138 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



are large and rough, heart-shaped, and very plentiful, so that 

 the tree affords good shade. The flowers are small and in- 

 conspicuous, of a greenish-white colour, the sexes separate, 

 though sometimes on the same tree. The male or staminate 

 flowers consist of a four-leaved perianth, enclosing four stamens, 

 a large number of the blossoms being combined in a catkin- 

 like spike, depending from the axils of the leaves. The female 

 spike is shorter, and the individual flower consists of a four- 

 parted perianth, enclosing the ovary and its two branched 

 stigma. After fertilization the perianth becomes plump and 

 succulent, and all on the one spike become so pressed together 

 by their great increase in size that they form a multiple fruit, 

 having a slight resemblance to the fruit of the Bramble (the 

 produce of one flower), but really differing from it greatly. 

 Mulberries are ripe in August or September. 



The leaves do not unfold from the bud until the cold weather 

 is well over, usually in May. It is said that its Latin name 

 Morus is derived from mora, delay, in consequence of this 

 caution on the part of the tree. The leaves generally used in 

 the silk-culture for feeding the " worms " are those of the 

 White Mulberry (Morns alba). 



The Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus campestris\ 



The Elm is one of our commonest trees, yet a great amount 

 of uncertainty appears to prevail in the popular mind in identi- 

 fying the Common or Small-leaved from our second British 

 species, the variously-named Scotch Elm, Wych Elm, Witch 

 Hazel, or Mountain Elm (Ulmus won f ana). There is some- 

 thing more than a suspicion that campestris is not strictly in- 

 digenous, but it settled in the country so many hundreds of 

 years ago (brought hither, some say, by returning Crusaders) 

 that it would appear ungenerous at this date to question its 

 claims to be called British, especially as it is more widely 



