not to be found. It is remarkable, however, that, though these trees were expressly intended for the nour- 
ishment of silk-worms, they nearly all belong to Morus nigra, as very few instances exist of old trees of 
Morus alba in England. Shakespeare’s mulberry is referable to this period, as it was planted 1609, in his 
garden at New Place, Stratford; and it was a black mulberry, as Mr. Drake mentions, a native of Stratford, 
who in his youth, remembered frequently to have eaten of the fruit of this tree ; some of its branches 
hanging over the wall which divided that garden from his father’s. 
The mulberry was dedicated by the Greeks to Minerva, probably because it was considered the wisest 
of trees, and Jupiter the protector was called Morea. Ovid has celebrated the black mulberry tree in the 
story of Pyramus and Thisbe ; where he tells us that its fruit was originally snow-white ; but that when Py- 
ramus, in despair at the supposed death of his mistress, killed himself with his own sword, he fell dead 
under one of these trees ; and when Thisbe, returning and finding him dead, stabbed herself also, their 
blood flowing over the roots of the tree, was absorbed by them, and gave its colour to the fruit : — 
“ Dark in the rising tide the berries grew, 
And white no longer, took a sable hue, 
But brighter crimson, springing from the root 
Shot through the black, and purpled o’er the fruit.” 
Cowley describes the black mulberry as being used, in his time, both for its fruit and leaves : — 
‘ But cautiously the mulberry did move, 
And first the temper of the skies would prove, 
What sign the sun was in, and if she might 
Give credit yet to Winter’s seeming flight: 
She dares not venture on his first retreat, 
Nor trusts her fruit and leaves to doubtful heat; 
Her ready sap within her bark confines, 
Till she of settled warmth has certain signs, 
Then making rich amends for the delay, 
With sudden haste, she does her green array : 
In two short months, her purple fruit appears, 
And of two lovers slain the tincture wears. 
Her fruit is rich, but she doth leaves produce, 
Of far surpassing worth and noble use. 
Cowley on Plants. 
The destruction of Shakespeare’s mulberry tree in 1756, by its then proprietor, Mr. Gastrell, gave rise 
to several songs and other pieces of poetry ; but they rather relate to the individual tree than to the species. 
Loudon' s Arboretum Britannicum. 
Of all the trees in the orchard the mulberry doth last bloome, and not before the cold weather is gone 
in May (therefore the old writers were wont to call it the wisest tree) at which time the Silke worms do 
seeme to reuiue, as hauing then therewith to feed and nourish themselves, which all the winter before do 
lie like small graines or seeds, as knowing their proper times both to perform their duties for which they created, 
and also when they may haue wherewith to maintaine and preserve their own bodies, vnto their businesse 
aforesaid. 
The berries are ripe in August and September. Hegesander in Athenseus, affirmeth, that the mulbery 
trees in his time did not bring forth fruit in twenty yeares together, and that so great a plague of the gout 
then reigned and raged so generally, as not only men, but boies, wenches, and women were troubled with 
that disease.— Crerard’s Herbal. 
In England the fruit is generally eaten at desserts ; and it is considered of a cooling aperient nature 
when ripe. It forms an agreeable sweetmeat though it is not generally used for that purpose ; and Evelyn 
says that, mixed with juice of cider apples, it makes a very strong and agreeable wine. Dr. Clarke men- 
tions that he saw some Greeks in the Crimea employed in distilling brandy from mulberries; which he 
