DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 159 



verdure contrasts happily with that of other more sombre 

 forest trees. The fruit is we believe of no importance ; 

 but it is the most valuable of all mulberries as food for the 

 silk worm, 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. UrticacesB. Lin. Syst. Dioecia, Tetrandria. 



The Paper mulberry is an exotic tree of a low growth, rare- 

 ly exceeding twenty-five or thirty feet, indigenous to Japan 

 and the South Sea Islands, but very common in our gar- 

 dens. It is remarkable for the great variety of forms ex- 

 hibited in its foliage ; as upon young trees it is almost im- 

 possible to find two exactly alike, though the prevailing out- 

 lines are either heart-shaped, or more or less deeply cut or 

 lobed. These leaves are considered valueless for feeding the 

 silk worm ; but in the South Seas, the bark is woven into 

 dresses worn by the females ; and in China and Japan, ex- 

 tensive use is made of it in the manufacture of a paper, of the 

 softest and most beautiful texture. This is fabricated from 

 the inner bark of the young shoots, which is first boiled 

 to a soft pulp, and then submitted to processes greatly simi- 

 lar to those performed in our paper-mills. This tree blos- 

 soms in spring, and ripens its fruit in the month of August. 

 The latter is dark scarlet, and quite ornamental, though of no 

 value. The genus is dioecious ; and the reason why so few 

 fruit-bearing trees are seen in the United States, is because 

 we generally cultivate only one of the sexes, the female. 

 M. Parmentier, however, who introduced the male plant from 



