MORUa 



M08ASAURUS. 



M 



cordate, pulxwoent, coarsely Minted, rough to tha touch, (lightly 

 actitniiMtp; ittipule* oblong, membranous, downy, the length of the 

 petiole or longer, deciduous. 



The Black Mulberry i the only species of Maria worthy of being 

 eultirated a* a fruit-tree. It it a native of Persia, and its indigenous 

 range appear* to be extensive. Its introduction to this country dates 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century. Under great vicissitude* 

 it proves very tenacious of life ; and under ordinary circumstances it 

 attains, even in this climate, a considerable age, for some trees planted 

 in 1548 are (till alive. The fruit is used at the dessert, fresh gathered, 

 and at the same time it ought to be so ripe as to be just ready to drop 

 from the tree ; indeed the fruit may be said to be in the highest per- 

 fection with regard to ripeness when it actually drops, and hence a 

 grass plot surrounding the trunk is desirable ; but the trees are found 

 to thrive better when the soil is kept stirred ; however, as grass will 

 be generally preferred, all strong-growing sorts of grasses should be 

 avoided ; and it should also be kept very closely mowed till at least 

 immediately before the fruit ripens. By this means the sun's rays 

 will be permitted to penetrate the soil to a greater depth than when 

 obstructed by a covering of long grass. Mulberries are also preserved 

 in the form of a syrup ; and their juice, mixed with that of apples, 

 forms a beverage of a deep port-wine colour, called Mulberry-Cider. 



The soil for mulberry-trees should be of a light, rich, and mode- 

 rately dry nature. If the subsoil be not naturally pervious, it should 

 be rendered as much so as is possible. A good bottoming of brick 

 rnbbish will prove beneficial with regard both to the growth of the 

 tree and the flavour of the fruit. 



Propagation of the Mulberry may be effected either by seeds, cut- 

 tings, or layering. The last in the preferable mode, where it can be 

 conveniently adopted ; and the shoots or branches used for this pur- 

 pose, as alto those intended for cuttings, should be selected from those 

 trees, or parts of a tree, that have been observed to be most fruitful ; 

 for although the plant is generally monoecious, yet some trees occa- 

 sionally assume a dicocous character. Hence, likewise, seedling plants 

 are not so desirable as those propagated from trees previously ascer- 

 tained to be prolific ; and moreover seedling plants are a greater 

 number of years in attaining a bearing state. 



As the acquisition of a good mulberry-tree is very desirable, the 

 following directions for obtaining a bearing tree readily and quickly 

 will be useful. If a tolerably Targe branch of a vigorous tree is 

 ' ringed," and the annulation is inclosed in a box filled with rich soil, 

 sufficiently large to hold as much as will preserve a somewhat uniform 

 temperature, or at least an approximation to that which the roots of 

 a tree naturally experience in the ground, roots will be readily emitted 

 into the earth, and in due time the branch may be cut off and planted. 

 A covering of mom is useful, partly for maintaining an equable tem- 

 perature, nnd partly for preserving moisture. 



The Mulberry-Tree requires very little pruning beyond that of 

 regulating the head. The season for this operation should be always 

 mid-winter ; for if in a growing state, this plant bears amputation 

 very ill, especially as regards large limbs. Mulberries have been 

 trained against south walls, over which a single plant has been known 

 to extend upwards of ninety feet horizontally ; additional size and 

 flavour are said to have been gained, but certainly not so much over 

 a standard on a proper bottom as to compensate for the great 

 extent of wall-room occupied. 



if. alba, the White Mulberry, is a native of China, where it forms 

 a small tree, and whence it has been gradually carried westward till it 

 has become a common plant in most of the temperate parts of the 

 Old World, forming in the south of Europe a pollard-tree by road- 

 sides. Its leaves are smooth and shining, usually heart-shaped at the 

 base, and on old trees ovate or oblong, but on young vigorous shoots 

 as frequently divided into deep lobes. The fruit is white, incipid, and 

 of little value except for feeding poultry ; in this country it is seldom 

 formed. It is on this species that the silk-worm is chiefly fed ; and 

 in silk countries many varieties are cultivated for the purpose, some 

 of which are said to be much better than others. The common wild 

 kind is said to suit the silk-worm as well as or even better than any 

 other kind ; but as it yields only a small quantity of foliage, compared 

 with other sort*, it is principally employed as the source of seeds from 

 which stocks are raised for grafting more productive varieties. Of 

 the Utter each silk country has its own fancy kinds, which there 

 would be little advantage in noticing here ; but there is among them 

 an exception of importance, the value of which has been recognised 

 wherever it has been cultivated. Some years since a mulberry was 

 introduced into France from Manilla, whence it has gained the name 

 of the Philippine Mulberry, the great excellence of which seems uni- 

 versally acknowledged. It has straight smooth branches, oval heart- 

 shaped leaves tapering to a point, thin, rather soft, a little blistered 

 and puckered in the middle, often drooping, and sometimes more than 

 six or even nine inches broad in the dry climate of the south of France. 

 It grows much faster than the White Mulberry, and strikes from 

 cuttings as freely as a willow, which is not the case with the latter. 

 The abundance of it* leaves is much greater than any other known 

 variety, and, what Is most important, it is not only freely eaten by the 

 silkworms, but perfectly agrees with them. Its culture is now super- 

 seding that of all others in the south of Europe, and it is even taken 

 M a stock on which to graft the common White Mulberry, when the 



latter is wished for. According to M. Bonafous this may be done 

 either upon layers of the Philippine Mulberry, headed down to one 

 or two eyes above the ground, or upon cuttings seven or right inches 

 long, which may be planted immediately after having been grafted : 

 the young plants will be five or six feet long the first year, and 

 three or four inches in circumference. This mulberry is sometimes 

 called Monu mtdlicanlu. 



In this country the White Mulberry and all its varieties suffer a 

 good deal from our winters, but not so much as to prevent i' 

 ration. Some years ago an attempt was made to introduce it and tin- 

 rearing of silkworms into Great Britain ; but the attempt failed, owing 

 partly to unskilful management, but more to the soft juicy condition 

 of the leaves in this damp climate, which rendered them unfit for the 

 food of the worm. 



(London, Arboretum Ri-itannifum.) 



MOSANDKRITE, a Mineral belonging to the Cerium series. It 

 occurs massive and fibrous, and crystallised in flat prisms. Cleavage 

 in one direction distinct, in others indistinct. Colour dull reddish- 

 brown. Streak grayish-brown. Hardness 4*0. Lustra of cleavage- 

 face between vitreous and greasy; of other surfaces resinous. Thin 

 splinters translucent, and showing a bright red colour by transmitted 

 light Specific gravity 2'93 to 2-93. It is found at Lammanskaret in 

 Sweden. According to Erdmann it consists mostly of silica, titanic 

 acid, and the oxides of cerium and lanthaninm, with some oxidu of 

 manganese, lime, a little magnesia, potash, and water. 



MOSASAURUS, Mr. Conybeare's name for a gigantic extinct aquatic 

 Saurian, the Saurochamiui of Wagler. It was at first considered by 

 Faujas St. Fond to be a Crocodile, but its true position among the 

 Saurians was pointed out by Camper and confirmed by Cuvier. 

 Indeed, previous to their investigations, the nearly perfect head of 

 this Saurian, known as the great animal of Maestricht, and found near 

 that city in the calcareous freestone forming the most recent deposit 

 of the cretaceous formation, was a stumbling-block to naturalists, some 

 of whom were of opinion that it was a whale. The zoologists lost 

 named, and especially Cuvier, hove satisfactorily proved that it was a 

 great marine reptile, and very nearly allied to the Monitor. [MoNi- 

 TORID.E.] The teeth are without true roots, not hollow as in the 

 Crocodile, but solid throughout, and joined to the sockets by a broad 

 bony basis, the result of the hardening of the pulp from which the 

 teeth were formed, and likewise attached to the jaw by the ossifi- 

 cation of the pulp that had furnished the enamel. " This indurated 

 capsule," writes Dr. Buckland, in his ' Cridgewater Treatise,' " passed 

 like a circular buttress around its base, tending to make the tooth an 

 instrument of prodigious strength. The young tooth first appeared in 

 a separate cell in the bone of the jaw, and moved irregularly across 

 its substance until it pressed against the base of the old tooth; 

 causing it gradually to become detached, together with its base, by a 

 kind of necrosis, and to fall off like the horns of a deer. The teeth 

 in the roof of the mouth are also constructed on the same principle 

 with those in the jaw, and renewed in like manner." 



The lost-mentioned writer places its organisation and its zoological 

 and geological relations in so interesting a point of view in the treatise 

 above mentioned, that we select his account as the best calculated 

 to inform the general as well as the philosophical reader on these 

 points. 



" The geological epoch at which the Moiatauru* first appeared seems 

 to have been the hist of the long series during which the oolitic and 

 cretaceous groups were in process of formation. In these periods the 

 inhabitants of our planet seem to have been principally marine, and 

 some of the largest creatures were Saurians of gigantic stature, many 

 of them living in the sea, and controlling the excessive increase of the 

 then extensive tribes of fishes. From the lias upwards to the com- 

 mencement of the chalk formation the Ichthyotauri and Plaioiauri 

 were the tyrants of the ocean ; and just at the point of time when 

 their existence terminated, during the deposition of the chalk, the 

 new genus Mvtatauriu appears to have been introduced, to supply for 

 a while their place and office, being itself destined in its turn to give 

 place to the Cetacea of the tertiary periods. As no Saurians of the 

 present world are inhabitants of the sea, and the moat powerful living 

 representatives of this order, namely the Crocodiles, though living 

 chiefly in water, have recourse to stratagem rather than speed for the 

 capture of their pVcy, it may not be unprofitable to examine the 

 mechanical contrivances by which a reptile, most nearly allied to the 

 Monitor, was so constructed as to possess the power of moving in the 

 sea with sufficient velocity to overtake and capture such large and 

 powerful fishes as, from the enormous size of its teeth and jaws, we 

 may conclude it was intended to devour. The head and teeth point 

 out the near relations of this animal to the Monitors ; and the pro- 

 portions maintained throughout all the other parts of the skeleton 

 warrant the conclusion that this monstrous Monitor of the ancient 

 deep was 25 feet in length, although the longest of its modern con- 

 geners does not exceed 5 feet The head here represented measures 

 4 feet in length, that of the largest Monitor does not exceed 5 inches. 

 The most skilful anatomist would be at a loss to devise a series of 

 modifications by which a Monitor could be enlarged to the length :uM 

 bulk of a Grampus, and at the same time be fitted to move with 

 strength and rapidity through the waters of the sea ; yet in the fossil 

 before us we shall find the genuine characters of a Monitor maintained 



