284 A'HE NURSERY. [March. 
The Morus nigra or black mulberry, is more esteemed for its 
fruit than the white, and when cultivated for such, layers or cut- 
tings from good fruit-bearing trees, ought to be preferred, to raising 
Ihem by seed; for monoecious trees, until arrived at a good age, 
hear male flowers chiefly and very few fruit. The cuttings if tak- 
en off in March, rightly chosen, and skilfully managed, will do very 
well; though, in general, they do not take as ireely in this way as 
many other trees; however, if placed under bell-glasses, they will 
strike with great certainty: but where there is no such conve- 
niency, the ground about them should be covered with moss, to 
prevent its drying; and where this is carefully done, they will want 
but little water, and will succeed much belter than with having too 
much wet. 
The Morus rubra or red American mulberry, is admired by 
some, on account of the pleasing acidity of its fruit, and is said to 
answer the end of feeding silk worms very well. It is cultivated like 
every other kind, by layers, cuttings and seed. 
The white mulberry prospers best in a moist rich loam, the black, 
in a dry sandy soil, and the red in a mean between both these 
kinds. 
The Paper -Mulberry, and method of making Paper of its Bark, 
The Moras fia/iyrifera, or paper mulberry. This tree makes 
very strong vigorous shoots, but seems not to be of tall growth: it 
drives up an abundance of suckers from the roots, by which it is 
easily propagated. The leaves are large, some of them entire, 
others cut into two, three or four lobes, sporting themselves into 
various forms, and scarcely two to be found alike on the same tree, 
especially while young; they are of a dark green, and rough to 
the touch on the upper surface, but pale green and somewhat hairy 
on the under side, falling off on the first approach of frost in autumn. 
Their fruit is little larger than peas, surrounded with long purplish 
hairs, when ripe, changing to a black purple colour, and full of 
sweet juice. 
It is a native of Japan, and the South Sea Islands; and according 
to Mr. Miller, of China and South Carolina^ whence he received the 
seeds. The inhabitants of Japan, have for ages been in the habit of 
making paper from its bark: they cultivate the trees for this pur- 
pose, on the mountains, much in the same manner as we do osiers, 
cutting them all down for use every autumn after the leaves are 
fallen. 
The finest and whitest cloth, worn by the principal people at Ota- 
heite, and in the Sandwich Islands, is made of the bark of this tree; 
which they frequently dye red. The bread fruit tree, makes a cloth 
inferior in whiteness and softness, worn there chiefly by the com- 
mon people. 
Paper making, having a connection in this instance, with objects 
of my attention, and the probable use it may be of to the communi- 
ty, induces me to give additional publicity to the following method 
of manufacturing it from the bark of the paper mulberry-tree: the 
