Morus 1609 



states that there was one at Augusta, Georgia, 20 ft. in girth at 3 ft. from the 

 ground ; but this large size is exceptional. 



This species has been tried, but with indifferent success, for feeding silkworms 

 in America. It is occasionally planted in the southern States for its fruit, which is 

 mainly used for feeding pigs and poultry. Bailey,^ however, states that three of the 

 named varieties of fruit-bearing mulberries belong to this species, as well as a yellow- 

 leaved variety which is cultivated for ornament. 



M. rubra is said to have been introduced into England, early in the seventeenth 

 century ; but is now scarcely known in cultivation, the only specimen which we have 

 seen being a small tree at Kew, which died two or three years ago. 



The timber, according to Sargent, is orange -coloured, with a thick light- 

 coloured sapwood, soft and coarse-grained ; but tough and resisting decay in contact 

 with the soil. It is occasionally used in the United States for fencing, cooperage, 

 and boat-building. (A. H.) 



MORUS ALBA, White Mulberry 



Morus alba, Linnaeus, Sj>. PL 986 (i 753) ; Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1348 (1838) ; Willkomm, 

 Forstliche Flora, 540 (1887); Hooker, Fl. Brit India, v. 492 (1888); Mathieu, Flore 

 Forestiire, 290 (1897); Gamble, Indian Timbers, 634 (1902). 



A tree, usually 30 to 40 ft. in height, but attaining, according to Mayr, much 

 larger dimensions in Japan. Bark thick, fissured into broad scaly plates. Young 

 branchlets with scattered minute pubescence. Leaves (Vol. IV. Plate 267, Fig. 2), 

 thin and membranous, very variable in size and shape, ovate or oval, often with 

 deeply indented sinuses, forming irregular lobes ; base rounded, truncate, or widely 

 cordate ; apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate ; margin non-ciliate, irregularly 

 serrate ; upper surface shining, usually glabrous ; lower surface dull green, 

 pubescent on the midrib and nerves, elsewhere glabrous ; petiole \ to i^ in. long, 

 glabrescent. Pistillate spikes on long slender peduncles ; style glabrous or 

 papillose, divided or not divided to the base into stigmatic lobes. Fruit, variable 

 in size, ^ to i^ in. long, white or reddish. 



The seedling ^ has two cotyledons, raised above the ground, dark green above, 

 pale beneath, about \ in. long, tapering gradually to a short petiole, and faintly 

 veined with a midrib and a few lateral nerves ; primary leaves irregularly dentate. 



No plant is more variable than M. alba; and possibly under this name are 

 included two or three distinct species, natives of China and Japan, where the tree 

 has been so long in cultivation, that it is almost impossible at the present day 

 to distinguish the cultivated and possibly the hybrid forms, from those which are 

 truly indigenous. For a complete account. Bureau,^ who enumerates sixteen main 

 varieties, may be consulted. The following are worthy of note : — 



I. Var. mongolica, Bureau, in De Candolle, Prod. xvii. 241 (1873). 



' Cvcl. Amer. Hort. 1034 (1901). "^ Tubeuf, Samen, FrUchte, u. Keimlinge, 53, 114. (1891). 



3 In De Candolle, Prod. xvii. 238-245 (1873). Several of these varieties are now considered to be distinct species, as 

 M. serrata, Roxburgh, M. indica, Linnsns, and M. lavigata, Wallich, vfhich are wild in the Himalayas. 



