410 MORUS NIGRA. 
ally to be met with in Italy, apparently wild. This tree, however, is so fre- 
quently confounded with the white mulberry, by the earlier writers, as to render 
it next to an impossibility to ascertain the countries of which it is truly indigen- 
ous. It has been known from the earliest records of antiquity, being mentioned 
in "Holy Writ," in the second book of Samuel, and in the Psalms. Ovid evi- 
dently points out the black mulberry as the one introduced in the story of Pyra- 
mus and Thisbe ; and Pliny seems to allude to it, where he observes that there 
is no other tree that has been so much neglected by the wit of man, either in 
grafting or giving it names; " an observation," as Mr. Loudon remarks, " which 
holds good to the present day respecting the black mulberry, as it has only 
one trifling variety, or rather variation, and no synonyme, whereas, there are 
numerous varieties of the Morus alba." Pliny adds, " Of all the cultivated trees, 
the mulberry is the last that buds, which it never does until the cold weather is 
past ; and it is therefore called the wisest of trees. But when it begins to put 
forth buds, it dispatches the business in one night, and that with so much force, 
that their breaking forth may be evidently heard." On Mount iEtna, the black 
mulberry is grown at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet, for the food 
of the silkworm, to the exclusion of the Morus alba, probably on account of the 
tenderness of the latter tree in that elevated region. 
The black mulberry, it is said, was introduced into Britain by the Romans; 
but at what period, there is no record which throws any light on the subject. It 
is mentioned in Turner's " Names of Herbes," published in 1548, when there 
were some trees planted at Syon, one, at least of which is still in existence. The 
tree is mentioned by Tusser, who wrote in 1557, also by Gerard, who describes 
both the black and the white mulberry as being cultivated in his time. The 
royal edict of James I., about the year 1605, recommending the rearing of silk- 
worms, and offering packets of mulberry seeds to all who would sow them, no 
doubt rendered the tree fashionable, as there is scarcely an old garden or gentle- 
man's seat throughout England, that can be traced back to the XVIIth century, 
in which a mulberry-tree is not to be found. It is remarkable, however, that, 
though these trees were doubtless intended for the food of silkworms, they nearly 
all belong to the Morus nigra, as very few instances of old trees of the white 
mulberry exist, at the present time, in any part of that country. Shakspear's 
mulberry is referable to this period, as it was planted in 1609, in his garden, at 
New Place, in Stratford. 
One of the most remarkable trees of this species in Britain, is at Battersea, on 
the estate of the late Earl of Spencer. It is from thirty to forty feet in height, 
having fourteen trunks, averaging about one foot in girth at a foot above the 
ground, with a head fifty feet by seventy in diameter, and is supposed to be over 
three hundred years of age. 
In Suffolk, at Finborough Hall, there is a black mulberry, which, in seventy 
years after planting, had attained the height of forty feet, with a trunk two feet 
in diameter, and an ambitus, or spread of branches of forty-two feet. 
In France, at Nantes, in the nursery of M. De Nerrieres, there is a specimen, 
which, in sixty years after planting, had attained the height of forty-nine feet, 
with a trunk two feet and a half in circumference. 
The introduction of the black mulberry into the North American colonies, as 
with most of our foreign trees bearing edible fruit, it is highly probable, dates back 
to the early periods of their settlements ; but, as it produces only a moderately 
sized fruit, at best, and requires some attention to bring it to perfection, it has 
fallen into neglect. There are trees, however, of considerable size and age, to be 
met with, in all the middle and eastern states of the union, which are regarded 
as comparatively worthless, either for fruit or ornament. 
Poetical, Legendary, and Mythological Allusions. The mulberry was dedi- 
