PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 153 



himself "with quoting Hohenaeker as the discoverer of 

 M. nigra in the forests of Lenkoran, on the south coast 

 of the Caspian Sea, and he adds, " probably wild in the 

 north of Persia near the Caspian Sea." ^ Ledebour, in his 

 Russian flora, had previously indicated, on the authority 

 of different travellers, the Crimea and the provinces south 

 of the Caucasus ; ^ but Steven denies the existence of the 

 species in the Crimea except in a cultivated state.* Tchi- 

 hatcheff and Koch found the black mulberry in high 

 wild districts of Armenia. It is very probable that in 

 the region to the south of the Caucasus and of the 

 Caspian Sea Moi-us nigra is wild and indigenous rather 

 than naturalized. What leads me to this belief is (1) 

 that it is not known, even in a cultivated state, in India, 

 China, or Japan ; (2) that it has no Sanskrit name ; (3) 

 that it was sc early introduced into Greece, a country 

 which had intercourse with Armenia at an early period.* 



Moras nigra spread so little to the south of Persia, 

 that no certain Hebrew name is known for it, nor even 

 a Persian name distinct from that of Morus alba. It 

 was widely cultivated in Italy until the superiority 

 of the white mulberry for the rearing of silkworms was 

 recognized. In Greece the black mulberry is still the 

 most cultivated.® It has become naturalized here and 

 there in these countries and in Spain.® 



American Aloe — Agave Americana, Linnaeus. 



This ligneous plant, of the order of Amarylbidaeece, 

 has been cultivated from time immemorial in Mexico under 

 the names maguey or metl, in order to extract from it, at 

 the moment when the flower stem is developed, the wine 

 known as pulque. Humboldt has given a full descrip- 

 tion of this culture,'' and he tells us elsewhere * that the 



» Boissier, H. Orient., iv. p. 1153 (published 1879). 



• Ledebonr, Fl. Ross., iii. p. 611. 



• Steven, Verseichniss d. Taur. Balh. Pflan., p. 313. 



• Tchihatcheff, trans, of Grisebach's Vegetation du Globe, i. 424. 



• Heldreich, Nutzpfiamen Griechetiland,'!, p. 19. 



' Bertoloni, Flora Hal., x. p. 179; Viviani, Fl. Dalmat., i. p. 220; 

 Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hisp., i. p. 250. 

 ' Hnmboldt, Nouvelle Espagne, ed. 2, p. 487. 



• Humboldt, in Knnth, Nova Genera, i. p, 297. 



