12 DR. H. F. HANCE ON CHINESE SILKWORM-OAKS. 
as, for example, Ki-kiang, San-tehouen, and Pa-hien. Although 
they may be reared advantageously in various localities, their 
favourite loeation is in Kweichow, on the highest mountains, 
where the air is cooler and purer than elsewhere. As the 
mulberry-silkworm succeeds best in warm countries, you will 
doubtless be surprised, as was M. Hébert, one of the French 
delegates in China, to hear that these worms succeed better on 
the mountains than in the plains, where the climate is milder. 
Such is the case, however, as proved by long native experience, 
and by the fact that in the mountains there are two crops of silk 
annually, whilst in the low grounds the worm yields only one, 
and that much inferior to the first one from the higher regions— 
showing that the oak-silkworm requires a cold rather than a 
warm temperature. 
*'The management of these worms is altogether different from 
that of the ordinary silkworm. They are reared on the trees, not 
in houses. As soon as they are hatched they are taken to the hills 
and placed on the trees. If it were attempted to raise them at 
home, by supplying them with oak-leaves, in the same way as 
mulberry-leaves are given to the common silkworm, they would 
die without tasting the leaves, which they require to eat on the 
tree, and to pick out for themselves. The oaks on which they 
feed require no particular care; they are in their natural state. 
I may here say a few words regarding these trees. There are 
two of them in China, one called Ts'ing-kang, the other Fu-li: 
these two species differ but little; and in order to distinguish 
them it is necessary to examine them very closely. The only 
difference consists in the leaves, and the hardness of the wood. 
The Ts'ng-kang is harder than the Fu-li; its leaves are long 
and toothed, and somewhat like those of the chestnut. The Fu-li 
has shorter and broader leaves; so far as I can judge, it is iden- 
tical with our French oak, at least that of Le Velay; for I have 
never examined the oaks of other provinces. Although the worms 
eat both kinds, they prefer the Zs’ing-kang to the Fu-li. The 
oaks are never allowed to grow old here; every eight or nine 
years they are cut down to the ground ; the subterranean trunks 
throw up new shoots, which are again cut down after the lapse 
of another eight or nine years, so that the oak woods are merely 
copses. All the mountains hereabouts are covered with these 
trees. 
“Ten or eleven days after the oak-moths have laid their eggs, 
