THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Dec. 1, 186-4 



218 ON THE REVERSION AND 



Count Dandolo long since pointed this out ; and I have myself sown 

 the seed of the dark purple mulberry, known to the natives as the 

 " Siah Toot" and found that several of the young plants produced 

 therefrom eventually bore white fruit only, the shape and flavour being 

 entirely changed, and in some respects the leaf also. To my surprise, 

 moreover, three young trees, said to be from Cashmere, and which for 

 the past three years had borne white fruit alone, were this season (1863) 

 covered with purple fruit. 



The difference in the quality of silk reared respectively upon these 

 two kinds— which are thus in reality not two, but one and the same — 

 must be to a very great extent purely imaginary, and I will venture to 

 assert that if two skeins of silk thus grown, that is to say, the one from 

 the purple and the other from the white-fruited tree, were placed before 

 any cultivator in India, he would not be able to distinguish between 

 them. 



Of the Morus alba, Count Dandolo remarks, — " This species com- 

 prises the common wild mulberry, which has four varieties in the fruit 

 — two have white berries, one red and the other black." 



Here, then, the merest tyro may perceive that the red berry merely 

 forms the connecting link between the black and the white fruit, and 

 consequently that there can be but little, if any, difference in the quality 

 of the leaf ; indeed, all that the Count ventures to observe on the sub- 

 ject is, that " the leaf of the black mulberry, hard, harsh, and tough, 

 which is given to the silkworms in some of the warmer climates of 

 Europe, in Spain, in Sicily, in Calabria, and in some parts of Greece, 

 &c, produces abundant silk, the thread of which is very strong, but 

 coarse. The white mulberry-leaf of the tree planted in high lands 

 exposed to cold dry winds and in light soil produces generally a large 

 quantity of strong silk of the purest and finest quality." 



Now, if by the term " coarse," as here applied to the silk raised from 

 the black mulberry, is meant thick as to fibre, the difference is seem- 

 ingly of little importance, and would be overcome, I should imagine, in 

 the reeling by assigning fewer fibres to the thread ; while that the 

 produce of the white mulberry is not uniformly the same or to be de- 

 pended upon is shown in its being only " generally," and not always, 

 of the finest quality ; and moreover " the finest quality " does not neces- 

 sarily imply thinness of fibre, but may refer to other qualities, such as 

 evenness, tenacity, and elasticity ; while, with regard to the degree of 

 coarseness above alluded to, it must be borne in mind that it could not 

 possibly be coarser than Nature intended it to be, because the regulating 

 orifices in the lip would prevent it. Besides which it is extremely ques- 

 tionable whether " high lands exposed to cold dry winds " and with a 

 " light soil " are suitable to the mulberry -tree, especially in such high 

 latitudes ; and if not, then the worms fed upon the leaves of such trees 

 would be naturally less healthy and of smaller size than those reared 

 under more favourable circumstances, and, consequently, the worm and 



