278 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



for refusing his empress a robe of silk ; and our own 

 James I., before bis accession to the crown of England, bad 

 to borrow of the Earl of Mar a pair of silk stockings to 

 appear in before the English ambassador, a circumstance 

 which probably led him to promote the cultivation of silk 

 in England.* The Eoman authors were altogether ignorant 

 of its origin, — some supposing it to be grown on trees as 

 hair grows on animals, — others that it was produced by a 

 sheil-fish similar to the mussel, w^hich is known to throw 

 out threads for the purpose of attaching itself to rocks, — 

 others that it was the entrails of a sort of spider, which 

 was fed for four years with paste, and then with the leaves 

 of the green willow, till it burst with fat, — and others that 

 it was the produce of a worm which built nests of clay and 

 collected wax. The insect was at length spread into 

 Persia; and eggs were afterwards, at the instance of the 

 Emperor Justinian, concealed in hollow canes by two 

 monks, and conveyed to the isle of Cos. This emperor, in 

 the sixth century, caused them to be introduced into Con- 

 stantinople, and made an object of public utility. They 

 were thence successively cultivated in Greece, in Arabia, 

 in Spain, in Italy, in France, and in all places where any 

 hope could be indulged of their succeeding. In America 

 the culture of the silk-worm was introduced into Virginia 

 in the time of James I., who himself composed a book of 

 instructions on the subject, and caused mulberry-trees and 

 silk-w^orms' eggs to be sent to the colony. In Georgia, 

 also, lands were granted on condition of planting one 

 hundred white mulberry -trees on every ten acres of cleared 

 land.f 



The growth of the silk-Avorm has also been tried, but 

 with no great success, in this country. Evelyn "computed 

 that one mulberry-tree would feed as many silk-worms 

 annually as would produce seven pounds of silk. "Ac- 

 cording to that estimate," says Barham, J " the two thou- 

 sand trees already planted in Chelsea Park (which take up 



* Shaw's Gen. Zoology, vol. vi. 



t North American Review, Oct. 1828, p. 449. 



;|: Essay on the Silk- Worm, p. 95. London, 1719. 



