292 THE NURSERY. [MARCH 



middle, and are of a yellowish green colorf' The flowers grow in 

 loose panicles at the ends of the branches, each panicle being com- 

 posed of several thick spikes of flowers, sitting close to the footstalks; 

 they are of a whitish herbaceous color, and appear in June and July, 

 and are followed by numerous roundish compressed seeds. 



It may easily be propagated by seed, which, if sown soon after 

 being ripe, or preserved in sand or earth till spring, will grow freely 

 the first year; but if kept dry till spring, they do not generally vege- 

 tate till the next season. It can also be propagated by suckers, which 

 it produces pretty freely, or by layers. It is tolerably hardy, and 

 will thrive in warm exposures in the middle States. 



MULBERRY-TREES AND SILK-WORMS. 



The Morus allay or white mulberry, is a native of China, Cochin- 

 China and Japan, and according to Gmelin, of Persia. It grows 

 well in the United States, and may be cultivated to great advantage 

 for the feeding of silk- worms, as well here as in France, Spain, or 

 Italy. In Spain, Mr. Townsend informs us that, in the Province of 

 Valencia, they prefer the white mulberry; but in that of Grenada, 

 they give a preference to the black. The Persians generally make 

 use of the latter; and it has been asserted, upon very good authority, 

 that worms fed with the black mulberry produce much better silk 

 than, those fed with the white. But the leaves of the black should 

 never be given to the worms after they have eaten for some time of 

 the white, lest they should burst. 



Sir George Staunton, in his embassy to China, says that the trees 

 he observed in that country did not appear to differ from the com- 

 mon mulberry-trees of Europe ; that some of them were said to bear 

 white, and some red or black fruit, but that often they bore none ; 

 and that the tender leaves growing on young shoots of the black mul- 

 berry are supposed to be the most succulent. 



About the year of Christ 551, two Persian monks, employed as 

 missionaries in some of the Christian churches established in India, 

 penetrated into the country of Seres, or China. They there observed 

 the labors of the silk-worm, and became acquainted with the art of 

 working up its productions into a variety of elegant fabrics. They 

 explained to the Greek Emperor, at Constantinople, these mysteries, 

 hitherto unknown, or very imperfectly understood, in Europe ; and 

 undertook to bring to the capital a sufficient number of those wonder- 

 ful insects. This they accomplished by conveying the eggs of the 

 silk-worm in a hollow cane. They were hatched, and afterwards fed 

 with the leaves of a wild mulberry- tree, and multiplied and worked 

 in the same manner as in those climates where they first became the 

 objects of human attention and care. Vast numbers of these insects 

 were soon reared in different parts of Greece, particularly in the 

 Peloponnesus. Sicily afterwards undertook to breed silk-worms with 

 equal success, and was imitated, from time to time, in several towns 

 of Italy. In all these places extensive manufactures were established, 

 with silk of domestic production. 



From the reign of Justinian, it was mostly in Greece and some of 



