10 DR. H. F. HANCE ON CHINESE SILKWORM-OAKS. 
* Additional Note.—The Ts'ing-kang tree grows on hills inter- 
spersed with the Tsiang-li oak trees, being, in fact, of the same 
kind, but devoid of flowers and fruit. A green ball is frequently 
found developed at the extremity of its twigs, consisting of hairs 
as fine as the silky fibres of the Tsung tree (qu. a palm ?), but 
somewhat tougher. The native silk products of Kweichow pro- 
vince are woven from the silkworm cocoons of this tree; but 
they are of mediocre value, on the same principle that mulberry 
trees producing fruit, and Siang trees producing chestnuts, are 
all adapted to the growth of silkworm." 
The plate annexed to the above description, a copy of which 
is here given, represents an oak with leaves like those of a 
shallow-lobed form of Q robur, and with three fruits (unless they 
are intended for the *'oak-apple" mentioned in the text), one 
distinctly stalked, the dense squam:e of the cupule entirely con- 
cealing the acorn, and looking like those of Q. dentata, Thunb., 
though closely appressed, instead of being more or less re- 
flexed. 
Baron Léon d'Hervey-Saint-Denys, in his ‘Recherches sur 
P Agriculture et 1 Horticulture des Chinois’ *, published in 1850, 
and alluded to in Dr. M‘Cartee’s article, has quoted from the 
* Annales Forestiéres’ a note, by the Pére Julien Bertrand, on 
the management of the wild silkworms in the province of Qwei- 
chow, here referred to, one of the two oaks employed being, in 
all probability, that figured; and as the subject is of great in- 
terest, and the book, I believe, not very well known, I have 
thought it well to translate this missionary's observations in 
full. 
* Thong-kin-foo, July 19, 1842. 
“T think I told you, some years since, that we have here a 
wild silkworm which feeds on oak-leaves, and which seems to 
be an object of much interest to the French Government. I 
imagine you will be glad to have some account of this, and 
I only regret that my ignorance of natural history prevents 
the case in the time of the Romans (Colum. De re Rust. vi. 3), they can scarcely 
be supposed to afford, even under the hands of a Celestial cordon-bleu, a spe- 
cially luxurious or appetizing salad. The Flora cibaria of the Chinese, however, 
is so alarmingly comprehensive that it is more difficult to say what is noć than 
what ¿s eaten. 
* Page 162. 
