WHITE ITALIAN MULBERRY. 31 



having a plain surface of a beautiful shining green. 

 They produce silk of the first quality. The tree is of 

 rapid growth, and said to be hardy, as they endured well 

 the winter of 1835-G, as is asserted by Dr. Stebbins. 



SECTION XII. 



WHITE ITALIAN MULBERRY. (MORUS ALBA SINENSIS.) 



THE white mulberry is a native of China, but for 

 centuries naturalized in Italy, and is therefore called 

 the Italian. A tree of rapid growth and extensively 

 known for the uses of its leaf as the food of silk-worms. 

 The leaves are pointed, cordate, serrate, entire, or 

 lobed, but vary in the different sub-varieties, sometimes 

 even in the same tree in different ages; being at times 

 lobed when young, but when old entire. The bark of 

 the wood is of an ash color; the fruit is white, roundish 

 oblong, of an insipid taste. The tree as before noted, 

 is valuable for its timber, and exceedingly long lived. 



In cold climates it grows more slowly : yet its growth is 

 more rapid, and it .comes into leaf earlier than the morus 

 nigra, and is not, like that variety, incommoded by a 

 profusion of fruit. And although the black mulberry 

 may be preferred in Persia, Count Dandolo affirms, that 

 the white mulberry Was found to produce the finest silk 

 of the kinds known in Italy. It is also affirmed, that if 

 the leaves of this species, and those of the Rubra and 

 M. nigra be presented to the insect at the same time, it 

 will eat first of the white, next of the red, and last of all 

 of the black. In Malta the white mulberry grows much 

 more rapidly than in Italy ; but in India, where the mul- 

 berry tree is an evergreen, its growth is so rapid that 

 large quantities are sown and mown in the same season, 

 and from these, sprouts are again produced for a second 

 brood of silk-worms. 



