Of the small white mulberry growing on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, Mr. Sudworth says: "The conditions are essentially the same as those noted in the case of the linden, except that the mulberry is perhaps more seriously injured, a considerable portion of the trunk having been destroyed by decay. The adventitious roots observed spring from the free border of a longitudinal crack where the trunk forks, the edges of the wound having been healed for some time, while the subsequent decomposition of the inner layers of wood formed a quantity of mold, which, lying in contact with the
Fig. 1.—Portion of Trunk of Linden; growing in Boston, Mass. (Sketched by the writer.) From the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. | Fig. 2.—Portion of Trunk of Norway Maple, growing near State College, Pennsylvania. (Sketched by William A. Buckhout.) From the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. |
healed borders, seems to have induced the growth of adventitious roots from one side into the decayed mass."[1]
To this list may now be added another mulberry (Fig. 3) observed by the writer during the past winter in Thomasville, Ga. Its owner, Dr. T. S. Hopkins, says of it: "I have had an intimate acquaintance with this grand old tree for thirty years. I do not know how old it was when I first knew it. Some fifteen years ago it was uprooted by a storm. I carefully amputated its limbs and re-erected its body. It lived and improved, and to-day furnishes as much shade as it did before its fall and the surgical operation made necessary by it." In point of size, extent of decay,
- ↑ In a letter dated July 26, 1892, Prof. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Division at Washington, informs me that while in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he saw a most interesting and well-developed example of self-rooting capacity in a paper mulberry (Broussonettia papyrifera). The tree stands opposite to No. 31 South Front Street in that city.