46 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK 11. not been gathered. These they shake down upon an old sheet spread 

 

 "•"^"^r^^ under the tree, to protect them from gravel and ordure, which will hinder 



tliem daily ; then put them in a fine sieve, and plunging them in water, 

 bruise them with your hand : do this in several waters, then change them 

 in other clear water, and the seed will sink to the bottom, Avhilst the 



oreni being added to it. These three are to be mixed and agitated together with a clean 

 and slender reed, until reduced into a liquor that is homogeneous, and of a due consistence. 

 This succeeds best in a narrow vessel. The prepared liquor is poured into a larger vat ; 

 from whence the sheets, or folios, are poured out one by one, and placed in heaps upon 

 a table covered with a double mat ; a small thread of reed being interjected betwixt the sheets 

 at the margin, which, projecting a little from the leaves, serves to distinguish them, so that 

 they may be taken up singly when wanted. The heaps are covered with a single piece of 

 wood, adapted to the size and form of the paper, upon which stones are placed, at first of a 

 light weight, lest, being wet, the sheets should coalesce ; but afterwards larger and heavier, 

 that all the aqueous humour may be expressed by degrees. The following day the weights 

 being removed, each sheet is taken up by itself, and the operation finished. 

 A few years ago, there were several plants of the paper-mulberry raised in the gardens of his 

 Grace the Duke of Northumberland from seed ; and when removed into the open air, bore 

 the weather without shelter. The tree makes very strong vigorous shoots, but seems not to 

 be of tall growth, for it sends out many lateral branches from the root upward. The leaves 

 are large, some of them are entire, others are deeply cut into three, and some into five lobes, 

 especially while the trees are young, dividing in form of a hand. They are of a dark green, 

 and rough to the touch ; but of a pale green on their under-side, and somewhat hairy, falling 

 off on the first approach of frost in autumn, as do those of the common Mulberry. 



6. MORUS C INDTCA ) foliis ovato oblongo utrinque Eequalibus, infequaliter serratis. Lin. 

 Sp, PI. ] 399- Mulberry with oval, oblong leaves, which are equal on both sides, hut unequally 

 sawed. Tinda-parua Hort. Mai. The Indian mulberry. 



This kind grows naturally in India, where it becomes £^ large tree- It has a soft, thick, yel- 

 lowish bark, with a milky juice like the Fig, which is astringent. The branches come out on 

 every side, and are garnished with oblong oval leaves, standing upon short foot-stalks. Both 

 sides of these leaves are equal, but their edges are unequally sawed. They are rough, of a 

 dark green on their upper side, but pale on their under, standing alternately on the branches. 

 The flowers come out in round heads, at the foot-stalks of the leaves on each side of the 

 branches ; they are of an herbaceous white colour ; the male flowers have four stamina ; 

 the female flowers are succeeded by roundish fruit, which at first is green, afterwards white, 

 and when ripe, of a dark red colour. — The plants are too tender to live out of a stove 

 in this country. 



The MULBERRY is of the class and order Monoecia Tetrandria, which contain the so plants 

 that have male and female flowers at separate distances upon the same plant, the male 

 flowers having four staraina. i 



