THE MULBERRY FAMILY 



MORACE^ Lindley 



HIS family contains about 55 genera, comprising some 925 species of 

 trees or shrubs, many with milky sap, occurring in temperate and 

 tropical regions of both hemispheres; some of them are of consid- 

 erable economic importance, the Mulberries for their foliage as the 

 food of the silkworm, and on account of their edible fruit, the Fig for its valuable 

 fruit. The Bread-fruit, Artocarpus communis Forster, and other closely related 

 species, is of very great value in tropical countries, and of increasing importance 

 is the rubber obtained from several Asiatic species of Ficus, but more especially 

 from Castilla elastica Cervantes, and perhaps other species from Central America, 

 now being scientifically cultivated there, and in the West Indies. 



The Moraceae have mostly alternate persistent or deciduous leaves with de- 

 ciduous stipules. The flowers are monoecious or dioecious, in usually axillary 

 elongated catkins, heads, or on the inside of a hollow receptacle, and with but one 

 series to the perianth, which is 3- to s-lobed; the stamens equal in number the 

 perianth divisions and are inserted at their base; the filaments thread-like, in- 

 flexed in the bud; ovary i-or 2-celled, united with the 3 to 5 lobes of the accrescent 

 perianth, which become fleshy, enclose the nutlets, and at maturity form an ag- 

 gregate fleshy fruit; styles i or 2; ovules solitary, pendulous; endosperm fleshy or 

 none. 



Our arborescent species belong to the following genera: 



Flowers not in a receptacle; fruit a syncarp. 

 Flowers all in spike-like catkins; fruit elongated, edible. 

 Pistillate flowers in heads; fruit globose, not edible. 

 Branches firmed; fruit 5 to 15 cm. in diameter; leaves entire. 

 Branches unarmed; fruits to 3 cm. in diameter; leaves various. 

 Flowers inside of a hollow receptacle; fruit a syconium. 



1. Morus. 



2. Toxylon. 



3. Papyrius. 



4. Ficus. 



I. THE MULBERRIES 



GENUS MORUS [TOURNEFORT] LINNAEUS 



[|BOUT 10 species of Mulberries are known, all trees or shrubs, natives 

 of eastern North America, Central America, South America, Europe, 

 but most abundant in Asia. They are well known for their edible 

 fleshy fruits and as the favorite trees upon which the silkworm feeds. 

 The tough bast of their bark is sometimes used for its strong coarse fiber. The 



361 



