46 The Cochineal Plant with the Insects- 



A Statement regarding the Cochineal, the Coccus Cacti. Lin. 



" It is doubtless the most valuable product, for which the 

 dyer is indebted to insects, and, with the exception of indigo, 

 the most important of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards 

 found it employed by the natives of Mexico, where alone it is 

 cultivated, on their arrival in 1518, its true nature was not 

 accurately ascertained for nearly two centuries afterwards. 

 Acosta indeed, as early as 1530, and Ilerrara and Hernandez, 

 subsequently had stated it to be an insect. But led apparently 

 by its external appearance, notwithstanding the conjectures of 

 Lister, and assertions of Pere Plumier, to the contrary, it was 

 believed by the 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, by dissections and micro- 

 scopical observation, incontrovertibly proved its real origin. 



" This insect, which comes to us in the form of a reddish 

 shrivelled grain covered with a white powder or bloom, feeds 

 on a particular kind of Indian fig, called in Mexico, where 

 alone Cochineal is produced in any quantity, Nopal, which has 

 always been supposed to be the Cactus Cochinilifer. Lin. but, 

 according to Humboldt, is unquestionably a distinct species, 

 which bears fruit internally white. 



" Cochiueal is chiefly cultivated in the Intendencyof Oaxaca ; 

 and some plantations contain 50 or 00,000 nopals in lines, 

 each being kept about four feet high, for more easy access in 

 collecting tiie dye. The cultivators prefer the most prickly 

 varieties of the plant, as affording protection to the cochineal 

 from insects; to prevent which from depositing their eggs in 

 the flower or fruit, both are carefully cut off. The greatest 

 quantity, however, of cochineal employed in commerce, is pro- 

 duced in small nopaleries, belonging to Indians of extreme 

 poverty, called Nopaleros. They plant their nopaleries in 

 cleared ground on the slopes of mountains or ravines, two or 

 three leagues distant from their villages ; and when properly 

 cleaned, the plants are in a condition to maintain the cochineal 

 in the third year. As a stock, the proprietor, in April or.May, 

 purchases blanches or joints of the Tuna de Castilla, laden 

 with small cochineal insects recently hatched (Semilla.) These 

 branches, which may be bought in the market of Oaxaca for 

 about 3 francs (2s 6d.) the hundred, are kept for twenty days 

 in the interior of their huts, and then exposed to the open air 

 under a shed, where, from their succulency, they continue to 

 live for several months. In August and September, the mother 



