SILKWOBM-O.VKS OF NOHTUERN CllIKA. 485 



V 



attendant silk-cultivators to auotlier, the youngest bushes being 

 used fir;st. 



^' The worm is fed on three kinds of oak bushes, called S7nall 

 ' tsing-hang-lew^ large ' Uing-liang-lew^ and 'hoo-^d-lo' The only- 

 difference between the small and the large tsing-kang-lew seemed 

 to me to lie in the acorn-cup, that of the former beiug smaller 

 and also smoother outside than that of the latter. As for the 

 hoopo-lo oak, its leaves are nuich larger and darker than those of 

 the large or small t sing -hang -lew. Its acorns are also much larger, 

 and, what at once marks the difference, the cup, instead of a hard 

 exterior, rendered more or less i*ough by small, hard protuber- 

 ances, is covered with, longish feathery filaments, which give the 

 cup the appearance of a small fur cap, 



*^ The yield of the spring crop is said to be much less than that 

 of tlie autumn crop, 1000 cocoons of the former giving no more 

 than 500 of the latter. But the quality is said to be greatly 

 superior — finer, whiter in itself, and more capable of taking dyes ; 

 but black, with various shades of reddish brown or purple, seem 

 to be the only dyes that either kind will take. 



" The chrysalids which are not kept for breeding are used by 

 the Chinese as an article of food. 



" The mountain silk remains as yet the one article which this 

 district is likely to furnish to England. My explorations of last 

 summer convinced me that I did not, in my last Eeport, over- 

 estimate the extent of country in which it is produced when I 

 said 150 miles by 100. On the other hand, instead of saying that 

 * not one-fourth part of the hill-sides' suitable for the oak bushes 

 is planted with them, I should now say that not one-tenth part 

 is so planted. Viewing the nature of the article and the quan- 

 tities that are now and that could be furnished, the trade could 

 be developed into one of appreciable importance even for our great 

 manufacturing interests, unless exactions and jealousies of the 

 local mandarins interposed to repress it,'' 



Being desirous of ascertaining the particular species of oats 

 on which this sericiferous larva feeds, I, in July 1867, invited, 

 through the medium of ' Notes and Queries on China and Ja- 

 pan,' a very useful periodical published at Hongkong, any gen- 

 tleman who might be willing and able to assist in the inquiry, to 

 communicate specimens of the foliage and fruit. 



My invitation was most kindly responded to by Mr. E. C. 

 Taintor, an American gentleman in the service of the Chinese Im- 

 perial Customs, who, in December last, sent me specimens, the 



