DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 319 



when it was ascertained to be the produce of a worm, 

 have sprung the Latin coccineus, the French cramoisi 

 and vermeil, and our crimson and vermilion. It was 

 most probably with this substance that the curtains of 

 the tabernacle (Exodus xxvi. &c.) were dyed deep red 

 (which the word scarlet, as our translators have ren- 

 dered "iu/ Di-^in, then implied, not the colour now so 

 called, which was not known in James the First's reign 

 when the Bible was translated) — it was with this that 

 the Grecians and Romans produced their crimson ; and 

 from the same source were derived the imperishable 

 reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries. In 

 short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was 

 the material universally used for dyeing the most bril- 

 liant red then known ; and though that production of 

 the New World has, in some respects undeservedly ", 

 supplanted it in Europe, where it is little attended to 

 except by the peasantry of the provinces in which it is 

 found, it still continues to be employed in a great part 

 of India and Persia ''. 



The scarlet grain of Poland {Coccus poloniciis^ L.) 

 is found on the roots of the perennial knawel (Scleran- 

 thus perennis, L. a scarce plant in this country, but 



* The colour communicated by Kermes with alum, the only mordant 

 formerly employed, is blood red: but Dr. Bancroft found (i. 404.) that 

 with the solution of tin used with cochineal it is capable of imparting a 

 scarlet quite as brilliant as that dye, and perhaps more permanent. At 

 the same time, however, as ten or twelve pounds contain only as much 

 colouring matter as one of cochineal, the latter at its ordinary price is the 

 cheapest. 



"^ Bochart, Hisrozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 27. Beckmann's Histonj of Inventions, 

 Engl. Trans, ii. 171-205. 'Ba.ncroit on permanent Colijurs,\,o9)i. Sec 

 also Parkhurst's Hcb, Lexicon under ybn and n;u-. 



