SILK-PRODUCING INSECTS. 15 



even in the time of the Emperor Justinian, a certain 

 portion of Greece was covered with such a quantity 

 of mulberry trees (Morus), that it received the name 

 of Morea, which it retains to the present day. 



In an entomological work published in London 

 in 1816, all that is said about the silkworm con- 

 sists in the following few words : " The most 



valuable of all moths is the silkworm The 



art of converting its silk into use is said to have been 

 invented in the Island of Cos by a lady named 

 Pamphylis."* 



Each female Bombyx lays at least 500 eggs, 

 sometimes this number is much larger. Ten or 

 twelve days afterwards both the male and female 

 moths die. Thus, as soon as they have assured 

 the conservation of the species, they bid adieu to 

 this life. This remark, which is applicable to most 

 insects, is also true for annual plants ; and I have 

 shown in another work, that if the coupling of 

 insects be prevented, either accidentally or pur- 

 posely, it is possible to prolong the period of their 

 existence, and at least to double it. In like manner 

 if an herbaceous plant, such as the mignonette, 

 which dies down at the end of a year, have its 



* According to Aristotle, the lady's name was Pamphyla, and 

 she must not be mistaken for the woman of the same name who 

 wrote a general history in thirty-three volumes, in Nero's tune, and 

 from whose name our English word pamphlet is perhaps derived. 



