2G0 COCCIDiE — SHIELD-LICE. 



name of Coccus, as appears from Dioscorides, and other 

 Greek writers.^ 



From the epithets kermes and coccus, and that of ver- 

 miculus ovvermiculum, given to the Kermes in the middle 

 ages, when they were ascertained to be insects, have sprung 

 the Latin coccineus, the French carmesin, carmine, cra- 

 moisi and vermeil, the Italian chermisi, cremisino, and 

 cher merino, and our crimson and vermilion. 



The imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish 

 tapestries were derived from the Kermes; and, in short, 

 previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the mate- 

 rial universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then 

 known. At the present time the Kermes are only gathered 

 in Europe by the peasantry of the provinces in which they 

 are found, but they still continue to be employed as of old 

 in a great part of India and Persia. ^ 



Brookes says the women gather the harvest of Kermes 

 insects before sunrise, tearing them off with their nails; 

 and, for fear there should be any loss from the hatching of 

 the insects, they sprinkle them with vinegar. They then 

 lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red color. ^ 



The scarlet grain of Poland, Coccus j)olonicus, found 

 on the German knot-grass or perennial knawel (Scleranthus 

 perennis), was at one time collected in large quantities in 

 the Ukraine and other provinces of Poland (here under the 

 name of Czerwiec), and also in the great duchy of Lithu- 

 ania. But though much esteemed and still employed by 

 the Turks and Armenians for dyeing wool, silk, and hair, 

 as well as for staining the nails of women's fingers, it is 

 now rarely used in Europe except by the Polish peasantry. 

 A similar neglect has attended the Coccus found on the 

 roots of the Burnet {PoteiHum sanguisorha, Linn.), which 

 was used, particularly by the Moors, for dyeing wool and 

 silk a rose color ; and the Coccus uvae-ursi, which with 

 alum affords a crimson dye.* 



Cochineal, the Coccus cacti, is doubtless the most valu- j| 

 able product for which the dyer is indebted to insects, and ' 



» Diosc. iv. 48, p. 260. Pausan. B. x. p. 890. 



2 Beckman's Hist, of Inventions, ii. 163-195. Banci'oft on Perm. 

 Colors, i. 393-408. 



3 Nat. Hist, of Ins. , p. 77. 



* Bancroft on J'ermancnt Colors, i. 408-9. 



