BROUSSONETIA 



267 



slightly heart-shaped at the base, long and taper-pointed, toothed ; extremely 

 variable in size, three-nerved at the base ; slightly downy when young, soon 

 afterwards smooth ; upper surface rather rough. On strong growths they may 

 be 6 to 10 ins. long, 3 to 5 ins. wide ; on weaker shoots as small as 2 ins. long ; 

 stalk ^ to f in. long. Flowers of the male plant in clusters ^ in. long, on a 

 slender, downy stalk about the same length ; female flowers in a smaller, 

 globose head, with long, slender, downy styles. Neither has any beauty. Fruits 

 in a globose head, woolly. 



Native of Japan and Corea. This species is distinguished from B. papyrifera 

 by its smooth young wood and leaves, by its shorter male inflorescence, and 

 by the usually shorter leaf-stalks. It is not so striking or vigorous a shrub. 

 Often met with in gardens as B. Kaempferi ; the plant first described under 

 that name,^however, is a climbing shrub probably not in cultivation. 



B. PAPYRIFERA, X Ventenat. PAPER MULBERRY. 

 (Bot. Mag., t. 2358.) 



A coarse-growing, vigorous shrub, or a tree up to 30 ft. high, forming a 

 roundish, spreading head of branches ; young wood thickly downy, soft and 

 pithy. Leaves very vari- 

 able in size and form, ovate 

 or variously lobed, often 

 shaped like fig leaves ; 

 rounded, or more or less 

 tapered at the base, pointed, 

 toothed, three-nerved at the 

 base ; upper surface dull 

 green and rough, lower sur- 

 face densely woolly till they 

 fall ; stalk I to 4 ins. long. 

 Flowers of the male plant 

 in cylindrical, often curly, 

 woolly catkins, \\ to 3 ins. 

 long, J in. wide ; female 

 flowers in ball-like heads 

 \ in. in diameter. Fruit 

 red. 



Native of China ; intro- 

 duced early in the eight- 

 eenth century. It is now 

 widely cultivated in Eastern 

 countries ; in Japan chiefly 

 for the manufacture of paper 

 from the bark, and in the 

 Polynesian islands for the fibre, which is made into a cloth. Capt. Cook noticed 

 in Otaheite that the finest and whitest cloth worn by the principal inhabitants 

 was made from this material. In some of the Dalmatian towns, especially at 

 Spalato, I have seen it as a street tree of neat, rounded shape. The lobed 

 leaves mostly occur on young vigorous trees, the unlobed ones on flowering 

 specimens. 



Var. CUCULLATA, Seringe. A male tree with curious leaves whose margins 

 are curled upwards, so as to give the leaf the shape of a boat. 



Var. LACINIATA, Seringe (B. dissecta, Seneclause}. In this remarkable 

 variety, which is quite dwarf, the leaf is reduced to the stalk and the three 

 main veins, the ends of which have each a small, narrow, variously shaped 



BROCSSONETIA PAPYRIFERA. (Male catkins.) 



