THE STRANGE RESULT 169 



true Downing is all bul losl to cultivation, and the 

 false variety is gaining in reputation. It is an excel- 

 lent illustration of the operation of the struggle for 

 existence, and the better has survived ; l>nt the wonder 

 is thai such a striking transformation could take place 

 before our verj eyes and we see it not ! 



The variety which, in tin- North, is sold as Down- 

 ing, is really the New American. This variety was 

 broughl to noti<-<- about 1854, by X. II. Lindley, of 

 Bridgeport, Connecticut. No one knows its history, 

 but it is undoubtedly a chance seedling <>t' one of tin- 

 old silk-worm mulberries. Two other varieties, the 

 Trowbridge and Thorburn, are almosl indistinguishable 

 from it. and of these tin- history is also unknown ; but 



they are forms of Morus alba. The Russian mulberry 

 type ha- also given us large-fruited varieties within 

 recent years. Two of these which have received 

 names are Ramsey White and Victoria. A Japanese 

 mulberry, too ( Morns Japonica), has been introduced, 

 hut it lias not yel given us important fruit-bearing 

 varieties. 



It will thus In- seen that our cultivated mulberry 

 flora, although Bmall, is yel delightfully confused ; bul 

 the confusion, when our.- understood, if f mhI to be 

 the result of ,-i curious evolution, in tin- court ' which 

 the old-time fruit -bearing mulberry has lost its promi- 

 nence, the native mulberrj baa come to the fore, the 

 epoch-making multicaulis, introduced for silk, came to 

 be grown for its fruit, and it- best fruit -producing 

 variety ha- been driven out by a variety of another 

 species which has heretofore been grown onlj for 

 silk; and tin- entire transformation has been wrought 

 by intelligent men who were ignorant of it ! 



