26 FAMILIAR TREES 



sists mainly of trees belonging to tropical and- 

 sub-tropical regions and agreeing in the possession 

 of a milky juice or " latex," which in many cases 

 contains a certain amount of rubber. Unlike the 

 Elms, they invariably have their stamens and 

 carpels in distinct flowers, the perianth usually 

 consisting of four minute leaves which remain in 

 the fruit stage. The stamens are also generally 

 four in each flower in which any occur, and their 

 anthers are not explosive like those of Nettles. The 

 ovary and ovule are in general like those of the 

 Ulma'cece ; but in many cases, as in Figs and 

 Mulberries, the fruits of whole clusters of flowers 

 become united into remarkable structures known 

 generally as "multiple -fruits." In the Mulberry 

 the staminate and carpellate flowers are borne in 

 distinct clusters, a tree sometimes bearing one type 

 of flower exclusively ; and obviously the multiple 

 fruit that we know as a Mulberry is the product 

 of the carpellate clusters only. 



As these clusters contain several, but not a 

 large number of flowers, and are pendulous, we 

 may roughly compare them to the hanging 

 racemes of the Eed Currant, the Gooseberry, or 

 the scarlet Ri'hes, though we shall soon per- 

 ceive a wide difference in their subsequent develop- 

 ment. In the Eihes the petals and stamens — for 

 there are stamens — disappear, and each flower forms 

 a fruit crowned with the withered remains of 

 the calyx. In the Mulberry the four small green 

 leaves of the perianth become enlarged and change 

 colour till, save for a delicate epidermis, they consist 



