242 MULBERRY 



with variable leaves and milky juice, moncecious or, rarely, 

 dioecious, anemophilous. 



Flowers small, green, in short, catkin-like pseudo- 

 spikes of cymes ; axillary on the dwarf shoots. The ^ 

 on the same branches as the % (and then near the apex 

 of the shoot) or not ; the % at the base of the shoot. 

 Male spikes 2 4 cm. long, ovoid and catkin-like. Peri- 

 anth 4-partite, yellowish-green ; stamens 4, long, exserted. 

 Pollen floury, white, irregularly tetrahedral, 20 25 /a. 

 Female inflorescence pedunculate, sub-globose or oblong, 

 about 1 1"5 cm. Perigone 4-partite, greenish ; ovary sub- 

 sessile, with short style and two thick spreading stigmas. 

 Ovule 1. Fruit false berried and multiple, globoid or 

 oblong, up to 1'5 cm., the perigone becoming fleshy and 

 enclosing the achenes, and all fusing into the Mulberry, 

 red, sweet. 



[The Black Mulberry differs somewhat in its leaves, is 

 more dioecious, and has shorter peduncles and larger black 

 mulberries.] 



(ii) Each $ flower, or group of two or three 

 flowers, surrounded at the base by a leafy, 

 or tough and thick cupule, in addition to 

 the adherent epigynous perigone. 



[For ((3) ^ (a) The ^ catkins long, cylindroid, uninter^- 



^^^^' rupted and pendulous. Gupide leafy and 



membranous, not prickly or scaly. 



* The S catkins at the ends of dwarf 

 shoots; the $ terminal on the long shoots. 

 Scales loosely imbricated ; those of the $ 

 especially large, and fusing with the two 

 lateral bracteoles to a large tri-lobed leafy 

 appendage which wraps round the two 

 9 flowers at their base, forimng an 



