0119 



PAPER MULBERRY. 



Family: URTICACEAE. [Translator's note: the Broussonetia genus is now assigned 

 to the family Moraceae] 



Reproductive system: DlOECY, TETRANDRY. 



The broussonetia, or paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyri/era, LHER., Morus 

 papyrifera, LINN., is an interesting tree that has been acclimatized in our parks and 

 gardens for several years. Its trunk is twenty or thirty feet high, and its branches form a 

 large top. They are hairy when young. The leaves come in a variety of shapes. Some are 

 ovate, entire, or toothed; others are lobed, or entire on one side and lobed on the other. 

 All are dark green and hairy. The male flowers form cylindrical catkins; they are found 

 on separate plants from the female flowers. The calyx is divided into four, with four 

 resilient stamens. There is no corolla. The female flowers are globular, quite similar to 

 those of the plane tree. Their calyx has four divisions. It is inserted into an extended 

 receptacle that projects beyond the calyx and becomes fleshy. 



FLOWERS: in March 



RANGE: China, Japan, and the South Sea islands. 



NOMENCLATURE. Broussonetia^ from V. Broussonet, a French naturalist, who 

 traveled in Barbary and brought the first female individual of this tree to France from 

 England [Translator's note: Broussonet, 1761-1807, was a naturalist, physician, and 

 professor of botany at Montpellier; Barbary is the coastal region of North Africa]. 

 German, papier baum. English, paper mulberry tree. Japanese, kaadsi. A Otai'ti, eaowte. 



USES. It got the name paper mulberry because in Japan and China paper is made 

 from pulp prepared from the bark of the young branches. For this purpose it could be 

 extremely useful in France, as shown by the experiments of Faujas Saint-Fond 

 [Translator's note : Barthelemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, 1741-1819, botanist and professor 

 of geology at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris], especially since raw materials for our paper 

 go up in price daily. According to Captain Cook, 



