Mulberry

Mulberry (Morus) - Usually medium-sized trees of the temperate and sub-tropical countries, the best kind for England is the Black Mulberry (M. nigra), a distinct tree of great value and beauty giving showers of fruit in hot days. The Mulberry often attains great age, and when old gives deep shade, thriving best always in sheltered gardens in deep soils. It is hardy, coming late in leaf, and the leaves fall with the first touch of the frost. It is often a beautiful lawn tree, though it may well take its place in the orchard or enclosed fruit garden, always, if possible, giving it a free deep soil.

It is not difficult to increase from cuttings or even pieces of branches, and by layers, but not by any means common to find good stocks of the trees in nurseries. A very much more cultivated species in Europe and other countries is the White Mulberry (M. alba) and its varieties, but as England is too cold for silk cultivation it is of slight value with us, and the same may be said of the other kinds, the one exception being, perhaps, the American Red Mulberry (M. rubra), a native of the northern United States.