CHAPTER XXI 

 HORACE-® (Mulberry Family) 



The mulberry family has about 925 species in 55 genera, 

 occurring in tropical and temperate regions of both hemi- 

 spheres. It possesses a number of plants of considerable 

 economic importance. Several Asiatic species of the genus 

 Ficus yield a sap from which rubber is made. Ficus carica 

 is our cultivated fig. The India rubber plant of green- 

 houses and in home?, is Ficus elastica. Artocarpus communis 

 is the well-known bread-fruit of the tropics. Toxylon 

 pomijerum is the osage orange, a tree whose wood is valuable 

 for wheels, posts and other small articles; it is also planted 

 for ornament. The paper mulberry {Papyrus papyrifera) , 

 is a native of Asia. Its bark is of value in paper-making. 

 Other genera of importance are Morus (mulberry), Humulus 

 (hop), and Cannabis (hemp). 



Description. — Members of this family are trees, shrubs, 

 or herbs with a milky sap. The buds may be naked or scaly. 

 The leaves are petioled (stalked), stipule-bearing, and borne 

 oppositely or alternately on the stem. The flowers are in 

 ament-hke spikes or heads on stalks which arise in the axils 

 of leaves. An ament is a spike-like inflorescence each flower 

 of which is subtended by a conspicuous bract. The flowers 

 may be monoecious or dioecious. In the staminate flower, 

 the calyx is three- to six-lobed or parted, the petals are 

 absent, and the stamens are one to four, inserted at the base 

 of the calyx. The filaments are thread-hke, and erect or 

 inflexed in the bud. In the pistillate flower , the calyx consists 

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