42 TREES 



Plot C may be seen the White Mulberry, Morus alba, which 

 was introduced into Southern Europe from China about 1540 

 for food for silkworms, and, being less hardy than the common 

 black species, is occasionally damaged by severe frost, an 

 accident which befell our tree in the disastrous winter of 

 1860. In 1872 it had an arched opening right through its 

 stem, a circumstance which was reported not to have affected 

 its equanimity. It has since lost a large limb, of 18 in. in 

 diameter. The earliest varieties are recommended for culti- 

 vation in this country as a means of obtaining home-made 

 silk in favourable seasons. 



The Paper Mulberry, Broussonettia papyri/era^ a native of 

 India and Japan, where it is made into paper, is also 

 assiduously cultivated by the Pacific Islanders for making 

 tapa, a kind of cloth which is much worn : to prepare this, 

 the bark of the smaller branches is soaked in water, scraped 

 with shells, beaten and squeezed together. 



Beneath is the free-growing shrubby Poison Ivy, Rhus 

 toxicodendron. Beware of it ! For reasons, see p. 64. 



The two Yews, male and female, are the last vestiges 

 of the double hedge before mentioned which extended across 

 the Garden to the Danby Gate. In a garden where space 

 is so valuable there would be much to be said in favour of 

 restoring them to their ancient formal shape and of thus 

 lessening their "massive shade." Indeed, in the oldest British 

 Garden and in the former home of classical culture, we would 

 gladly see some larger reminder of the Roman topiaria herba 

 than the Box-edgings of the flower-beds. The Yews might 

 be appropriately clipped to represent Adam and Eve. 



Farther west are fine examples of a variety of the Box 

 Elder or Ash-leaved Maple, Negundo aceroides, var. crispum, 

 from N. America, and of the Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus 

 glandulosa, a sort of gigantic Sumach with large pinnated 

 leaves from China, beloved by silkworms of several sorts. 

 It has been known to throw up suckers from the roots at 



