Foreign Notices : — Italy. 231 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 ITALY. 



MoNZA, February 8. 184-2. — I have read Gardening for Ladies, which 

 Mrs. Loudon has been so kind as to send me, from beginning to end. 

 I find it written with a full knowledge of the subjects treated of, so that it is 

 a book of great interest and information, and one which should be in the 

 pocket of every gardener. The chapters, for example, Manuring the Soil, 

 Manure, Transplanting, The Management of Fruit Trees, and the Pleasure - 

 Ground, gave me great pleasure. The single chapter Pleasure- Ground "s 

 well deserving of attention, as by studying that even the blockhead might 

 become a creator of pleasure-grounds. I must, however, intimate to the 

 accomplished authoress, that in the article " Mulberry " a few mis- 

 takes have crept in ; which, in a new edition, I beg of her to remedy. 

 She says that the leaves of the black mulberry (jMorus nigra) are positively 

 injurious to the silkworm. The leaves of the black mulberry are not ab- 

 solutely injurious to silkworms, since, before the introduction of the white 

 mulberry (.Moms alba), they were fed exclusively with the leaves of the black 

 (see Crescenzio) ; but the worms, especially in the early stages of their 

 growth, do not eat them very eagerly on account of their rough surface. In 

 various countries, such as Spain*, for example, and the Levant, where the 

 white mulberry is not common, silkworms are reared entirely on the leaves 

 of the black mulberry. The principal reason of the white mulberry being 

 preferred is, that the silkworms reared on the leaves of the black mulberry 

 produce a coarser silk. I have no doubt, also, that the leaves of the red 

 mulberry (.Moras rubra) are not injurious to the silkworm ; and I am con- 

 firmed in this opinion from what is said by J. M. in Gard. Mag., vol. xv. 

 p. 573. Perhaps, however, they are not eaten with as much relish by the 

 silkworms as even the leaves of the black mulberry, on account of their being 

 still more rugged. I believe my brother Louis, backed by what is said by the 

 above-named J. M. in your excellent periodical, intends making this year 

 comparative experiments. It cannot be denied that the silkworm does eat 

 the leaves of the lettuce; and by experiments made by eminent agriculturists 

 it results that they either die before making a cocoon, or if they do make one 

 it is in a state of disease, and consequently the produce is worthless. It 

 is easily explained when we consider that the lettuce does not contain the 

 mucilage necessary for the formation of silk, a mucilage peculiar to the mul- 

 berry, which is the food destined by nature for the insect. The silkworm has 

 been reared entirely on the leaves of the scorzonera {Scorzonera hispanica), 

 but the results were not satisfactory. In all other respects, the person who 

 should translate this excellent manual into Italian would do an important 

 service to horticulturists as well as to his countrymen in general. If I 

 had time, I should be delighted to render myself useful to my brethren ; but 

 my numerous avocations do not leave me a moment's respite ! 



The following is what Professor Dr. Giuseppe Moretti says in his Prodro- 

 mus di una Monogrqfia delle Specie del Genere Morus.-f " In the Arboretum et 

 Fruticetum by Loudon, a work of eminent merit, there are eighteen species of 



* The black mulberry is also called Spanish mulberry (Gelso di Spagna). 



-f- I have already called the attention of the professor to the circumstance 

 that Mrs. Loudon, in her Gardening for Ladies, says that there are only three 

 species of mulberry cultivated in Europe, i. e. .Moras nigra, M. alba, and M. 

 rubra; and told him that in my opinion he had only read your excellent Ar- 

 boretum et Fruticetum superficially before writing his Prodromus, as you also 

 only give three species and not eighteen, as he asserts. I imagine he has 

 thought that you have given as species .Moras (a.) constantinopolitana and 

 M. (a) tatarica, not observing that a. only means alba, and consequently 

 M. alba var. constantinopolitana, &c. 



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