1350 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111. 



t M. a. 1 1 siiicnsis Hort. ; M. sinensis Hort. ; M. chinensis Lodd. Cat., 

 ed. 1836; the Chinese white Mulberry, Amcr.; is a large-leaved 

 variety. 



* M. a. 12 pumila Nois., ? M. a. nana Hort. Brit , is a shrub, seldom 

 exceeding 10ft. high. There are plants bearing this name in the 

 arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges, which have leaves nearly as large 

 as those of M. a. macrophylla. 



Other Varieties. All the above sorts are in the arboretum of Messrs. 

 Loddiges ; but in the catalogues of foreign nurserymen there are several 

 other names. In the Humbeque Nursery, near Brussels, a number of va- 

 rieties are cultivated for the American market, where the white mulberry 

 is now much in demand ; and a list of their names will be found in Gardener's 

 Magazine, vol. xi. p. 539. Castelet, in his Traite sur les Muriers blancs, 

 which is generally considered the best work on the subject extant in 

 France, divides the varieties of M. alba, now cultivated in Provence for 

 their leaves, into two classes, the wild and the grafted ; the latter being 

 propagated by grafting, and the former by cuttings, layers, or seeds. 



Wild Mulberries. 



La Feuille rose. This is the same as M. a. 8?dsea, mentioned above. 



La Feuille dorte, M. a. lucida Hort., M. lucida Hort., which has large, heart-shaped, 



shining leaves, and small purplish fruit. 

 La Heine batarde has the leaves twice as large as those of the Feuille rose, and 



deeply toothed. This is probably the Foglia zaxola of the Italians. 

 La Femelle.Trce spiny, and sending forth its fruit before its Icaves.which are trilobate. 

 Grafted Mulberries. 



La Reine, which has shining leaves, much larger than any of the wild varieties ; and 



ash.coloured fruit. 

 La grosse Reine. This is a subvariety of M. a. macrophjlla, which has the leaves of a 



very deep green, and the fruit black, instead of white. 



La Feuille d'Espngne. This variety is the same as M. a. 4 macrophylla, mentioned above. 

 La Feuille de floes has the leaves of a very deep green, and growing in tufts at the ex- 



trenrities of the branches. The fruit is produced in abundance, but never arrives 



at maturity. This is probably the Foglt'a doppia, or double-leaved variety, of the 



Italian gardeners. 



Besides these, there are many garden varieties in the French, German, 

 and Italian nurseries. 



Description, $c. The white mulberry is readily distinguished from the 

 black, even in winter, by its more numerous, slender, upright-growing, and 

 white-barked shoots. It is a tree of much more rapid growth than M. nigra, 

 and its leaves are not only less rough and more succulent, but they contain 

 more of the glutinous milky substance resembling caoutchouc, which gives 

 tenacity to the silk produced by the worms fed on them. They are generally 

 cordate and entire, but sometimes lobed, and always deeply serrated. The 

 fruit of M. alba and its wild varieties is seldom good for human food, but it 

 is found excellent for poultry ; and, for this purpose, a tree of the species was 

 formerly generally planted in the basse cour of the old French chateaux. 

 (Bosc.} The fruit of M. a. multicaulis, and some other of the highly cultivated 

 varieties, is not only eatable, but agreeable. The rate of growth of young 

 plants is much more rapid than that of Af. nigra; plants cut down producing 

 shoots 4 ft. or 5 ft. long in one season ; the tree attaining the height of 20 ft. 

 in five or six years ; and, when full grown, reaching to 30 ft. or 40 ft. Its 

 duration is not so great as that of M. nigra. 



Geography. The white mulberry is only found truly wild in China, in the 

 province of Seres, or Serica; it is, however, apparently naturalised in many 

 parts of Asia Minor and Europe ; and nearly all its varieties are of European 

 origin. It does not embrace so extensive a range of country as M. nigra, 

 being unable to resist either great cold or great heat. 'In a cultivated 

 state, it is found, as a road-side pollard tree, in many parts of France, Spain, 

 Italy, and Germany as far north as Frankfort on the Oder. In England, 

 it is not very common; and it is scarcely to be found in Scotland, even 

 against a wall. 



History, fyc. The Chinese appear to have been the first to cultivate the 

 mulberry for feeding silkworms; and they are supposed to have discovered the 

 art of making silk 2700 years B. c., in the reign of the Emperor Hong, whose 

 empress, Si-iing-chi, is said to have first observed the labours of the silk- 



