MORUS 85 



vigorous shoots are injured by frost. The tree, however, lacks the quaint 

 charm of the common mulberry. 



Many varieties of white mulberry are in cultivatipn, but those that differ 

 chiefly in their influence on the silk produced by worms that feed on them 

 have little interest to British arboriculturists. The following deserve 

 mention : 



Var. FEGYVERNEKIANA. A pigmy, usually under 3 ft. high. 



Var. HETEROPHYLLA. Leaves variously and unequally lobed. 



Var. LACINIATA. Leaves raggedly and deeply toothed. 



Var. MACROPHYLLA, Loddiges. One of the largest-leaved forms ; leaves 

 7 to 9 ins. long. 



Var. PENDULA. A tree of very weeping habit forming an umbrella-like 

 head. It is of so pendulous a nature that it is necessary to tie up a leading 

 shoot every year to enable a trunk to be formed of the desired height. It 

 should be trained up 20 ft., and will then make one of the most striking of 

 weeping trees. 



Var. VENOSA. Leaves tapered at both ends, the veins very prominent, 

 yellowish. 



M. CATHAYANA, Hemsley. 



A tree 10 to 20 ft. high, young shoots downy at first, becoming smoother 

 and greyish. Leaves heart-shaped, 3 to 6 ins. long on adult plants, three- 

 fourths as wide (considerably larger on young vigorous plants), terminated at 

 the apex by an abrupt slender point, margins roundish-toothed (often three- 

 lobed in young trees) ; rough with short hairs above, softly downy beneath ; 

 primary veins in five or six pairs ; stalk about I in. long, hairy. Male spikes 

 f in. long, borne on a slender stalk about the same length ; female spikes of 

 similar size, but with the flowers more closely packed. Fruit not seen. 



Native of Central China ; first discovered a-bout 1888, by Henry, in Hupeh ; 

 introduced twenty years later by Wilson. Young trees have hitherto grown 

 freely, and promise to be quite hardy. 



M. NIGRA, Linn&US. COMMON MULBERRY. 



A deciduous tree, 20 to 30 ft. high, of rugged, picturesque aspect, forming a 

 dense spreading head of branches usually wider than the tree is high, and a 

 short rough trunk ; young shoots downy, exuding a milky juice when cut. 

 Leaves broadly ovate or two- to five-lobed, always heart-shaped at the base, 

 and with a short, tapered point ; coarsely toothed ; upper surface rough with 

 short flattened hairs, deep glossy green ; lower surface paler and downy. On 

 vigorous barren growths the leaves will be 6 to 9 ins. long, and both lobed 

 and unlqbed ; on fruiting shoots they are 2^- to 5 ins. long ; stalk I in. or less 

 long. Flower-spikes cylindrical, those carrying male flowers about I in. long, 

 the females half as long ; both on very downy stalks. Fruit clusters oval, f to 

 i in. long, dark red, with an agreeable sub-acid flavour. 



The black mulberry is, no doubt, a native of one or more Oriental 

 countries, but having been cultivated for thousands of years and naturalised, 

 its original limits have long been obliterated. It is known to have been 

 cultivated in England since the early part of the sixteenth century, quite 

 possibly long before. Trees at Syon, in Middlesex, are believed to have been 

 planted there in 1548. It is better adapted for the southern part of Britain than 

 the northern, but is always of slow growth. The famous "Shakespeare 

 mulberry" (of which descendants are at Kew) was planted in the poet's 

 garden at Stratford-on-Avon in 1609. Although not so good for the purpose 

 as M. alba, the common mulberry has been much used to feed silkworms 

 upon. The fruits are sometimes eaten at dessert, and they are also made into 



