MUIR 



MULBERRY 



339 



21,054; (1885) 25,141. See works by Herquet 

 (1874), Pfaff (1874), and Stephan (1886). 



Mllir. JOHN, a distinguished Sanskrit scholar, 

 was torn in Glasgow in 1810, studied at the univer- 

 sity there and at Haileybury, and at eighteen went 

 out to Bengal to join the East India Company's 

 Civil Service, in which he remained for twenty-five 

 years. His last years were spent in Edinburgh, 

 where he died, March 7, 1882. Muir was a muni- 

 ficent patron of learning, and himself a scholar of 

 unusually wide intellectual and spiritual sym- 

 pathies. He founded and endowed a chair of 

 Sanskrit in Edinburgh, as well as prizes for high 

 attainments in that language, and also provided 

 the funds for a lectureship in comparative religion. 

 His great work was his Original Sanskrit Texts 

 on the Origin and History of the Peoj>le of India, 

 their Reliyion and Institutions (5 vols. 1858-70; 

 2d ed. 1868-73). Another book is Metrical Transla- 

 tions from Sanskrit Writers ( 1878). 



SIR WILLIAM MUIR, his brother, was bom in 

 1819, and at eighteen joined the Bengal Civil 

 Service after having attended lectures at both the 

 universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He rose 

 rapidly in rank, was made K.C.S.I. in 1867, and was 

 lieutenant-governor of the North-west Provinces, 

 1868-74, and Financial Minister to the government 

 of India, 1874-76. After his return to England he 

 sat on the Council of India, 1876-85, when he was 

 elected Principal of the university of Edinburgh. 

 Sir William Muir is an eminent Arabic scholar, and 

 his Life of Mahomet (4 vols. 1858-61; abridged 

 ed. 1877) and Annals of the Early Caliphate ( 1883) 

 are works of solid and enduring value. Other 

 books are The Cordn, its Composition and Teach iity, 

 and Ike Testimony it bears to the Holy Scriptures 

 ( 1878) ; Extracts from the Cordn ( 1880) ; and The 

 Early Caliphate and Rite of Islam, the Rede 

 Lecture for 1881. 



Hilirkirk. a town of Ayrshire, 26 miles E. by 

 N. of Ayr, bleakly situated, 720 feet above sea- 

 level. It is the seat of great ironworks, dating 

 from 1787. Pop. ( 1871 ) 2376 ; ( 1891 ) 3329. 



Mllkaddasi, an Arab geographer, born at 

 Jerusalem, voyaged extensively for twenty years, 

 and described* Moslem lands in a work published 

 in 985 A.D. It was edited by De Uoeje in 1877; 

 and the part relating to Syria and Palestine was 

 translated from the Arabic for the Palestine 

 Pilgrim's Text Society in 1887, by Guy Le Strange. 



>lukl<-ll. or Moi'KDEX, capital of Manchuria, 

 is situated in the southern part of the country, on 

 a branch of the river Liao, 425 miles NE. of Peking. 

 Mukden is the Manchu name ; the Chinese call it 

 Shingking, its present official title. The town is 

 surrounded by a good masonry wall, a parallelo- 

 gram in S|I:I|M;. Outside this the suburbs extend 

 for one to two miles and are protected by a mud 

 wall. The imperial palace stands in the centre of 

 the city, enclosed within a third separate wall. 

 Previous to 1625 the town was called Shenyang; 

 in that year Nurhachu, the founder of the present 

 reigning family in China, made it his capital and 

 called it Mukden. The Irish and Scotch Presby- 

 terians are very active in the place ; they conduct 

 also a medical mission which is very successful. 

 Tln;rc is, too, a Roman Catholic mission. Numer- 

 ous temples adorn the city. Alx>ut four miles to 

 the east is the tomb of Nurhachu. Mukden con- 

 tains other imperial tombs of the reigning family, 

 (i'lod coal exists in the vicinity. Its port is New- 

 chwang (q.v. ) ; and it is an important point on the 

 Russian railway system which connects the Siberian 

 line with Port Arthur and the China Sea. 



Mulatto. See NEORO. 



Mulberry (Morus), a genus of trees of the 

 natural order Moracea:, natives of temperate and 



warm climates, with deciduous leaves, unisexual 

 flowers in short, thick spikes, a 4-parted perianth, 

 containing either four stamens or one pistil with 

 two styles, the perianth of the female flowers 

 becoming succulent and closing over the small 

 pericarp, the whole spike coalescing into an aggre- 

 gate fruit. The Common Mulberry, or Black 

 Mulberry (M. nigra), is a native of the middle 

 parts of Asia, but was introduced into the south of 

 Europe more than a thousand years ago, and is 

 now almost naturalised there. It is a low tree, 

 much branched, with thick rough bark, and broad 

 heart-shaped leaves, which are unequally serrated, 

 and very rough. It is cultivated in the middle 

 parts of Europe, and succeeds well in the south of 



Common Mulberry (Morus nigra). 



England, but in the northern parts of Britain it 

 requires a wall. The perianth and stigmas are 

 roughly ciliated, and the fruit is of a purplish- 

 black colour, with dark red juice, fine aromatic 

 flavour, and subacid sweet taste. The fruit is 

 much esteemed for dessert ; an excellent preserve 

 and a pleasant light wine are made of it. The 

 tree often produces its fruit in prodigious quantity. 

 The wood is employed in cabinet-work, but is not 

 of much value. The leaves are sometimes used for 

 feeding silkworms. The Black Mulberry lives 

 long ; trees still existing in England are known to 

 be more than 300 years old. It is propagated by 

 seed, by suckers, by layers, or by cuttings. It 

 succeeds best in a rich light soil. The White 

 Mulberry (M. alba) is a native of China, and has 

 been there planted from time immemorial for the 

 sake of its leaves, which are the best food for silk- 

 worms ; on this account also it has been culti- 

 vated in the south of Europe since about 1540. In 

 North America it does not succeed farther north 

 than 43 lat., l>eing somewhat more impatient ot 

 frost than the Black Mulberry. The perianth and 

 stigmas are smooth ; the fruit is almost white, and 

 is much less palatable than that of the Black 

 Mulberry, although in this respect there is great 

 difference among the many varieties. A rob made 

 of it is useful in sore throat. The best variety for 

 feeding silkworms, on account of its rapid growth 

 and abundant leaves, is that called the Philippine 

 Mulberry. In India the White Mulberry is 

 treated as a bush, and cut down twice a year ; 

 the shoots, stripped of their leaves, being thrown 

 away, although the bark has long been used in 

 China and Japan for making paper. It grows 

 readily from cuttings. The root has a considerable 

 reputation as a vermifuge. The Red Mulberry 

 (M. rubra), a native of North America, abounding 



