MORUS, a genus of plants belonging to tho natural order Urticacem. The chief E. Indian species known : Morus alba, L., all Southern Asia.
M. atropnrpurea, Roxb., China, India.
M. bifaria, Wall. I M. Cashmeriana, Boyle, Kashmir.
M. Indica, L., Bengal.
M. Irovigata, Wall., Nepal, Saharanpur. M. multicaulis, Perottet, China.
nigra, L., Persia, Egypt.
M. panioulata, Roxb., Moluccas.
i rubra, L., introduced into India, Bengal. M. scandens, Wall., China.
M. serrata, Roxb., China.
tatarica, Pall., cultivated in British India.
viridis, Bach., Patna.
Several species are cultivated on account of their fruit, but still more for their leaves as food for the silk-worm. The bark of the white mulberry seems from very early times to have been made into paper in China. Marco Polo informs us that the Grand Khan causes the bark to be stripped from these mulberry trees, the leaves of which are used for feeding silk-worms, and takes from it that thin rind which lies between the coarse bark and the wood of the tree. This being steeped, and afterwards pounded in a mortar until reduced to a pulp, is made into paper, resembling that which is made from cotton.' The bush cultivation of the mulberry in Bengal, for feeding silk-worms, consists in planting cuttings, which, as they grow, are cut down about four times in the year, in order to produce young leaves for the success ive broods of silk - worms. The bark separates when the cut stems are steeped in water, and when pounded up, tho greater part of the muci laginous matter passes off, leaving a mass having much of the good qualities of linen rag half-stuff. In China, although the leaf of the common mul berry is the principal object of its culture, the fruit is eaten, and the wood burned for the lamp-black used in making ink. Morus alba and M. nigra grow equally well in the Dekhan ; the white, growing to a very large tree, shedding its leaves before the hot season. The red mul berry bears fruit in the rains, as well as the black. Silk-worms may be fed on its young fresh leaves, although the leaves of the white are preferred. It grows from seed or cuttings. 31. alba, atropur purea, Indica, nigra, rubra, and tatarica are all grown in China, but M. alba and 31. nigra are the general favourites, and many varieties have been obtained by cultivation ; the shan-sang or bill mulberry, the kin-sang or golden mulberry, the Id-sang or fowl mulberry, and the i-sang or Morns tatarica, are all grown. The white species produces little fruit. An epiphyte grows on the mulberry tree in China. It is called sang-shang ki-sang, and its woody branches are highly prized as a medicine in the pregnant and puerperal states. M. alba, Cashmeriana, Indica, lmvigata, and tatarica grow in the hills up to Kashmir, 5000 feet, where they abound, and to 7000 feet on the Chenab. Thomson mentions it in parts of
Tibet at over 9000 feet. From the accounts by Dr. Bellew and others, nine or ten kinds would appear to abound in parts of Afghanistan. Some of the trees attain to large size ; specimens of 10 and 12 feet girth are not very uncommon, and Dr. Stewart noted one of 16 feet in the Salt Range. The wood of old trees is strong and useful, and is much employed for construction, implements, etc., in parts where the tree is common. About Peshawar it is the staple ordi nary timber. The fresh twigs are in Kashmir used for tying loads.
The Japanese make abundance of a paper as well for writing and printing as for tapestry, handkerchiefs, packing cloths for goods, etc. It is of different qualities, and some of it is as soft and flexible as our cotton cloth. Indeed, that used for handkerchiefs might be mistaken for cloth, so far as toughness and flexibility are con cerned. The materials of which it is made is the bark of Morus papyrifera, now transferred to the genus Broussonotia. In December, after the tree has shed its leaves, they cut off the branches about three feet in length, and tie them up in bundles. They are then boiled in a lye of ashes in a covered kettle, till the bark is so shrunk that half an inch of the wood may be seen projecting at either end of the branch. When they have become cool, the bark is stripped off and soaked in water three or four hours until it becomes soft, when the fine black skin is scraped off with a knife.
The coarse bark is then separated from the fine. The new branches make the finest paper. The bark is then boiled again in fresh lye, continually stirred with a stick, and fresh water from time to time is added. It is then put in a sieve and taken to a brook, and here the bark is incessantly stirred until it becomes a fine pulp. It is then thrown into water, and separates in the form of meal. This is put into a small vessel with a decoction of rice and a species of Hibiscus, and stirred until it has attained a tolerable consist ence. It is then poured into a large vessel, from whence it is taken out and put in the form of sheets on mats or layers of grass straw. These sheets are laid one upon another with straw between, and pressed to force the water out. After this they are spread upon boards in the sun, dried, cut, and gathered into bundles for sale. This paper will better endure folding, and last longer than that of Europe. American Expedition; O'Sh. ; Royle; Williams ; Riddell ; Smith ; Stewart ; Thomson ; Bellew.