Ch.II. south AMERICA. 325 



tberina;s of that insect. It is not however to be 

 doubted, but that a more careful attention would 

 ensure thein the same success in great as in small! 

 quantities. 



Having mentioned this Insect, so highly valued in 

 every part of the world for the incomparable beauty 

 of its red, which it equally communicates to wool, 

 silk, linen, and cotton, it may be expected that I 

 should give some farther account of it ; and as I 

 should'be sorry to disappoint any rational curiosity of 

 my readers, and at the same time to insert any thing 

 that is not strictly true, I was unwilling to rely wholly 

 on my own experience; together with the accounts Í 

 procured at Loja and Hambato, especially as Oaxaca 

 is the principal place where this insect is produced, I 

 made it my business to consult persons well acquainted 

 with the subject, and received the following account, 

 m which they all unanimously agreed. 



The cochineal is bred on a })lant known in Oaxaca, 

 • and all those parts where it abounds, by the name of 

 ncspal*, or nopallccn, the Indian lig- tree, which, ex- 

 cept in the difference of the foliage, resembles the 

 tunos, so common in the kingdom of Andalusia. The 

 leaf of the tuna being broad, tlat, and prickly; and 

 that of the nopal, oblong, with several eminences; 

 and instead of spines, has a fine smooth membrane, 

 of a fine permanent and lively green. 



The method of planting the nopal is by making 

 rows of holes, about half a yard deep, and about two 

 yards distant from one another. In each of tlxse Indies 

 is placed one or two leaves of the nopal, in a flat posi- 

 tion, and then covered with earth. This leaf soon 

 after shoots up into a single stem, which during its 

 growth-divides into several branchcs,and these succes- 



* This plant is called by botanists, Opimila maxima, folio ollongo 

 rotundo majore, spinulls obiiis'is molllbus el inmcentibui obsitü;Jlore striic 

 irul>ris varicgato. Sloaae's Catalogue. 



y 3 sivcly 



