368 



THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



chances of success in propagation were best at Malta, where the plant known as Palma 

 Christi is abundant, and where it would be a great acquisition to the poor but industrious 

 population of that island, in which expensive attempts to introduce the mulberry have 

 wholly failed on account of the poverty of the soil. In Carrying out the new plan proposed, 

 Sir William Reed, the governor of Malta, lent his aid, and, after a series of trials and 

 failures continued for more than two years, a successful result was attained. From Malta, 

 eggs have since been sent to Piedmont and Southern Italy, Egypt, and most parts of the 

 Mediterranean. 



Mr. G. W. Kendall, in writing to the New Orleans Picayune, from Paris, gives the following 

 additional information respecting this new silk-worm. He says : It appears this new species 

 of silk-worm (which is a native of China) can live in Europe, and can thrive not only on the 

 leaves of the Palma Christi, but on lettuce, and weeping willow, and even wild endive, and 

 reproduces itself several times in the course of the year. The name given to this new 

 species of the silk-worm is the Bombyx cynthia. Everybody is familiar enough with the silk- 

 worm (thanks to the morus-multicaulis fever !) to know that the silk in which the worm en- 

 tombs himself is composed of an uninterrupted thread, which, in turn, consists of twin tubes 

 laid parallel by the worm in the act of spinning, and glued together by a kind of varnish 



which covers their whole surface. (This appear- 

 ance of a silk-thread, as seen under a microscope, 

 is well exhibited in the annexed engraving.) The 

 numerous windings of the cocoon-threads are also 

 connected with a gum which is easily dissolved, 

 allowing the silk to be readily wound upon reels, 

 provided the worm is not allowed to pass through 

 its chrysalis state, (which is prevented by ex- 

 posing the chrysalis to a high degree of tempera- 

 ture.) The chrysalis pierces the cocoon, the silk 

 _cannot be wound, and it is used as floss, and is 

 carded (as cotton, which, from the shortness of 

 its fibres, cannot be spun until it has been carded) 

 before it is employed. 



The cocoon of the Bombyx cynthia is not en- 

 tirely closed, and the chrysalis, after becoming a butterfly, may escape from its prison with- 

 out injuring the value of the silk ; consequently, if the cocoon of the Bombyx cynthia can 

 be wound, the silk-grower will not be forced to sacrifice the grub to save the cocoon. This 

 reserved aperture is defended against dangerous curiosity in a very singular manner. On 

 the side of the grub, and through which it must come out, the cocoon is terminated in a sort 

 of point, which is formed by the convergence of a crown of stiff, continuous threads running 

 in such a manner as to prolong the side of the cocoon, which renders this passage impass- 

 able from the outside ; while it is easily traversed by the imprisoned grub, which, as soon 

 as he is transformed, is engaged in a sort of a hopper, (like a mill-hopper,) the sides of 

 which are stretched wider as it moves farther on, at the same time that the "hopper" 

 exerts, by its elasticity, a pressure favorable to development of the butterfly's newly-acquired 

 and large wings. The stiff threads which constitute the point of the cocoon are doubled, 

 glued, and folded on each other, so as to remain unbroken, in such a way that the cocoon 

 remains in its integrity after the hatching and the flight of the butterfly. It is not yet 

 known whether the cocoon can be wound ; it is certain that Alcan's process (boiling) is in- 

 effectual to dissolve the gum which unites the thread; but experiments made with an 

 alkali and water appear to succeed. I think the cultivation of this worm may be pursued 

 with the greatest advantage in all our sea-board Southern States. 



Silk in California. 



AT a meeting of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, April 30, 1855, Dr. Behr 

 exhibited a specimen of native silk, the product of the Gaturnia ceanotha, which he con- 



