THE BLACK MULBERRY. 



Morus nigra L. MORACEAE (URTICACEAE). 



Maltese =Tu/a. Italian. Gelsomoro o Gelso nero o Gelso di Spagna. 

 French Murier d^Espagne. 



The Black Mulberry grows wild in the Caucasus, 

 Asia Minor and Persia, and its introduction in Europe is 

 much earlier than that of the white or common mulberry. 

 In fact although the white mulberry was introduced into 

 Sicily by King Roger from Greece in 1130 where it was 

 introduced from the far east in the sixth century, the 

 black mulberry was cultivated in Palestine in the days of 

 David, and is mentioned by ancient Greek writers, 

 Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen, as well as by Virgil 

 and other Roman writers of the age of Augustus. It is 

 probable that the cultivation of the black mulberry was 

 introduced in these Islands as well . as in Africa and 

 Spain and other countries bordering the Mediterranean 

 by the first Phoenician settlers, but as the fruit is only 

 useful for immediate consumption, and as the tree could 

 not afford material for extensive commerce, the silkworm 

 being then unknown in the Mediterranean region, it is 

 presumed that no large plantations of mulberries where 

 started anywhere by those early colonists. It is generally 

 supposed that the spread of the silkworm in Sicily and 

 Spain was originally facilitated by the presence of black 

 mulberry trees in those regions, the silkworm feeding 

 almost just as well on the leaves of this tree as on those 

 of the common mulberry. The silk produced by feeding 

 on the black mulberry is said to be of rough quality, 

 but considerably stronger, and for this reason it is stated 

 that the silkworm intended for the production of silk -gut 

 for fishing lines etc. is fed preferably on its foliage. 



The black mulberry grows less quickly than the 

 common mulberry, but may attain larger dimensions, 



