RED MULBERRY 



JOHNSON 



353 



319. 



Red Mulberry. 

 CX%) 



young shoots deeply lobed, the upper surface rough, 

 yellowish-green, the lower surface more or less pubescent, 

 with yellowish veins. Staminate flowers in much larger 

 catkins than in other species, 2 inches in length ; pistil- 

 late catkins half as long. Fruit 1-1% inches long, 

 cylindric, bright red, becoming nearly black, variable 

 in size and color, sweet or pleasantly piquant, sometimes 

 very good ; season July to September in central New 

 York. 



The red mulberry is a rather widely scat- 

 tered plant from western New England and 

 Long Island through Canada to the Black 

 Hills in North Dakota, 

 and southward to Florida 

 and southern Texas. It 

 prefers deep, rich, well- 

 watered soils, and is. usu- 

 ally found in the bottom- 

 lands of streams, where the 

 trees attain a size of first 

 magnitude as forest plants. 

 Nurserymen in the North 

 find that the young trees 

 are tender to cold, becom- 

 ing hardier with age. 



The fruit is often rated 

 by botanists as valuable 

 only for poultry and swine, 

 and doubtless it is not held 

 in high esteem in this 

 country, where other fruits 

 are abundant ; nevertheless, 

 there are already several 

 well-known varieties which 

 yield a product quite equal 

 in size and quality to that 

 of the best varieties of the black mulberry, a 

 fruit much prized in the Old World. The red 

 mulberry is well worthy of a place on large 

 grounds as an ornamental. It is planted occa- 

 sionally near fruit plantations with the hope 

 of keeping the pestiferous robin from destroy- 

 ing more valuable fruits usually a vain hope. 

 Two other American mulberries are worthy 

 of brief mention. Var. tomentosa is a pubes- 

 cent-leaved type which has given rise to a 

 horticultural variety in Texas, the Lampasas. 

 The Mexican mulberry, R. celtidifolia, H.B.K., 

 with its habitat from north Texas, New 

 Mexico, and Arizona through Mexico and 

 Central America to Peru, is sometimes planted 

 in the territory in which it grows wild as a 

 fruit-tree. It is, however, according to the 

 botanists who have described it, inferior to 

 either the red or the black mulberry. 



VARIETIES OF MULBERRIES 



American fruit-books describe thirteen va- 

 rieties of mulberries, of which brief descrip- 

 tions are given herewith. The descriptions are 

 all compiled, the data being so scant and 

 fragmentary that the compilations are far from 

 satisfactory. Seedlings under cultivation and 

 wild plants, from seeds distributed by birds, 

 are found in regions where the mulberries 

 thrive. 



BLACK MULBERRY OF SPAIN. M. 



nigra. Noir oj Spain. Under the two names 



given, this mulberry is offered by nurserymen 

 in the Pacific states. It is described in the 

 catalogs as an everbearing mulberry of large 

 size, the berry resembling the Lawton black- 

 berry in shape and appearance. The fruits 

 are black, with the piquancy of blackberries 

 rather than the insipid sweetness of most mul- 

 berries. The tree is vigorous, a profuse bearer, 

 hardy in the far West, and with drooping, 

 almost weeping, branches. In California and 

 Oregon it is considered the best of the mul- 

 berries for its fruit. The variety was probably 

 introduced from the Old World by Felix Gillet, 

 Nevada City, California, thirty or more years 

 ago. 



DOWNING. Fig. 320. M. multicaulis. 

 Downing's Everbearing. This variety is sup- 

 posed to be the sole representative of M. 

 multicaulis, trees of which num- 

 bered a million or more in the 

 United States less than a century 

 ago. Downing is now little known ; 

 the variety offered by nurserymen 

 under this name is usually New 

 American. The true Downing is 

 tender to cold, and, if now to be 

 found at all, must be looked for 

 in the South. It originated with 

 Charles Downing, Newburgh, New 

 York, about 1846. The fruit is but 

 briefly characterized in the old 

 catalogs as "large, black, subacid, 

 very good." It was of this variety 

 that Henry Ward Beecher wrote: 

 "I regard it as an indispensable 

 addition to every fruit-garden; 

 and I speak what I think when I say that I 

 had rather have one tree of Downing's Ever- 

 bearing Mulberries than a bed of strawberries." 



HICKS. M. rubra. Hicks Everbearing. 

 Although one of the oldest named mulberries, 

 Hicks is still offered by nurserymen as one of 

 the best. It seems to have been grown in the 

 South since 1850, and probably originated in 

 Georgia some years before that date. The 

 tree is described as very vigorous and a most 

 abundant bearer. The fruit is medium to 

 large, very sweet and somewhat insipid. While 

 grown for human consumption, the produce is 

 valued in the South, where, only, the variety 

 is largely planted, for fattening swine and for 

 poultry. Its season extends over three or four 

 months. 



JOHNSON. M. rubra. It is doubtful 

 whether Johnson can now be purchased from 

 nurserymen, although no doubt old trees of it 

 can be found in many parts of the South. It 

 is described by Downing in 1872 as follows: 

 "A seedling from Ohio. Fruit very large, 

 oblong-cylindric ; blackish color, subacid, and 

 of a mild agreeable flavor. Growth of the 

 wood strong and irregular. Leaves uncom- 

 monly large." The fruit seems to have been 

 about the largest produced by any named mul- 

 berry, but was borne sparingly. The variety 



320. 



Downing 

 Mul- 

 berry. 



