,020 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



abundant in the neighbourhood of Elvedon in SufFolkJ, 

 and was at one time collected in large quantities for 

 dyeing red in the Ukraine, Lithuania, &c. But though 

 still employed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing 

 wool, silk and hair, as well as for staining- the nails of 

 women's fingers, it is now rarely used in Europe ex- 

 cept by the Polish peasantry. A similar neglect has 

 attended the Coccus found on the roots of Poterium 

 Sanguisorba, L.'', which was used by the Moors for dye- 

 ing silk and wool a rose colour; and the Coccus Uva- 

 ttrsiy which with alum affords a crimson dje''. 



Cochineal, the Coccus Cacti, L., is doubtless the most 

 valuable product for which the dyer is indebted to in- 

 sects, and with the exception perhaps of indigo the most 

 important of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards 

 found it employed by the natives ofMexico, where alone 

 it is cultivated, on their arrival in that country in 1518, 

 its true nature was not accurately ascertained for nearly 

 tw o centuries afterwards. Acosta indeed as early as 

 1530, and Herrara and Hernandez subsequently, had 

 stated it to be an insect. But led apparently by its ex- 

 ternal appearance, notwithstanding- the conjectures of 

 Lister and assertions of Pere Plumier to the contrary, 

 it was believed by Europeans in general to be the seed 

 of a plant, until Hartsoeker in 1694, Leeuwenhoek and 

 De la Hire in 1704, and Geoffroy, ten years later, h\ 

 dissections and microscopical observations incontro- 

 vertibly proved its real origin*'. 



This insect, which comes to us in the form of a red- 

 dish shrivelled grain covered w ith a white pov. der or 



» Rai. Hist. Plant, i. 40K " Bancroft, i. 401. 



" Bancroft, i. 113. Reauni. iv. 88, 



