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M R 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



M R 



3. Moms Papyrifera ; Paper Mulberry Tree. Leaves pal- 

 mate ; fruit hispid. This tree makes very strong vigorous 

 shoots, but seems not to be of tali growth, for it sends out 

 many lateral branches from the root upwards. The leaves 

 are large, some of them entire, others deeply cut into three 

 or five lobes, especially whilst the trees are young; they are 

 dark green, and rough to the touch on the upper surface, 

 but pale green and somewhat hairy on the under side, falling 

 off on the first approach of frost in autumn. The fruit is 

 little larger than peas, surrounded with long purple hairs, 

 when ripe changing to a black purple colour, and full of 

 sweet juice. It is a native of -Japan and the South Sea 

 Islands ; according to Mr. Miller, of China also, and South 

 Carolina, whence he received the seeds. The inhabitants 

 of Japan make paper of the bark. They cultivate the trees 

 for this purpose on the mountains, much after the same man- 

 ner as Osiers are cultivated with us, cutting down the young 

 shoots in December, after the leaves are fallen. These being 

 divided into rods of three feet in length, or shorter, are 

 gathered into bundles to be boiled. If the shoots are dry, 

 they must be softened in water twenty-four hours. The bun- 

 dles are boiled very close together, and placed erect in a 

 large copper properly closed : the boiling is continued till the 

 separation of the bark displays the naked wood. Then the 

 stalks are loosened out of the bundles, and allowed to cool ; 

 after which, by a longitudinal incision, the bark is stripped 

 off and dried, the wood being rejected. When this bark is 

 to be purified, it is put three or four hours in water, when, 

 being sufficiently softened, the cuticle, which is of a dark 

 colour, together with the greenish surface of the inner bark, 

 is pared off. At the same time the stronger bark is sepa- 

 rated from the more tender ; the former making the whitest 

 and best paper, the latter a dark, weak, and inferior kind. 

 If any bark appears that is old, it is set aside for a thicker 

 paper of worse quality, along with the knotty and blemished 

 parts of the bark. It is now boiled in a lye that is clear and 

 strained ; care being taken to stir the substance, as soon as 

 it begins to boil, with a strong reed, and to pour in of the lye 

 gradually as much as is necessary for stopping the evapora- 

 tion, and restoring the liquor that is lost. The boiling is to 

 cease when the materials can be split, by a slight touch of 

 the finger, into fibres and down. Next it is to be washed, 

 which is a thing of some moment ; for if washed too short a 

 time, the paper will be strong indeed, but too rough, and 

 of an inferior quality; if too long, it will be whiter, but of 

 a fat consistence, lax, and less fit for writing. Being suffi- 

 ciently washed, the materials are put upon a thick, smooth, 

 wooden table, and stoutly beat by two or three men, with 

 battons of hard wood, into a pulp ; which being put in water, 

 ;srates like grains of meal. Thus prepared, it is put into a 

 narrow vat; an infusion of rice, and a mucous water of the 

 infusion of the root of Manihot, being added to it. These 

 three are to be stirred with a clean slender reed, till reduced 

 into a homogeneous liquor, of a due consistence. The pre- 

 pared liquor is now put into a larger vat ; whence the 

 sheets are poured out one by one, and placed in heaps upon a 

 table covered with a double mat; a small thread of reed being 

 placed between the sheets at the edge, and projecting a little, 

 so that they may be taken up singly when wanted ; the heaps 

 are covered with a plank of wood the size of the paper, upon 

 which stones are put, at first of a light weight, but after- 

 wards heavier, that all the wet may be pressed out by degrees. 

 The following day, the weights being removed, each sheet 

 is taken up by itself, and the operation is finished. The 

 finest and whitest cloth, worn by the principal people at 

 Otaheite, and in the Sandwich Islands, is made of the bark of 



this tree; and this, when dyed red, takes a better colour. The 

 Bread Fruit Tree makes a cloth inferior in whiteness and 

 softness, worn chiefly by the inferior people. Cloth is also 

 made of a tree resembling the Wild Fig Tree of the West 

 Indies. It is coarse and harsh, the colour of the darkest 

 brown paper ; but it is the most valuable, because it resists 

 water. This is perfumed, and worn by the chiefs as a morn- 

 ing dress in Otaheite. The juice of the Paper Mulberry is 

 used in China as a glue in gilding either paper or leather, 

 but not wood. This plant may be propagated by seeds, or 

 by laying down the branches, or by cuttings in the manner 

 directed for the common sort. 



4. Morus Rubra ; Red Mulberry Tree. Leaves cordate, 

 villose underneath ; aments cylindric. This tree will grow 

 to the height of thirty or forty feet, sending forth many large 

 branches. The leaves are not only larger but rougher than 

 those of the Common Mulberry, though in other respects 

 they somewhat resemble them. Parkinson, so long ago as 

 1629, says, that it grows quickly with us to a great tree, and 

 that the fruit is longer and redder than the common sort, and 

 of a very pleasant taste. This tree has not yet been propa- 

 gated in this country, for though it has been budded and 

 grafted upon the White and Black Mulberry, it has not suc- 

 ceeded. Being lofty, it cannot well be laid down, which is 

 the method most likely to propagate it : it is very hardy, and 

 will endure the cold of our climate in the open air very well. 

 Native of Virginia and Carolina. 



5. Morus Indica; Indian Mulberry. Leaves ovate-oblong, 

 equal on both sides, unequally serrate. This is a large tree, 

 with a soft, thick, yellowish bark, and a milky juice like the 

 fig, which is astringent. The branches come out on every 

 side. The leaves are on short footstalks, rough, dark-green, 

 above, pale underneath, alternate. Fruit roundish, first green, 

 then white, and finally dark red. Native of the East Indies, 

 Japan, and Cochin-china, where it is cultivated on a very 

 extensive scale as a food for silk-worms, especially on the 

 banks of rivers. This is too tender to live out of the bark- 

 stove, where it must be treated as other tender plants, giving 

 it but little water in winter. With this management it will 

 retain its leaves all the year. 



6. Morus Tatarica ; Tartarian Mulberry Tree. Leaves 

 ovate-oblong, equal on both sides, equally serrate. This is 

 a shrub, irregularly branched, with a trunk seldom so big 

 as the human arm; bark whitish gray; wood very hard, yel- 

 low, somewhat veined ; branches slender, wand-like, round, 

 smooth; branchlets leafy, bearing fruit at the base; berries 

 small, on long peduncles, red or pale when ripe, insipid : 

 they are eaten fresh, in a conserve, or dried ; a wine and a 

 spirit are made from them in Siberia and Russia, and the 

 leaves are used for feeding silk-worms. For its propagation 

 and culture see the first and second species. 



7. Morus Tinctoria; Dyer's Mulberry, or Fustick-wood. 

 Leaves oblong, more produced on one side ; spines axillary. 

 This is a tall branching tree with a fine head, the whole 

 abounding in a slightly glutinous milk of a sulphureous 

 colour. It is a principal ingredient in most of our yellow 

 dyes, for which it is chiefly imported into Europe, where it 

 is well known under the name of Fustick-wood. The berries 

 are sweet and wholesome, but not much eaten except by 

 birds, who are the chief planters of it. Native of the West 

 Indies; but particularly abundant about Campeachy. This 

 plant must be preserved in the bark-stove. The seeds come up 

 freely in a hot-bed: when the plants are fit to remove, plant 

 each in a separate small pot filled with fresh light earth, and 

 plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, shading them from the 

 sun until they have taken new root, and then treating them as 



