

LEPIDOPTERA. 211 



seems to be ignorant of the fact that she has wings. The male no 

 longer Hies ; he flutters round his companion, without quitting the 

 ground. It ought, however, to be possessed in the wild state of a 

 sufficiently powerful flight. M. Ch. Martins found that after three 

 generations reared in the open air, the males recovered their lost 

 power. 



Before speaking of the different phases of the life of the silkworm 

 and the rearing of this precious insect, we will notice the origin and 

 progress of the silk trade, one of the most important branches of 

 commerce in the South of Europe and in the East. 



The native country of the silkworm is not better known than that 

 of the greater number of plants and animals which form the staple of 

 agricultural industry. Probably, however, it was China. It was 

 certainly in this vast empire that long since the business of fabricating 

 silk began. One reads the following in " L'Histoire generale de la 

 Chine," by M. Mailla :— 



''The Emperor Hoang-ti, who lived 2,600 years before our era, 

 wished that Si-ling-chi, his wife, should contribute to the happiness 

 of his people ; he charged her to study the silkworm, and to try to 

 utiHse its threads. Si-ling-chi caused a great quantity of these insects 

 to be collected, which she fed herself in a place destined exclusively 

 for the purpose ; she not only discovered the means of rearing them, 

 but still further the manner of winding off their silk and of employing 

 it in the manufacture of fabrics.'' 



It may be asked, however, if the learned men who composed this 

 recital did not collect under the reign of the emperor Hoang-ti all the 

 events and all the discoveries whose dates were lost in the obscurity 

 of the most remote periods of history. Is not the Empress Si-ling-chi 

 a mythical person ? a sort of Chinese Ceres, to whom, under the title 

 of goddess of the silkworm, they then raised altars ? 



Here, at any rate, is how Duhalde * analyses the recital of the 

 Chinese annalists on the remarkable fact of the introduction of the 

 silkworm and its rich products into the Chinese empire : — 



" Up to the time of this queen (Si-ling-chi)," says he, " when the 

 country was only lately cleared and brought into cultivation, the 

 people employed the skins of animals as clothes. But these skins 

 were no longer sufficient for the multitude of the inhabitants \ neces- 

 sity made them industrious ; they applied themselves to the manu- 

 facture of cloth wherewith to cover themselves. But it was to this 

 princess that they owed the useful invention of silk stuffs. Afterwards, 



* "Description de la Chine," tome ii., p. 205. 



O 2 



