THE MULBEEET. 229 



grateful shade, on which account it is commonly grown 

 in France in the corners of courtyards, where accumula- 

 tions of rubbish furnish it with a congenial soil ; and as 

 it never requires any pruning, beyond disembarrassment 

 of the dead wood when it becomes aged, a process which 

 mostly quite rejuvenates it, it gives no trouble to its owner, 

 and supplies during some months a continual feast to his 

 poultry, even if he himself be indifferent to the charms of 

 its fruit. Its leaves too are readily eaten by cattle, but 

 the wood, which is very light in weight, is fit for little 

 else than fuel, though the bitter root is sometimes used 

 medicinally as a vermifuge. 



The blossoms,* which appear in June, are not very or- 

 namental, the male flowers, closely set together in a droop- 

 ing catkin an inch or two long, consisting only of a four- 

 sepaled calyx surrounding four stamens ; while the female 

 ones, comprising 40 or 50 tiny flowers arranged in the 

 form of an upright spike, present also no gay corolla, but 

 only a similar calyx encircling an ovary with two styles. 

 It is this mass of cohering calices and ovaries which, gra- 

 dually becoming fleshy and juicy,form eventually the fruit, 

 each ovary maturing in its two-celled interior a single 

 seed; and as these seeds are therefore "embedded in pulp," 

 the appearance of the whole fully answers to the popular 

 description of a " berry," and has therefore earned for it 

 the title of Mulberry. A modern botanist, however, would 

 no more let this suffice to give it a place among berries 

 than he would consider that a butterfly must be classed 

 among birds because both have wings ; and though at a 

 first casual glance it may seem to bear a great resemblance 

 to some of the berry fruits, especially to the similarly com- 

 plexioned blackberry, a moment's examination will show 

 the great difference there is between them. The latter 

 being the outgrowth of a single flower, the numerous 

 ovaries of which form each a distinct and separable little 

 berry, the whole number of these little berries adhering 

 round a common receptacle, forming together a single 



* See Plate VI., fig. 1 



