470 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
to the structure of the seeds and the general habits of the 
plants that we must look for our true analogues. 
As a rule the Moraceee discharge a milky juice from their 
leaves; so much so that some of the Ficus plants get the 
name of cow-trees. These juices are very variable, in some 
very sweet and wholesome, while in others they partake of 
that acridity which, indeed, belongs to the family. 
Morus nigra —mulberry—is a well-known tree, which 
assumes considerable dimensions even in this country, where 
there are few old mansions to which this native of Persia has 
not been brought. The tree is slow of growth, but seems to 
possess a strength of constitution that enables it to reach to 
an age of centuries. 
It is grown much in France as food for silkworms ; but in 
this country the sub-acid fruit seems to have caused its being 
planted, as the “ berry” was at one time highly esteemed, for, 
as stated by Dr. Pereira— 
“ Mulberries are alimentary in a slight degree; they allay 
thirst, diminish febrile heat, and in large quantities prove 
laxative. 
“ They are employed as an agreeable aliment, and are well 
adapted to check preternatural heat and relieve thirst in 
fevers, but are objectionable when a tendency to diarrhoea 
exists. They owe their retention in the pharmacopoeia to 
their colour and flavour.” 
Alas! for this want of faith in the mulberry. Formerly 
careful housewives considered themselves safe from many of 
the “ ills that flesh is heir to” if they had some fresh mul¬ 
berries at hand to allay all febrile symptoms, and, wanting 
this, the syrup of mulberries was one of the most necessary 
articles of the still-room. 
In the palmy days of medicine, when the fashionable 
apothecary sent from four to six draughts, as a twenty-four 
hours’ supply to some nervous spinster, syrup of mulberries was 
much resorted to, and the cures it wrought, when the medical 
man was an agreeable, chatty gossip, were very remark¬ 
able, and tended much to show that homoeopathic treatment 
is not altogether so new as it professes to be. The same 
remarks apply to the Dorstenia, Contrayerva , or Contrajerva, 
and D. Brasiliensis , the root of which was formerly held in 
great repute as a diaphoretic and stimulant, but is now 
obsolete. Still the plant is welcome to the botanist for the 
interesting structure of its receptacle. 
Ficus carica —fig—has flowers, both male and female, so 
remarkably in plan like those of the Dorstenia, that we can 
have no doubt of their relationship to each other; and, in 
