Ch. IÍ. south AMERICA 329 



nre often different from those gathered by another ; 

 €very individual adhering to his own method. 



Th& cochineal insect may in some circiimstniiccs 

 be compared to the silkworm, pnrlicularlvin the man- 

 rer of depositing its eggs. The insects destined for 

 this particular are taken at a f)ro})cr time of their 

 growth, and put into a box well closed, and lined 

 with a coarse cloth, that none of them be lost. In 

 this confinement they lay their eggs and die. The 

 box is 'kept close shut till the time of placing the eggs 

 on the nopal, when, if any motion is perceived, it is a 

 sufficient indication that the animalcule has life, 

 though the cgg^ is so minute as hardly to be per- 

 ceived; and this is the seed placed on the foliage of 

 the nopal, and the cpiantity contained in the shell of 

 a hen's eg¡r is sufficient for covering a whole plant. 

 It is remarkable that this insect doc^ not, or at least 

 jn any visible manner, injure the plant ; but extracts 

 its nourishment from the most succulent juice, which 

 it sucks by means of its proboscis through tlic fine 

 teguments of the leaves. 



The principal countrieswhere the cochineal insects 

 ¿are bred, are Oaxaca, Flascala, Ceulula, Nueva Gal- 

 licia, and Chiapa in the kingdom of New Spain; 

 and Hambato, Loja, and l\icuman in Peru. And 

 though the nopal thrives equally in all, yet it is only 

 in Oaxaea thar they are gathered in large (|uaniiíies, 

 and form a branch of eotnmerce, the cultivation oí 

 these little creatures heing there the chief einploy- 

 ment of the Indians ; whereas in others, where the 

 inhabitants take but little trouble in their cultivation, 

 they breed wild, and those gathered in them are ac- 

 cordingly called grana sylvestria*. Not that either 

 the insects or nopals^are of different species ; fov with 

 regard to the disadvantageous difference between the 



* This wild cochineal is generally knoAvirin England by the 

 jiame cochineal inestiquo. 



colour 



