222 .Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Morus nigra, Linne.* 



The Black Mulberry-tree. Soutk-Western Russia and Persia. 

 Attains a height of about 60 feet. Highly valuable for its pleasant 

 refreshing fruits. It is a tree of longevity, instances being on record 

 of its having lived through several centuries; it is also very hardy, 

 enduring the winter-cold of Norway to lat. 61 15'; at Christiania it 

 bore fruit (Schuebeler). Mr. John Hodgkins regards it as a superior 

 tree for sandy coast-ridges. The leaves of this species also afford 

 food for the ordinary silk-moth, and are almost exclusively used for 

 this purpose in the Canary-Islands, although the produce therefrom is 

 not always so good as that from M. alba. The tree occurs usually 

 unisexual. M. atropurpurea (Roxburgh), from Cochin-China, is an 

 allied tree. The cylindrical fruit-spike attains a length of 2 inches. 



Morus rubra, Linne".* 



The Red Mulberry-tree. Eastern North-America, North-Mexico. 

 The largest of the genus, attaining a height of about 70 feet; it produces 

 a strong and compact timber, of wonderful endurance underground, 

 hence in demand for posts and railway-ties (General Harrison); also 

 for knees of small vessels (Dr. C. Mohr) and a variety of other pur- 

 poses. Fruit edible, sweet, large. The tree is still hardy in Chris- 

 tiania (Schuebeler). Rate of circumferential stem-growth in Nebraska 

 43 inches in 18 years (Furnas). 



Mucuna Cochinchinensis, Bentham. (Macranthus Cochinchinensis, Loureiro. ) 

 A climbing annual, which can be reared in the open air in Eng- 

 land. Pods, cooked as a vegetable, taste like those of kidney -beans 

 (Johnson). 



Muehlenbergia diffusa, Willdenow. 



Southern States of North- America. Perennial. Recorded among 

 the good native fodder-grasses of Alabama by C. Mohr, thriving as 

 well on dry hills as in low damp forest-ground. Prof. Killebrew 

 mentions, that this grass in Tennessee carpets the soil in forests with 

 a living green. M. glomerata (Trinius) is in the same region a 

 pasture- and hay-grass, available in wet meadows (Dr. Vasey). 



Muehlenbergia Mexicana, Trinius. 



Southern parts of North-America. A perennial good fodder-grass, 

 particularly fit for low humid ground, also in forests. Root creeping; 

 stem much branched, bending down. 



Murraya exotica, Koenig. 



South-Asia, Polynesia, East- and North-Australia. This shrub or 

 small tree is one of the. best among the odoriferous plants in India 

 (C. B. Clarke). M. Koenigii (Sprengel) ascends the Himalayas to 

 5,000 feet; its leaves are in frequent use as an ingredient of curries. 



Musa Cavendishii, Lambert.* (Musa regia, Rumph; Musa Chinensis, Sweet; 

 Musa nana, Loureiro.) 



The Chinese Banana. A comparatively dwarf species, the stem 

 attaining a height of only about 5 or 6 feet. Its robust and dwarf 



