214 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



of all mulberries as food for the silkworm, while its growth 

 is the most vigorous, and its leaves more easily gathered 

 than those of any other tree of the genus. 



The Paper Mulberry Tree. Broussonetia. 



Nat. Ord. Urticacese. Lin. Syst. DicEcia, Tetrandria. 



The Paper mulberry is an exotic tree of a low growth, 

 rarely exceeding twenty-five or thirty feet, indigenous to 

 Japan and the South Sea Islands, but very common in our 

 gardens. It is remarkable for the great variety of forms 

 exhibited in its foliage ; as upon young trees it is almost 

 impossible to find two exactly alike, though the prevailing 

 outhnes are either heart-shaped, or more or less deeply cut 

 or lobed. These leaves are considered valueless for feed- 

 ing the silkworm ; but in the South Seas the bark is woven 

 into dresses worn by the females ; and in China and Japan 

 extensive use is made of it in the manufacture of a paper 

 of the softest and most beautiful texture. This is fabricated 

 from the inner bark of the young shoots, which is first boiled 

 to a soft pulp, and then submitted to processes greatly 

 similar to those performed in our paper-mills. This tree 

 blossoms in spring and ripens its fruit in the month of 

 August. The latter is dark scarlet, and quite singular and 

 ornamental, though of no value. The genus is dicecious ; 

 and the reason why so few fruit-bearing trees are seen in 

 the United States, is because we generally cultivate only 

 one of the sexes, the female. M. Parmentier, however, who 

 introduced the male plant from Europe, disseminated it in 



