MORUS NIGRA.-THE COMMON MULBERRY TREE. 
Class XXI. MONCECIA. Order IV. TETRANDRIA. 
Natural Order, ARTOCARPEiE. — THE BREAD FRUIT TRIBE. 
The Mulberry-tree grows naturally on the coast of Italy and in Persia ; but has been cultivated in England 
since the end of the sixteenth century. It is generally grown as a standard, and flourishes best in a rich 
deep light soil. The flowers are produced in June, and the fruit ripens in September. 
The tree is not lofty, is much branched, and covered with a rough brown or greyish bark. The leaves, 
which stand upon short foot-stalks, are about five inches long, and four inches and a half broad ; numerous, 
cordate, serrated, rough, of a deep green colour on the upper surface, and paler and tomentose underneath. 
Both the male and female flowers are produced on the same plant. The male flowers are disposed in close 
cylindrical catkins, about an inch and a half long, and composed of several florets ; each floret consists of a 
calyx divided into four deep, ovate, concave segments, inclosing four awl-shaped filaments, having simple 
anthers. The female flowers consist of a calyx, which is permanent, resembling that of the male; and both 
are destitute of a corolla ; the germen is roundish and supports two reflexed styles furnished with simple 
stigmas. The fruit is a large succulent false berry, or more properly a compound berry, composed of a 
number of smaller berries, or acini, each containing a single seed, and attached to a common receptacle. 
Fig. (a) represents the male florets. 
There are several species of the Mulberry; the M. alba, being the one which is cultivated to feed the 
silk-worm, the silk of which is more coarse when they are fed on the M. nigra. Another variety is culti- 
vated in J apan, for the sake of its inner bark, from which paper is manufactured. This plant has lately 
been generically distinguished from the Mulberry, and is now called the Broussonetia papyrifera. -The 
generic name Morus is derived immediately from the Greek M opea, and that from the Celtic Mor, which sig- 
nifies black, the most common colour of the fruit. Morus tinctoria affords the fustick wood of the dyer, of 
which considerable quantities are brought into Europe. — Medical Botany. 
The black mulberry has been known from the earliest records of antiquity. It is twice mentioned in 
the Bible ; viz. in the Second Book of Samuel, and in the Psalms. The same difficulty however exists in 
tracing its history distinctly from that of the white mulberry, as in its geography, and it is only when spoken 
of as a fruit tree, or when its colour is decidedly mentioned, that we can be sure which species is meant. 
Ovid however, evidently points out the black mulberry as the one introduced in the story of Pyramus and 
Thisbe ; and Pliny seems also to allude to it, as he observes that there is no other tree that has been so 
neglected by the wit of man, either in grafting or giving it names, an observation which holds good to the 
present day, respecting the black mulberry, as it has only one trifling variety, or rather variation, and no 
synonyme; whereas there are numerous varieties of M. alba. Pliny adds, “Of all the cultivated trees the 
mulberry is the last that buds, which it never does until the cold weather is passed, and it is therefore 
called the wisest of trees. But, when it begins to put forth buds, it despatches the business in one night, 
and that with so much force, that their breaking forth may be evidently heard.” The black mulberry was 
first brought to England in 1548, when some trees were planted at Syon, one of which at least is still in 
existence. Others say that the first mulberry-tree planted in England was in the garden at Lambeth 
Place, by Cardinal Pole, 1555. The tree is mentioned by Trusser, and also by Gerard, who describes both 
the black and the white mulberry tree being cultivated in his time. The royal edict of James 1st, about 
1605, recommending the cultivation of silk-worms, and offering packets of mulberry seeds to all who would 
sow them, no doubt rendered the tree fashionable, as there is scarcely an old garden or gentleman’s seat, 
throughout the country, which can be traced back to the seventeenth century, in which a mulberry tree is 
