Bombycidae 



l-Mought to the embarrassed imperial manufacturer when two 

 Nestorian monks, who had lived long in China and had learned 

 all the processes of silk-culture, were induced to go back to that 

 far-away land and bring to Constantinople a stock of the eggs of 

 the silk-worm. As it was among the Chinese a capital offense to 

 reveal the secrets of the trade or to export the eggs from which 

 the worms are hatched, the two priests had to proceed with the 

 utmost caution. They concealed the eggs in the hollows of the 

 bamboo staffs which they carried as pilgrims. From these eggs, 

 thus transported to Constantinople in a.d. 555, all of the silk- 

 worms in Europe, Africa, Asia Minor, and America until as 

 recently as 1865 Were descended. It was not until the last-men- 

 tioned year that any importation of fresh eggs of the silk-worm 

 from China took place. Those two bamboo sticks held within 

 themselves the germ of a vast industry, countless costly v/ard- 

 robes, the raiment of kings, queens, and emperors, and untold 

 wealth. 



From the time of Justinian onward the growth of silk-culture 

 in Greece and Asia Minor was rapid. It was introduced into 

 Spain by the Saracens at the beginning of the eighth century. It 

 found lodgment in Sicily and Naples in the twelfth century, and 

 in the next century was taken up in Genoa and Venice. It was 

 not begun in France until the latter part of the sixteenth century, 

 but in the seventeenth century it made great progress in France, 

 as well as in Belgium and Switzerland. The weaving of silk had 

 begun at an earlier date than this in France, Germany, and Eng- 

 land. Attempts made to introduce the culture of the mulberry- 

 tree and of the silk-worm in Great Britain have always signally 

 failed. The climate appears to be against the industry. James K 

 who had failed in his attempts to foster sericulture in England, 

 undertook to plant the industry in Virginia in 1609. But the eggs 

 and mulberry-trees he sent out were lost by shipwreck. In i6iq 

 and the years immediately following the attempt was renewed, 

 and the raising of silk-worms was enjoined by statute and en- 

 couraged by bounties. In spite of every effort, little came of the 

 attempt, the "colonists finding the growth of tobacco to be far 

 more profitable. In Georgia and the Carolinas similar attempts 

 were made, and from 1733 to 1766 there were exported to Eng- 

 land considerable quantities of raw silk from these colonies. From 



318 



