April or May, and are of three kinds:—staminate, consisting of two dark purple stamens only; pistillate, consisting of an oblong ovary with short style and cleft stigma; hermaphrodite, consisting of ovary and two anthers with very short filaments. These flowers are individually small and inconspicuous, but associated as they are in dense panicles from the new wood formed in the previous season, and appearing before the black leaf-buds have burst; they are collectively very conspicuous. The leaves are very late in making their appearance, as they are among the first to fall after the early frosts of autumn. The "keys," as the fruits are called, each contain two seeds, and the wing has a twist which causes the key to spin rapidly when the breeze separates it from the bunch and carries it far from the parent tree.
The Black Mulberry (Morus nigra).
It may surprise some of our readers to learn that the
Mulberry-tree is not a native, though it is a familiar object in old
gardens and parks. It is generally stated that the first
Mulberry-trees were introduced in 1548 and planted at Syon
House, Isleworth (then the Convent of St. Bridget of Zion), but
the Duke of Northumberland is credited with saying early in the
present century that he could then trace them back quite three
hundred years. Several of this batch are still living, and
one—probably the finest old Mulberry in England—is a hale and
vigorous ornament to Mr. George Manville Fenn's lawn at
Syon Lodge. Mr. Leo Grindon is of opinion that the tree
was originally introduced by the Romans, for he finds that the
Saxons had a name for it, which would probably not have
been the case had it not been growing in their midst.
In this country the Black Mulberry does not reach a greater height than about thirty feet, its branches spreading out near the ground and attaining considerable thickness. The leaves
