i6o8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



red tint, while that of the Robinia becomes brownish yellow. On a transverse section 

 the pores of the outer part of each annual ring are minute and occur in groups, while 

 in Robinia they are considerably larger in size and scarcely grouped. The sapwood 

 is narrow, only 3 to 5 annual rings, and is white in colour. The wood is used in 

 France for cooperage, wheelwright's work, vine props, and trenails. It takes a good 

 polish and is often used for making furniture. The bark yields a fibre, which is some- 

 times used for cordage. Mulberries are used medicinally for the preparation of a 

 syrup.i (H. J. E.) 



MORUS RUBRA, Red Mulberry 



Morus rubra, Linnaeus, Sp. PL 986 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Prut. Brit. iii. 1359 (1838); Sargent, 



Silva N. Amer. vii. 79, t. 320 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 303 (1905). 

 Morus canadensis, Poiret, in Lamarck, Encycl. iv. 380 (1797). 

 Morus scabra, Willdenow, Enum. 967 (1809). 

 Morus tomentosa, Rafinesque, PI. Ludovic. 113 (1817). 

 Morus riparia, Rafinesque, New PI. iii. 46 (1836). 

 Morus reticulata, Rafinesque, Am. Man. Mulberry Trees, 28 (1839). 



A tree, attaining in America 70 ft. in height, with a short trunk 10 to 12 ft. in 

 girth. Bark dark brown, divided into irregular scaly plates. Young branchlets 

 covered with a dense minute pubescence, glabrous in the second year. Leaves 

 (Vol. IV. Plate 267, Fig. 3) 3 to 5 in. long, 2| to 4 in. wide, broadly ovate or 

 orbicular, usually abruptly contracted into a long acuminate apex ; broad, rounded 

 or slightly cordate at the base ; coarsely serrate ; dull green with a scattered 

 pubescence above ; light green beneath and covered with a soft downy pubescence ; 

 petiole f in. long, pubescent. Staminate spikes pendulous, 2 in. long, on pubescent 

 peduncles. Pistillate spikes, i in. long, on short pubescent peduncles, densely 

 flowered ; style glabrous, short, with long stigmatic lobes. Fruit, about i in. long, 

 at first bright red, becoming dark purple or nearly black and sweet when ripe. 



The leaves on ordinary branches are usually entire or with one or two lobes ; 

 but on vigorous young shoots are often deeply three-lobed with oblique and rounded 

 sinuses. 



I. Var. tomentosa, Bureau, in De Candolle, Prod. xvii. 246 (1873). 



Leaves scabrous above, pale and tomentose beneath. Louisiana, Texas. A 

 large-fruited form of this was introduced into cultivation in America by Munson in 

 1889, as the Lampsas mulberry.^ 



The Red Mulberry is widely distributed in North America,' from southern 

 Ontario and Massachusetts southwards to Florida, and westwards to Michigan, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, and the Colorado river in Texas. It is most abundant and of its 

 largest size in the basin of the lower Ohio river and on the foothills of the southern 

 Alleghany Mountains. Sargent gives* a good figure of a tree in Alabama, and 



1 Cf. Flilckiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 544 (1879). 



^ Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort. 1035 (1901). 



3 A closely allied species, M. tiliafolia, Makino, in Tokyo Bot. Mag. xxiii. 88 (1909) is found in Japan. 



* In Garden and Forest, vii. 24, fig. 3 (1894). 



