THE MULBERRY AND SILK. 97 



coats, and is extracted by hot water ; its soluble part is 52, and insol- 

 uble part 29, with ashes and water. It is emolient, demulcent, laxative, 

 and nutritive, and is employed to allay irritation, as a tea. The seed 

 is bruised with Liquorice root and steeped in water by the fire, strained 

 (sliced lemon and sugar are added), and used for pulmonary and 

 urinary, and other membranous irritations. Seeds yield 18 or 20 per 

 cent, of oil by cold expression, and 22 to 27 by aid of heat. When ex- 

 posed or heated it dries and is called drying oil. The elements are 

 carbon 76, hydrogen 11, oxygen 12. It is rarely employed internally. 

 For a poultice it is powdered and boiled. 



L. ussitatissimum ; calyx leaves ovate, acute, 3-nerved ; petals of 

 corolla crenate ; leaves lanceolate ; stem erect, smooth, leafy ; flowers 

 on stalks, erect, sky-blue, &c. E. I. 



IMPOKTANT VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



MULBERRY, morns multicaulis, C. 21, O. 4. Erticea DT. 



This is a variety of the morns alba, or white mulberry, and is cele- 

 brated as the food of the silk worm, which, with its product, are men- 

 tioned below. The other species of the mulberry tree will be described 

 hereafter. This species often grows to the height of 40 or 50 feet. 

 The mulberry is greatly cultivated in the south of Europe, the E. In- 

 dies, and America, for the silk worm, though the black mulberry is 

 used by the worms in parts of Spain and Persia, and both are grown 

 in China for this purpose. Plantations are numerous and large where 

 silk is produced. In this country speculations in this plant from 

 1836 to 1839 exceeded all bounds, and the disastrous failures in the 

 latter year were but the natural result of such a state of things. But 

 the present more steady and rational increase in the cultivation is pro- 

 mising of equally steady and permanent prospective results. In parts 

 of Europe the plant is grown like willow for baskets, and in the same 

 soil ; and in the East as low bushes which are rooted up and renewed 

 every three or four years. The leaves are stripped off the young shoots 

 in some places for the use of the worms, and in others the shoots are 

 cut off. The plants are raised from seed, but commonly from cuttings 

 put down in the spring. An ounce of seed produces 500 trees. The 

 Italian variety is often grafted on seedling stock of the common sort, 

 to prevent degeneration. In the E. Indies it is raised from cuttings, 3 

 or 4 being placed together. The plant is now naturalized in Europe 

 and the U. S. The leaves are thought to contain less water and more 

 nutriment in warm climates. The white mulbery flourishes in this 

 country as far north as the 43d deg., and south as far as 36. 



M. alba ; leaves alternate, obliquely ovate, somewhat heart-shaped, 

 nearly smooth; stem whitish, copiously and irregularly branched; 

 flowers green, in shortish spikes. China. 

 9 



