The Mulberries, the Osage Orange and the Figs 



bushes, but the lusty white worms so ghastly naked and dreadful 

 to see, and so ravenous, we fed with Osage orange leaves, cut at 

 the risk of much damage from ugly thorns and with much weari- 

 ness. But what were present discomforts compared with the 

 excellency of the hope set before us! Not Solomon in all his glory 

 was arrayed as we expected to be. And the worms — while 

 we loathed them, we counted them, and ministered to their 

 needs. 



At last our labours ended. They began to spin, and soon the 

 denuded twigs were thickly studded with the yellow cerements of 

 the translated larvae, to the relief and wonder of all concerned. 

 But even as we wondered, the dead twigs blossomed with white 

 moths whose beauty and tremulous motion passed description. 

 We were lifted into a state of exaltation by the spectacle, 



"Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." A 

 hard-hearted but well-informed neighbour told us that the broken 

 cocoons were worthless for silk. "You'd ought to have scalded 

 'em as soon as they spun up." Clouds and thick darkness shut 

 out the day. We refused to be comforted. 



This explains why the mere mention of the Osage orange tree, 

 or the sight of a hedge, however thrifty, brings to my mind a 

 haunting suggestion "of old unhappy far-off things." 



3. Genus FICUS, Linn. 



Figs belong to a genus of 600 species scattered over all tropical 

 countries. The trees have peculiar flowers lining the inside of a 

 fleshy receptacle so that the "fig wasps" that fertilise them have 

 to crawl in through a small opening. 



Dried figs are an important commercial fruit. These are 

 from varieties of Ftcus Carica, an Asiatic species. Smyrna figs 

 are best for drying. They are extensively raised in California, 

 and cured for market. Other varieties, better adapted for use as 

 a fresh fruit, are grown in many Southern States. The figs we 

 buy are mostly from Asia Minor. The dependence of the fig upon 

 the ministrations of the little wasp is one of the most interesting 

 and baffling chapters in the romance of science. 



The rubber plant, vastly popular in this country as a pot 

 plant, is a Ficus. So is the famous banyan tree of India, and the 



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