186 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



states ; and as it ripens at the very period in midsummei 

 when fruits are scarcest, there can be no more welcome 

 addition to our pomonal treasures, than its deep purple and 

 luscious berries. According to Loudon, it is a tree of great 

 durability ; in proof of which he quotes a specimen at Sion 

 House, 300 years old, which is supposed to have been 

 planted in the 16th century by the botanist Turner. 



The White mulberry (M. alba) is the species upon the 

 leaves of which the silkworms are fed. The fruit is insipid 

 and tasteless, and the tree is but little cultivated to embellish 

 ornamental plantations, though one of the most useful in 

 the world, when its importance in the production of silk is 

 taken into account. There are a great number of varieties 

 of this species to be found in the different nurseries and silk 

 plantations ; among them the Chinese mulberry (M. multi- 

 caulis) grows rapidly, but scarcely forms more than a large 

 shrub at the north; and its very large, tender, and soft 

 green foliage is interesting in a large collection. The fruit 

 is, we believe, of no importance ; but it is the most valuable 

 of all mulberries as food for the silkworm, while its growth 

 is the most vigorous, and its leaves more easily gathered 

 than those of any other tree of the genus. 



THE PAPER MULBERRY TREE. Broussonetia. 



Nat. Ord. Urticacece. Lin. Syst. Dioecia, Tetrandria. 



The Paper mulberry is an exotic tree of a low growth; 

 rarely exceeding twenty-five or thirty feet, indigenous to 

 Japan and the South Sea Islands, but very common in our 

 gardens. It is remarkable for the great variety of forms 

 exhibited in its foliage ; as upon young trees it is almost 



