252 



While, fattened with a flowing gore, the root 

 Was doom'd for ever to a purple fruit. 

 The pray'r which, dying, Thisbe had preferr'd, 

 Both gods and parents with compassion heard : 

 The whiteness of the mulberry soon fled, 

 And, rip'ning, sadden'd in a duskyred. 



Pliny observes (book xv. c. 24), that 

 " there is no other tree that was so neglected 

 by the wit of man, either by grafting, or 

 in giving it names, except that of making 

 the fruit large and fair/' " At Rome/' he 

 continues, " we make a difference between 

 the mulberries of Ostia and those of Tuscu- 

 lum/' This author observes, in his xvith 

 book, c. 25, that, " of all the cultivated 

 trees, the mulberry is the last that buds, and 

 which it never does until the cold weather 

 is past ; and was therefore called the wisest 

 of all the trees; but when it begins to 

 put forth buds, it dispatches the business 

 in one night, and that with so much force, 

 that their breaking forth* may be evidently 

 heard/' 



The mulberry was much used in medi- 

 cine by the Romans, particularly for the 

 diseases of the mouth, the windpipe, the 

 uvula, and the stomach. The leaves and the 

 roots were also used medicinally by them. 

 (Pliny, b. xxiii. c. 17.) 



