242 MULBERRY 



with variable leaves and milky juice, monoecious or, rarely, 

 dioecious, anemophilous. 



Flowers small, green, in short, catkin-like pseudo- 

 spikes of cymes ; axillary on the dwarf shoots. The </ 

 on the same branches as the $ (and then near the apex 

 of the shoot) or not ; the $ at the base of the shoot. 

 Male spikes 2 4 cm. long, ovoid and catkin-like. Peri- 

 anth 4-partite, yello wish -green ; stamens 4, long, exserted. 

 Pollen floury, white, irregularly tetrahedral, 20- 25 /u,. 

 Female inflorescence pedunculate, sub-globose or oblong, 

 about 1 1*5 cm. Perigone 4-partite, greenish ; ovary sub- 

 sessile, with short style and two thick spreading stigmas. 

 Ovule 1. Fruit false berried and multiple, globoid or 

 oblong, up to 1*5 cm., the perigone becoming fleshy and 

 enclosing the achenes, and all fusing into the Mulberry, 

 red, sweet. 



[The Black Mulberry differs somewhat in its leaves, is 

 more dioecious, and has shorter peduncles and larger black 

 mulberries.] 



(ii) Each ? flower, or group of two or three 

 flowers, surrounded at the base by a leafy, 

 or tough and thick cupule, in addition to 

 the adherent epigynous perigone. 



[For (/3) (a) The catkins long, cylindroid, uninter- 



rupted and pendulous. Cupule leafy and 

 membranous, not prickly or scaly. 



* The c? catkins at the ends of dwarf 

 shoots; the $ terminal on the long shoots. 

 Scales loosely imbricated ; those of the $? 

 especially large, and fusing with the two 

 lateral bracteoles to a large tri-lobed leafy 

 appendage which wraps round the two 

 9 flowers at their base, forming an 



