POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



137 



China and Japan in the same course as the 

 storms and tempests of the Atlantic which 

 reach Europe ; 2. That such storms are in- 

 dependent of the prevailing monsoon, and 

 reciprocally, neither interfering with the 

 other. Thus, says M. Faye, in regions op- 

 posed to ours in the northern hemisphere, 

 the storms which we call cyclones or typhoons 

 follow identically the same course, whatever 

 may be the distribution of water and land, 

 whether there are currents of warm water 

 like the Gulf Stream, chains of mountains 

 or not, on their way, whatever may be the 

 direction of the lower winds prevailing in 

 the country. The origin of these gyratory 

 phenomena is, then, in the upper region of 

 the atmosphere, whence, away above all 

 the superficial accidents of the globe, they 

 descend to the ground through the lower 

 strata. 



Wild Silks. That our resources for the 

 production of silk are capable of great en- 

 largement is shown by the fact that hereto- 

 fore only a few of the numerous insects 

 which form silk and only a small number 

 of the plants on which they feed have 

 been utilized, leaving the greater number 

 of insects and plants still unemployed. 

 The known silk-spinners belong to the two 

 families Bombycidce and Saturniidce, of the 

 Lepidoptera. All of the Saturniidce are 

 silk-spinners, but not all of the Bomby- 

 cidce. Of the Saturniidce, the British Mu- 

 seum catalogue contains the names of two 

 hundred and ninety-four species, and one 

 hundred more species have been added since 

 the catalogue was published. Mr. Thomas 

 Wardle, in a lecture on the wild silks of 

 India, before the Society of Arts, gave a list 

 of fifty-seven silkworms indigenous to In- 

 dia, of which six mulberry-feeding sorts 

 are domesticated, and the others are wild. 

 Besides the mulberry-feeding worms, of 

 which there are also nine wild species, the 

 cocoons of fourteen wild species are utilized. 

 Of these, the principal species are the Atta- 

 cus ricini, the Attacus cynthia, or Eria-worm, 

 the Anthercea Assama, or Muga-worm, and 

 the Anthercea paphia, or Tusser-worm. The 

 Attacus ricini is a native of Assam, and feeds 

 on the castor-oil plant and several other 

 plants of the country. The cocoons can not 

 be reeled, but the fiber is exceedingly well 

 adapted for spinning, can be dyed and print- 



ed easily and satisfactorily, and forms a 

 cloth of " incredible durability, the life of 

 one person being seldom sufficient to wear 

 out a garment made of it, so that the same 

 piece descends from mother to daughter." 

 Attacus cynthia feeds on the ailantus, and 

 has been successfully domesticated in France 

 and England, where " ailanticulture " has a 

 recognized place in industrial economy. Its 

 silk is not adapted for reeling, but spins 

 well, and there is no doubt, says Mr. Wardle, 

 " that a great future remains for this silk, 

 now that spinning-machinery has been so 

 perfected." The Attacus Atlas is almost 

 omnivorous, yields a " decidedly good " 

 silk, and has been recommended for intro- 

 duction into France. The Anthercea As- 

 sama yields the Muga silk, which forms 

 one of the chief exports of Assam. Five 

 thousand acres are planted in Assam and 

 some Tipperah villages with food for the 

 worm, and are capable of yielding 123,000 

 pounds of the fiber. Mr. Wardle reports 

 of the silk that it bleaches well, and takes 

 the dye freely, better than Tusser. The 

 Anthercea paphia, from which the Tusser 

 silk is derived, is the most widely distrib- 

 uted as well as the most important of the 

 wild-silk producers of India, and has been 

 utilized for many centuries. It feeds on a 

 variety of plants, among them the castor-oil 

 plant, and begins to spin its cocoons in six 

 weeks from the time it is hatched. The silk 

 is woven and used in the provinces of India 

 in mixed fabrics of cotton woof and Tusser 

 weft, but seems also to be used pure in 

 many cloths. The fiber of this silk is flat, 

 thereby showing a strong difference from 

 that of the mulberry silk, which is round, 

 and to this is ascribed its glassy look. So far 

 from this property being a drawback, the 

 luster seems to be enhanced by it after the 

 fiber has become modified and its flatness 

 has been diffused in the loom. The chief 

 obstacle to the general introduction of this 

 silk is the difficulty with which it is made to 

 take colors. A process has been invented 

 to overcome this by applying oxygen to the 

 natural fawn-colored coloring matter of the 

 fiber, but it is too expensive for general use. 

 Mr. Wardle has found a partial solution of 

 the difficulty in a more thorough cleansing 

 of the native product and better reeling, 

 and has made the silk submit to the dye and 

 to the printing process in a tolerably sat- 



