168 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



(Fig. 22). This originated at Newburgh on the Hud- 

 son, from seeds sown about 1846 by Charles Downing, 

 one of the brothers who have become household com- 

 panions to every American fruit-grower. It was 

 noticed by the late C. M. Hovey in his "Magazine of 

 Horticulture," in March, 1858, as "a new seedling 

 raised by C. Downing, of Newburgh, N. Y., from the 

 Moms multicaulis." The Downing often looks very 

 different from the old multicaulis, and I have some- 

 times doubted if its history is correct ; but there is 

 probably no mistake as to its origin. For many years 

 the Downing was the leading fruit -bearing mulberry, 

 but it proved to be short-lived, and was often injured 

 by the winters in the northern states ; and even as far 

 south as Texas it frequently suffers from the cold. In 

 Florida and other parts of the South it is still some- 

 what grown, particularly as cuttings 

 upon which to graft varieties which 

 root less freely. Yet the nurserymen 

 everywhere still sell the Downing mul- 

 berry ; but it turns out, upon inves- 

 tigation, that the Downing which they 

 sell is not the variety originated by 

 the Down ings. In fact, it is not even 

 Morus multicaulis! The variety which, 

 in good faith, they sell for Downing is 

 really a form of Morus alba, the species 

 which elsewhere in the world is grown 

 only for the silk -worm or for orna- 

 With the gradual passing out of the Down- 

 ing has come the gradual usurpation of the name 

 and the good -will by a variety of the other species, 

 and no man has recorded the transfer; and now the 



Fi e . 22. 

 mulberry, nearly 

 natural size. 



ment! 



