THE TYPES OF MULBERRIES 161 



other Qse than the feeding of Bilk worms, and the 

 botanical perplexities of the genus Moms, to which 

 these trees belong. 



For two or three centuries the earth has been 

 Bearched for new forms of mulberry trees for the feed- 

 ing of the >ilk worm. All the besl types have been 

 found to be forms of the white mulberry (Morus alba) 

 of China, or types which are evidently direcl offshoots 

 of it. This type of mulberry trees produces fruit of 

 inferior quality, and little effoirj has been made to 

 develop fruit-bearing varieties of it. The fruit- 

 bearing mulberry of history is another species, the 

 black mulberry [Morus nigra), probably a native of 

 Persia and adjacenl regions. Bui there has been very 

 little desire t'< n- the introduction of a fruit-bearing mul- 

 berry in this country, so that the black mulberry is 

 little known here, although horticultural writers have 

 generally referred any valuable fruit-bearing mulberry 

 which has chanced to appear in this country t<> Morus 

 nigra, 1 ause this is the species described in the Euro- 

 pean fruit-books. A third important factor in the 

 evolution of American mulberries is the re -introduction 

 m recent years of the Morus Tatarica, now generally 

 known in this country as the Russian mulberry, and 

 whicb is really only an outlying form of the white 

 mulberry. 



A fourth important factor i^ tin- native red or 

 purple mulberry [Morus rubra, Pigs. 20, 21), and to 

 this we need to give Bpecial attention in this explora- 

 tion of the evolution of our native fruits. The species 

 i- greatlj variable, and it grows naturally from west- 

 em Sew England and Long Island to Florida ami 

 K ansas and Texas. It is mentioned bj verj many ol 



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