Baccæ Mori, Mora; Mulberries; F. Mûres; G. Maulbeeren.
Botanical Origin—Morus nigra L., a handsome bushy tree, about 30 feet in height, growing wild in Northern Asia Minor, Armenia, and the southern Caucasian regions as far as Persia. In Italy, it was employed for feeding the silkworm until about the year 1434, when M. alba L. was introduced from the Levant,[2016] and has ever since been commonly preferred. Yet in Greece, in many of the Greek islands, Calabria and Corsica, the species planted for the silkworm is still M. nigra.
The mulberry tree is now cultivated throughout Europe, yet, excepting in the regions named, by no means abundantly. It ripens its fruit in England, as well as in Southern Sweden and Gottland, and in Christiania (Schübeler).
History—The mulberry tree is mentioned in the Old Testament,[2017] and by most of the early Greek and Roman writers. Among the large number of useful plants ordered by Charlemagne (a.d. 812) to be cultivated on the imperial farms, the mulberry tree (Morarius) did not escape notice.[2018] We meet with it also in a plan sketched a.d. 820, for the gardens of the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland.[2019] The cultivation of the mulberry in Spain is implied by a reference to the preparation of Syrup of Mulberries in the Calendar of Cordova,[2020] which dates from the year 961.
A curious reference to mulberries, proving them to have been far more esteemed in ancient times than at present, occurs in the statutes of the abbey of Corbie of Normandy, in which we find a Brevis de Melle, showing how much honey the tenants of the monastic lands were required to pay annually, followed by a statement of the quantity of Mulberries which each farm was expected to supply.[2021]
Description—The tree bears unisexual catkins; the female, of an ovoid form, consists of numerous flowers with green four-lobed perianths and two linear stigmas. The lobes of the perianth overlapping each other become fleshy, and by their lateral aggregation form the spurious berry, which is shortly stalked, oblong, an inch in length, and, when ripe, of an intense purple. By detaching a single fruit, the lobes of the former perianth may be still discerned. Each fruit encloses a hard lenticular nucule, covering a pendulous seed with curved embryo and fleshy albumen.
Mulberries are extremely juicy and have a refreshing, subacid, saccharine taste; but they are devoid of the fine aroma that distinguishes many fruits of the order Rosaceæ.
Chemical Composition—In an analysis made by H. van Hees (1857) 100 parts of mulberries yielded the following constituents:—
| Glucose and uncrystallizable sugar | 9·19 |
| Free acid (supposed to be malic) | 1·86 |
| Albuminous matter | 0·39 |
| Pectic matter, fat, salts, and gum | 2·03 |
| Ash | 0·57 |
| Insoluble matters | |
| (the seeds, pectose, cellulose, &c.) | 1·25 |
| Water | 84·71 |
With regard to the results of researches on other edible fruits, made about the same time in the laboratory of Fresenius, it would appear that the mulberry is one of the most saccharine, being only surpassed by the cherry (10·79 of sugar) and grape (10·6 to 19·0).[2022] It is richer in sugar than the following, namely:—