present system the cultivator appears to 
think that climate, food and the constitution of the insect are all 
mere secondary considerations to be set at naught, and dis- 
* Journ. Hort. Soc. of India, vol.*. part 2, p. 182. 
