8 DR. H. F. HANCE ON CHINESE SILKWORM-OAKS. 
China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society’ *, from which the 
following passage is an extract:— During my late sojourn at 
the Port of Chefoo, I learned from conversations with Chinese 
there, that three species of silk are manufactured in Shantung 
from the cocoons of wild silkworms; and the account given by 
them of the worms, &c., corresponded with the accounts given 
by the Jesuit Missionaries of similar operations in the province 
of Szchuen. The cocoons from which one of the kinds of silk is 
derived are called Ta-kien (large cocoons), or Tso-kien (oak cocoons). 
A species of oak was pointed out to me at Chefoo as the oak 
upon which the silkworm was reared, and is called by the natives 
Tsoshu, or sometimes Po-lo-shu t; but my informant was unable 
io give me the Chinese characters for the latter designation. 
The tree corresponded with the description given by M. d'In- 
carville, Quercus orientalis Castanec folio, glande recondita in 
capsula crassa et squamosa i. It is said that only young trees, 
not more than three or four years old, can be used." 
The only oaks in Northern China agreeing at all with Tourne- 
fort's phrase, quoted by D’Incarville, are Q. serrata, Thunb., and 
Q. chinensis, Bge. ; and my friend Mr. Mayers, now H.M. Acting 
Consul at Chefoo, who has been so kind as to make inquiries for 
me on the spot, says he can only find that one species is met 
with in that neighbourhood; and the specimens of this he has 
communicated belong to the first-named tree. 
I have lately had an opportunity of seeing a Chinese work, 
entitled * Chih Wuh Ming Shih T'u K'ao," or * Nomenclature and 
Description of Plants, illustrated with Plates, the figures to 
which are very superior.to those in the majority of Chinese 
* New Ser. iii. 75 (1866). Dr. M‘Cartee identifies the moth as Saturnia 
Mylatta, 
t Regarding this name, Mr. Mayer writes as follows in a letter to me, ac- 
companying specimens of Q. serrata, Thunb. “The Chinese call it Po-/o, the 
same as at Newchwang; and, after some hesitation, characters have been given 
me for the sound which are apparently mere phonetic devices to represent a 
foreign or at least unwritten name. I should not wonder if the word Po-lo 
were Corean or Manchu, as the Chinese admit that it is not the correct name 
for the oak, which should be called Siang." 
1 Père d'Incarville quotes this as the designation given by “nos botanistes,” 
referring, in fact, to Tournefort, and supposing that the Chinese oak is identical 
with some Asia-Minor species, most likely Q. va//onea, Kty. The fruit of this 
is exceedingly like those of Q. chinensis and Q. serrata, to which last Miquel 
reduces the Georgian Q. castaneifolia, C. A. M., which both C. Koch and Grise- 
bach consider identical with Q. vallonca. 
