Part 24

The generic name, Morus, is probably derived from the Celtic word mor, meaning black, in reference to the color of the fruit. The specific name, rubra, is given to this species because the mulberries are dark red instead of white, like those of Morus alba.

The red mulberry is found growing wild in Western Massachusetts, south to Florida and westward. It is frequently planted in gardens for its fruit.

Morus alba]

A small tree, with a rough bark, small, round brown buds, and small projecting alternate leaf-scars with clearly defined bundle-scars. The buds are smaller and more rounded than those of the red mulberry. It is easily distinguished from the red mulberry by its more numerous and slender shoots.

Professor Charles S. Sargent says that no other tree furnishes employment, directly and indirectly, to so large a number of the human race, or has been so carefully studied from the cultural point of view, and no other tree has given rise to such a voluminous literature as the white mulberry.

Morus alba

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It was introduced here from China about 1830, and it has been widely cultivated and naturalized throughout the United States. The Chinese were the first to cultivate the mulberry for feeding silkworms, and they are said to have discovered the art of making silk 2700 years B. C. According to Loudon the discovery is due to the keen powers of observation of the Empress Si-ling-chi, who watched the labors of silkworms on wild mulberry trees, and who first applied their silk to use. It is interesting to associate the making of silk with an empress who loved nature and used her eyes two thousand years and more B. C. From China the art passed into Persia, India, Arabia, and finally (350 B. C.) into Greece. In 1440 A. D. the white mulberry was introduced into upper Italy, and during the reign of Charles VII. the first white mulberry was planted in France. In 1609 the silkworm was introduced into Great Britain by James I., and at the same time he sent over mulberry trees and silkworms to America, and tried to induce the colonists in Virginia to cultivate silkworms instead of raising tobacco.

The wood has been used for making wine casks in Europe, and is highly valued on account of the supposed violet flavor it gives to white wines. The bark is used for making bast for mats, and linen also has been made out of it. The fruit of the white mulberry is insipid and tasteless.

CHAPTER X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

Chapter X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

Family Leguminosæ

The Leguminosæ are a large order of plants including many different genera,—from the little clover by the wayside to the honey locust trees, 140 feet high. The trees of the different genera are all distinguished by their pod-like fruit,—the name Leguminosæ being given to this family on account of the leguminous or bean-like pods which enclose the seeds.

They are interesting to study on account of the buds, which differ in structure from the hidden buds of the locusts enclosed in the stem, to the subpetiolar buds of the yellowwood, concealed under the leafstalks through the summer, but conspicuous in winter after they have fallen.

Robinia pseud-acacia]

An irregular growing, slender tree, 70 to 80 feet high, with very rough, deeply furrowed, often yellowish-looking bark. Slender twigs, with inconspicuous thorns. Small, alternate triangular leaf-scars, somewhat raised in the centre. The buds are superposed between the thorns, and are entirely hidden by the leaf-scars. Fruit a pea-shaped pod, four or five inches long.

The common locust is one of the few trees which is decidedly more attractive in summer than in winter. The delicate texture and tender green of the leaves and the pendulous racemes of white fragrant flowers make the whole beauty of this tree, and in winter it seems rough, straggling, and uncouth in its habit of growth, and utterly devoid of either strength or grace. The common locust glories in a wealth of summer sweetness and color, but in winter the absence of poise and symmetry in its branches and its colorless stems make it seem shapeless and dead.

The wood is heavy and strong, and durable when it is placed in contact with the soil. It is used in ship-building and for posts. The bark is a tonic used in homœopathic remedies.

Robinia pseud-acacia

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The name, Robinia, was given to this genus in honor of Jean Robin, a French botanist, and the gardener of Henry IV. of France. The specific name, pseud-acacia (false acacia), arose from the supposition that this tree was a species of the Egyptian acacia from its prickly branches and pinnate leaves, which are like those of that tree. It was called “locust tree” by English missionaries who collected it first and fancied that it was the tree that nourished John the Baptist in the wilderness.

It was one of the first American trees to attract attention in Europe, and it has been extensively cultivated there.

The locust is not a native of New England, but it grows wild south of Pennsylvania and it is widely naturalized throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

The clammy locust (Robinia viscosa) is a small tree or shrub easily distinguished from the common locust by its stems and young branches, which are clammy and sticky to the touch. It is a native of the mountains of North Carolina, and it has been extensively cultivated as far north as Eastern Massachusetts.

The specific name, viscosa, is from the Latin adjective meaning full of birdlime, sticky, and refers to the peculiar clamminess of the stems.

Robinia hispida, the rose acacia, is an ornamental shrub cultivated in gardens and found growing wild from Virginia southward. The specific name, hispida (bristly), refers to the long bristles on the branches, leaves, and pods which distinguish this shrub from the other species of the genus.