Morus nigra (LINN.)
N.O. Artocapaceae
Description
| Habitat | History | Cultivation
Other Species | Constituents
| Uses | Recipes
Medicinal Action
and Uses
| Mulberry Family
Use of the treebast as fibre producer
The Common or Black Mulberry is not one of our native trees, but with several
other members of its genus - which contains a dozen or more species - can be
grown without protection in the south of Britain. There they are small
bushy-headed trees, with large alternate, deciduous, toothed and often variously
lobed leaves. It is by no means unusual for a Mulberry tree to produce leaves of
several different shapes, or differing considerably in outline. As a rule,
abnormalshaped leaves are produced from stem-shoots or sucker growths, and
frequently by very vigorous young branches. The Chinese White Mulberry (Morus
alba, Linn.), cultivated in other countries as food for the silkworm, is
even more variable in leafage than the Common Mulberry, and quite a score of
different forms of leaf have been gathered from a single tree and several from
one shoot. Both species contain in every part a milky juice, which will
coagulate into a sort of Indian rubber, and this has been thought to give
tenacity to the filament spun by the silkworm.
¶ Description. The Common Mulberry is a handsome
tree, 20 to 30 feet high, of rugged, picturesque appearance, forming a dense,
spreading head of branches usually wider than the height of the tree, springing
from a short, rough trunk.
It bears unisexual flowers, the sexes in separate spikes, or catkins, which
are small, more or less cylindrical and in no way beautiful. The oblong,
short-stalked 'fruit,' which when ripe is about an inch long and of an intense
purple, is really a fruit-cluster, composed of little, closely-packed drupes,
each containing one seed and enclosed by the four enlarged sepals, which have
become succulent, thus forming the spurious berry. By detaching a single fruit
from the cluster, the overlapping lobes of the former perianth may be still
discerned.
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 Rosaceae.
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¶ Habitat. The tree grows wild in northern Asia
Minor, Armenia and the Southern Caucasus region as far as Persia and is now
cultivated throughout Europe. It ripens its fruits in England and also as far
north as Southern Sweden and Gothland. It flourishes more in the southern part
of Great Britain than in the northern counties, but is always of slow growth.
Gerard describes it as 'high and full of boughes' and growing in sundry gardens
in England, and he grew in his own London garden both the Black and the White
Mulberry. Lyte also, before Gerard, in 1578, describes it. It is definitely
known to have been cultivated in England since the early part of the sixteenth
century, and possibly long before, it being considered probable that it was
introduced into Britain by the Romans, being imported from Italy for the
soldiers' use.
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The Black Mulberry was known in the whole of Southern Europe from the
earliest times, and it is presumed that it was introduced from Persia. It is
mentioned by most of the early Greek and Roman writers.
- The Romans ate Mulberries at their feasts, as we know from the Satires
of Horace, who (Sat. ii,) recommends that Mulberries be gathered
before sunset. We also find mention of the Mulberry in Ovid, who in the Metamorphoses
refers to the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe, who were slain beneath its
shade, the fruit being fabled to have thereby changed from white to deep red
through absorbing their blood. By Virgil, the tree is termed sanguinea
morus. Pliny speaks of its employment in medicine and also describes its
use in Egypt and Cyprus. He further relates:
- 'Of all the cultivated trees, the Mulberry is the last that buds, which it
never does until the cold weather is past, and it is therefore called the
wisest of trees. But when it begins to put forth buds, it dispatches the
business in one night, and that with so much force, that their breaking
forth may be evidently heard.'
It has been suggested that the generic name of the Mulberry, Morus, has
been derived from the Latin word mora (delay), from this tardy expansion
of the buds, and as the wisest of its fellows, the tree was dedicated by the
Ancients to Minerva. In alluding to the Black Mulberry, Pliny observes that
there is no other tree that has been so neglected by the wit of man, either in
grafting or giving it names. It abounded in Italy at that time, as a reference
in Virgil's Georgics (II, v. 121) clearly shows. The excavations at
Pompeii also bear witness to this, for, in the peristyle of the 'House of the
Bull,' a Black Mulberry is represented. Mulberry leaves are also to be found in
a mosaic from the 'House of the Faun.' Schouw, who wrote about the plants of
Pompeii in 1854, considered that M. alba was unknown to the Pompeians. At
the time of Virgil (who died in 19 B.C.) silk was held to be a product of the
Mulberry leaves, the work of the silkworms not being understood. Silkworm
culture was first introduced by Justinian from Constantinople - he ruled from
A.D. 527-65. In Italy the Black Mulberry was employed for feeding the silkworm
until about 1434, when M. alba was introduced from the Levant and has
ever since been commonly preferred.
References in various old Chronicles show that the Mulberry was far more
esteemed in ancient times than at present. It was included among the large
number of useful plants ordered by Charlemagne (A.D. 812) to be cultivated on
the imperial farm. The cultivation of the Mulberry in Spain is implied by a
reference to the preparation of Syrup of Mulberries in the Calendar of Cordova
of the year 961.
There are many famous Mulberry trees in England. Those of Syon House,
Brentford, are of special historical interest and include what is reported to be
the oldest tree of its kind in England, said to be introduced from Persia in
1548. It is this particular and venerable tree which forms the subject of an
illustration in London's Aboretum and Fruticetum. Although a wreck
compared to its former self, it is regarded as one of the largest Mulberry trees
in the country. Its height is given by Loudon as 22 feet, and additional
interest is attached to this tree, as it is said to have been planted by the
botanist Turner.
- In 1608 James I, being anxious to further the silk industry by introducing
the culture of the silkworm into Britain, issued an edict encouraging the
cultivation of Mulberry trees, but the attempt to rear silkworms in England
proved unsuccessful, apparently because the Black Mulberry was cultivated in
error, whereas the White Mulberry is the species on which the silkworm
flourishes. A letter was addressed by the King to the:
- 'Lord Lieutenant of the several Shires of England urging them to persuade
and require such as are of ability to buy and distribute in that County the
number of ten thousand Mulberry plants which shall be delivered to them at
our City of -, at the rate of 3 farthings the plant, or at 6s. the
hundred containing five score plants.'
The following transaction is mentioned in the College accounts at Cambridge:
'Item for 300 mulberry plants, xviii. s.' This was in 1608-9, the date of
Milton's birth, so that the old Mulberry tree growing in the grounds of Christ
Church, Cambridge, still bearing excellent fruit, which is reputed to have been
planted by Milton, is still older, probably the last of three hundred which cost
the College 18s. in 1609.
There is another Mulberry tree still standing near the Vicarage at Stowmarket
which, by tradition, is said to have been planted by Milton. A fine specimen of
Mulberry tree is to be seen in front of the Head-master's house at Eton. It was
measured in 1907, and found to be 30 feet high, with girth of 8 feet 3 inches,
and there is a beautiful example in the Canons' old walled garden at Canterbury.
- King James I not only issued his famous edict for introducing the culture
of the silkworm into Britain, but he also planted largely himself, and
directed payments to:
- 'Master William Stallinge of the sum of L. (Pounds Sterling) 935 for the
charge of 4 acres of land taken in for His Majesty's use, near to his Palace
of Westminster, for the planting of Mulberry trees, together with the charge
of walling, levelling and planting thereof with Mulberry trees.'
This plantation is the 'Mulberry Garden' often mentioned by the old dramatists
and occupied the site of the present beautiful private grounds of Buckingham
Palace, where one remaining Mulberry tree planted at that time is still to be
seen. The tree still bears fruit, but is in no way remarkable either for size of
its trunk or the spread of its branches.
'The Royal edict of James I,' writes Loudon, 'recommending the cultivation of
silkworms and offering packets of Mulberry seeds to all who would sow them, no
doubt rendered the tree fashionable, as 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 is
remarkable, however, that though these trees were expressly intended for the
nourishment of silkworms, they nearly all belong to M. nigra, as very few
instances exist of old trees of M. alba in England.' Shakespeare's famous
Mulberry, of which there are descendants at Kew, is referable to this period.
Shakespeare is said to have taken it from the Mulberry garden of James I, and
planted it in his garden at New Place, Stratford-on-Avon, in 1609. This also was
a Black Mulberry, 'cultivated for its fruit, which is very wholesome and
palatable; and not for its leaves, which are but little esteemed for Silkworms.'
'The tree,' Malone writes, 'was celebrated in many a poem, one especially by
Dibdin, but about 1752, the then owner of New Place, the Rev. Mr. Gastrell,
bought and pulled down the house and cut down Shakespeare's celebrated Mulberry
tree, to save himself the trouble of showing it to those whose admiration of the
poet led them to visit the ground on which it stood.'
The pieces were made into many snuffboxes and other mementoes of the tree,
some of them being inscribed with the punning motto, 'Memento Mori.' Ten years
afterwards, when the freedom of the city was presented to Garrick, the document
was enclosed in a casket made from the wood of this tree. A cup was also made
from it, and at the Shakespeare Jubilee, Garrick, holding the cup, recited
verses, composed by himself, in honour of the Mulberry tree planted by
Shakespeare. A slip of it was grown by Garrick in his garden at Hampton Court,
and a scion of the original tree is now growing in Shakespeare's garden.
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¶ Cultivation. Mulberry trees like a warm,
well-drained, loamy soil, and M. nigra is especially worth growing for
its luxuriant leafage and picturesque form. It can be increased by cuttings with
the greatest ease - in February, cut off some branches of a fairly large size
(the old writers say that pieces 8 feet long or more will grow) and insert a
foot deep, where neither sun nor wind can freely penetrate. Envelop the stem
above the ground level with moss, all but the upper pair of buds, in order to
check evaporation. Branches broken down, but not detached, will usually take
root if they touch the ground. Layers made in the autumn will root in twelve
months, and cuttings of the young wood taken off with a heel and planteddeeply
in a shady border late in the year will root slowly, but more quickly and surely
if put into gentle heat under glass. M. alba will also root from autumn
or winter cuttings.
The Mulberry can also be increased by seeds, which, if sown in gentle heat,
or in the open early in the year, will produce young seedlings by the autumn.
- In a paper by Mr. J. Williams of Pitmaston, published in the Horticultural
Transactions for 1813, is the statement:
- 'The standard Mulberry receives great injury by being planted on grass
plots with a view of preserving the fruit when it falls spontaneously. No
tree, perhaps, receives more benefit from the spade and the dunghill than
the Mulberry; it ought therefore to be frequently dug about the roots and
occasionally assisted with manure.'
Mulberry trees do not begin to bear fruit early in life, and few fruits can be
expected from a tree before it is fifteen years of age. It is commonly said that
the fruit of the oldest Mulberry trees is the best.
There are few trees better able to withstand the debilitating effects of the
close atmosphere of small town gardens, and numerous fine examples are met with
about London, several within the City boundaries, familiar examples of which are
those in Finsbury Circus and many smaller ones in St. Paul's Churchyard.
Mulberry trees are not easily killed, and old examples that have been reduced
to a mere shell have been rejuvenated by careful pruning and cultivation.
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The WHITE MULBERRY (M. alba), a deciduous tree, 30 to 45 feet high,
native of China, to which we have referred as the tree upon which the silkworm
is fed, succeeds quite well in the south of England but is not often grown in
this country.
The RED MULBERRY (M. rubra), a native of the United States of America,
is very difficult to grow here.
The FRENCH MULBERRY (Callicarpa Americana) is a shrub 3 to 6 feet
high, with bluish flowers and violet fruit, but the species is too tender for
any but the mildest parts of Great Britain.
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¶ Constituents of the Black Mulberry Fruit:
Glucose, protein, pectin, colouring matter tartaric and malic acids, ash, etc.
This composition varies much, as in all fleshy fruits, with the ripeness and
other conditions.
In amount of grape sugar, the Mulberry is surpassed only by the Cherry and
the Grape.
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¶ Uses. Mulberries are refreshing and have
laxative properties and are well adapted to febrile cases. In former days, they
used to be made into various conserves and drinks.
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RECIPES
Mulberry Wine
On each gallon of ripe Mulberries, pour 1 gallon of boiling water and let them
stand for 2 days. Then squeeze all through a hair sieve or bag. Wash out the tub
or jar and return the liquor to it, put in the sugar at the rate of 3 lb. to
each gallon of the liquor; stir up until quite dissolved, then put the liquor
into a cask. Let the cask be raised a little on one side until fermentation
ceases, then bung down. If the liquor be clear, it may be bottled in 4 months'
time. Into each bottle put 1 clove and a small lump of sugar and the bottles
should be kept in a moderate temperature. The wine may be used in a year from
time of bottling.
Mulberries are sometimes used in Devonshire for mixing with cider during
fermentation, giving a pleasant taste and deep red colour. In Greece, also, the
fruit is subjected to fermentation, thereby furnishing an inebriating beverage.
Scott relates in Ivanhoe that the Saxons made a favourite drink, Morat,
from the juice of Mulberries with honey, but it is doubtful whether the Morum
of the Anglo-Saxon 'Vocabularies' was not the Blackberry, so that the 'Morat' of
the Saxons may have been Blackberry Wine.
Mulberry Jam
Unless very ripe Mulberries are used, the jam will have an acid taste. Put 1 lb.
of Mulberries in a jar and stand it in a pan of water on the fire till the juice
is extracted. Strain them and put the juice into a preserving pan with 3 lb. of
sugar. Boil it and remove the scum and put in 3 lb. of very ripe Mulberries and
let them stand in the syrup until thoroughly warm, then set the pan back on the
fire and boil them very gently for a short time, stirring all the time and
taking care not to break the fruit. Then take the pan off and let them stand in
the syrup all night. Put the pan on the fire again in the morning and boil again
gently till stiff.
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¶ Medicinal Action and
Uses. The sole use of
Mulberries in modern medicine is for the preparation of a syrup, employed to
flavour or colour any other medicine. Mulberry Juice is obtained from the ripe
fruit of the Mulberry by expression and is an official drug of the British
Pharmacopoeia. It is a dark violet or purple liquid, with a faint odour and a
refreshing, acid, saccharine taste. The British Pharmacopceia directs that Syrupus
Mori should be prepared by heating 50 fluid drachms of the expressed juice
to boiling point, then cooling and filtering. Ninety drachms of sugar is then
dissolved in the juice, which is warmed up again. When once more cooled, 6.25
drachms of alcohol is added: the product should then measure about 100 drachms
(20 fluid ounces). The dose is 2 to 1 fluid drachm, but it is, as stated,
chiefly used as an adjuvant rather than for its slightly laxative and
expectorant qualities, though used as a gargle, it will relieve sore throat.
The juice of the American Red Mulberry may be substituted; it is less acid
than the European, while that of the White Mulberry, native of China, is sweet,
but rather insipid.
In the East, the Mulberry is most productive and useful. It is gathered when
ripe, dried on the tops of the houses in the sun, and stored for winter use. In
Cabul, it is pounded to a fine powder, and mixed with flour for bread.
The bark of M. nigra is reputed anthelmintic, and is used to expel
tape worm.
The root-bark of M. Indica (Rumph) and other species is much used in
the East under the name of San-pai-p'i, as a diuretic and expectorant.
The Morinda tinctoria, or Indian Mulberry, is used by the African
aborigines as a remedial agent, but there is no reliable evidence of its
therapeutic value.
A parasitic fungus growing on the old stems of Mulberry trees found in the
island of Meshima, Japan, and called there Meshimakobu, brown outside and
yellow inside, is used in Japan for medicine.
Gerard recommends the fruit of the Mulberry tree for use in all affections of
the mouth and throat.
'The barke of the root,' he says, 'is bitter, hot and drie, and hath a
scouring faculty: the decoction hereof doth open the stoppings of the liver and
spleen, it purgeth the belly, and driveth forth wormes.'
- With Parkinson, the fruit was evidently not in favour, for he tells us:
- 'Mulberries are not much desired to be eaten, although they be somewhat
pleasant both for that they stain their fingers and lips that eat them, and
do quickly putrefie in the stomach, if they be not taken before meat.'
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The Mulberry family, Moraceae, formerly regarded, together with the Ulmacece
(Elm family), as a division of the Urticaceae (Nettle family), comprises
upwards of 50 genera and about 900 species, of very diverse habit and
appearance. Among them are the highly important food-plants Ficus (Fig)
and Artocarpus (Bread fruit). M. tinctoria (Linn.), sometimes
known as Machura tinctoria (D. Don), but generally now named Chlorophora
tinctoria (Gaudich.), yields the dye-stuff Fustic, chiefly used for
colouring wood of an orange-yellow colour. The tree is indigenous in Mexico and
some of the West Indies, the wood being imported in logs of various sizes. This
kind of fustic is known as old fustic, or Cuba fustic. Young fustic is a
different product, obtained from Rhus cotinus (Linn.). It is known also
as Venetian or Hungarian sumach, and is used in the Tyrol for tanning leather.
The extract of fustic is imported as well as the wood. From Maclura
Brasiliensis (Endl.) another important dye-wood is obtained. A yellow dye is
also derived from the root of the Osage Orange (Toxylon pomiferum, Raf.),
belonging to this order. The milky juice of Brosimum Galactodendron (Don)
- the Cow or Milk-Tree of Tropical America - is said to be usable as cow's milk,
and 'Bread-nuts' are the edible seeds of another member of this genus, B.
Alicastrum (Swz.), of Jamaica. The famous deadly Upas Tree of the East
Indies (Antiaris toxicaria, Lesc.) is a less useful member of this
family.
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The bast-fibres of many Moraceae are tough and are used in the
manufacture of cordage and paper. The Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera,
Vint.) is cultivated extensively in Japan. It is a native of China, introduced
into Great Britain early in the eighteenth century and is a coarse-growing,
vigorous shrub, or a tree up to 30 feet, forming a roundish, spreading head of
branches. The young wood is thickly downy, soft and pithy, the leaves very
variable in size and form, often shaped like fig-leaves, the upper surface dull,
green and rough, the lower surface densely woolly. It is a dioecious plant, the
male flowers in cylindrical, often curly, woolly catkins, the female flowers in
ball-like heads, producing round fruits congregated of small, red, pulpy seeds.
In Japan, the stems are cut down every winter, so that the shrub only attains a
height of 6 or 7 feet, and the barks are stripped off as an important material
for paper. B. Kajinoki (Sieb.) is a deciduous tree, wild in Japan,
growing 29 to 30 feet high, similar to the Paper Mulberry and made use of in
like manner, though inferior. The ripe fruits are beautifully red and sweet.
Paper is also manufactured in Japan with the fibre of the bark of B.
kaempferi (Sieb.), a deciduous climber. A good paper may be manufactured
from the bast of the Morus alba, var. stylosa (Bur.), Jap. 'Kuwa,'
but as this plant is used especially for feeding silkworms, the paper made from
the branches after the leaves are taken off for silkworms is of a very inferior
quality.
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Reprinted from "A
Modern Herbal" (1931)
Mrs. M. Grieve, Edited by Mrs. C.F. Leyel
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