The varieties of the Mountain-Ash are:—
2. P. fructu luteo, with yellow berries. 3. P. foliis variegatis, with variegated leaves. 4. P. fastigiata, with the branches upright and rigid. 5. P. pinnatifida, with deeply pinnatified leaves.
THE BLACK-FRUITED MULBERRY.
[Morus nigra.[N] Nat. Ord.—Urticaceæ; Linn.—Monœc. Tetra.]
[N] Morus. Flowers unisexual; barren flowers disposed in a drooping, peduncled, axillary spike; fertile flowers in ovate, erect spikes. Calyx of 4 equal sepals, imbricate in estivation, expanded in flowering. Stamens 4. Ovary 2-celled, one including one pendulous ovate, the other devoid of any. Stigmas 2, long. Seed pendulous.
The Black-fruited, or Common Mulberry, is generally supposed to be a native of Persia, where there are still masses of it found in a wild state. It was first brought to England in 1548, when some trees were planted at Sion, near London, one of which still survives. About 1608 James I. recommended by royal edict, and by letter in his own writing to the lord-lieutenant of every county, the planting of Mulberry-trees and the rearing of silk-worms, which are fed upon the leaves; also offering plants at three farthings each, and packets of Mulberry seeds to all who would sow them. Although the king failed to naturalize the production of silk in this country, he rendered the tree so fashionable, that 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 not to be found. It was at this time that Shakspeare planted the one in his garden at Stratford-on-Avon, which was known as "Shakspeare's Mulberry-Tree," until it was felled in 1756; and that it was a black Mulberry we learn from Mr. Drake, a native of Stratford, who frequently in his youth ate of its fruit, some branches of which hung over the wall which bounded his father's garden.—Drake's Shakspeare, vol. ii., p. 584.