280 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
THE MULBERRY TREE. MORUS. L. 
The flowers of the two sexes are usually on the same plant, 
sometimes on distinct plants. The male flowers are in a droop- 
ing, axillary spike, with a calyx of four-parted sepals and four 
stamens. Female flowers in ovate, dense, erect spikes; calyx of 
four sepals, concave, becoming pulpy and juicy. Ovary of two 
cells, one having one pendulous ovule, the other none. Stigmas 
two, long. When ripe, each ovary isa fleshy nut covered by 
the fleshy calyx; the aggregate from a spike of flowers forming 
the compound Jerry. 
The several species are trees, with white sap, and alternate, 
rough, usually lobed, leaves, which are the favorite food of the 
silk-worm, the caterpillar of the Bombyx Mori, but are hardly 
attacked by any other insect. There are ten or more species, 
two of which have been known from remote times. 
The only species natural to New England, is— 
Tur Rep Mutserry. MM ridra. L. 
Figured in Michaux, Sylva, III, Plate 116 ; and in Loudon’s Arboretum, VII, 
Plate 183. 
This species naturally grows farther north than any other 
mulberry. Pursh speaks of it as growing in the Middle States ; 
Michaux thinks it is not found east of the Connecticut River, 
or north of Lake Champlain. According to Darlington, it some- 
times reaches the height of thirty feet in Pennsylvania, and a 
diameter of from twelve to twenty inches, with numerous 
spreading branches at top. But Michaux found it, in the upper 
part of that State and in Virginia, sixty or seventy feet high, 
and sometimes two feet in diameter. According to all who 
have spoken of it, the wood is exceedingly hard, strong, and 
durable. Michaux says it is almost as durable as the locust, 
and by many persons esteemed quite equal to it. In the south- 
ern ports, all that can be obtained of it is employed in ship- 
building, and it is preferred to every other wood except locust, 
for treenails. For posts, also, it is highly valued, from its dura- 
bility when exposed to the weather. In boat-building, and for 
