MULBERRY. 27 



but several species have been found growing in a wild 

 state in America. It was cultivated at a very early pe- 

 riod of time in Western Asia and in Europe, but only 

 for its fruit. The fruit is a berry of a roundish or ob- 

 long form ; of a color varying from white to red or 

 black; its pulp envelopes numerous small seeds. 



USES. Most of the varieties of the mulberry are es- 

 teemed dessert fruits. When perfectly mature, they are 

 grateful to the taste, and very wholesome; the syrup is 

 useful in mitigating inflammation of the throat. The 

 juice when properly fermented, affords a pleasant vinous 

 wine; mixed with apples, they afford a delicious bever- 

 age called mulberry cider, of a deep red color like Port 

 wine. 



The wood of the mulberry tree is compact, elastic 

 and hard, and susceptible of a fine polish ; it is therefore 

 sought after by the upholsterer, the carver and the turner. 

 The strength of the timber renders it valuable to the 

 joiner, and also for building boats : its power of resisting 

 the action of water, has been compared to oak. 



The roots of the mulberry tree are of a yellow color, 

 and strike downward ; and the tree is extremely long 

 lived. M. de Saint Fond saw in 1802, one of the ori- 

 ginal or parent trees, of all the white mulberry trees of 

 France, which the followers of Charles VIII. had 

 brought from Italy, on his invasion of that country in 

 1494. M. Lachaux had caused this tree to be encom- 

 passed by a wall, to evince his respect and veneration, 

 and to serve as a monument to a tree so inestimable. 



Whoever would enter extensively and at once on the 

 cultivation of silk, let them first of all bestow their at- 

 tention on the culture of the abundant supplies of food ; 

 this principal and essential food being no other than the 

 material leaves of the various species of the mulberry 

 tree. Not every kind however is equally suitable. Lin- 

 naeus has enumerated seven species of those which were 

 known in his day : and amongst these, there are two 

 species, the Tinctora and Indica, which are not used as 



