EMPEROR-MOTH. 279 



one-third of it) will make 14,000 lbs. weight of silk ; to be 

 commonly worth but twenty shillings a pound, those trees 

 must make 14,000/. per annum." During the last century, 

 some French refugees in the south of Ireland made con- 

 siderable plantations of the mulberry, and had begun the 

 cultivation of silk with every appearance of success ; but 

 since their removal the trees have been cut down.* In 

 the vicinity of London, also, a considerable plantation 

 of mulberry-trees was purchased by the British, Irish, and 

 Colonial Silk Company in 1825; but we have not learned 

 whether this Company have any active measures now in 

 operation. 



The manufacture of silk was introduced into this coun- 

 try in 1718, at Derby, by Mr. John Lombe, who travelled 

 into Italy to obtain the requisite information; but so 

 jealous were the Italians of this, that according to some 

 statements which have obtained belief, he fell a victim. to 

 their revenge, having been poisoned at the early age of 

 twenty-nine. t 



There are not only several varieties of the common silk- 

 worm {Bomhyx mori), but other species of caterpillars, 

 which spin silk capable of being manufactured, though not 

 of so good qualities as the common silk. Kone of our 

 European insects, however, seem to be well fitted for the 

 purpose, though it has been proposed by Fabricius and 

 others to try the crimson under- wing (Catocala sponsa, 

 Schrank), &c. M. Latreille quotes from the 'Recreations 

 of Natural History,' by Wilhelm, the statement that the 

 cocoons of the emperor-moth (Saturnia pavonia) had been 

 successfully tried in Germany, by M. Wentzel Hegeer de 

 Berchtoldsdorf, under an imperial patent. 



Emperor-Moth. 



The emperor-moth, indeed, is no less worthy of our 

 attention with respect to the ingenuity of its architecture 



* Preface to Dandolo on the Silk-Worm, Eng. Transl., p. xiii. 

 t Glover's Directorj^ of the County of Derby, Introd., p. xvi. 



