HEMIPTERA. 135 



M. Loze, surgeon in the navy, undertook to introduce the insect 

 again, and, with M. Hardy, director of the central garden of Algiers, 

 gave himself up, with great intelligence, to the naturalisation and 

 rearing of the cochineal in Algeria. 



In 1847 the French Minister of War, for the purpose of having 

 the value of the Algerian cochineal fixed by commerce, caused to be 

 sold publicly on the market-place of Marseilles a case of cochineal, 

 the produce of the harvests of 1845 and 1846, from the experimental 

 garden of Algiers, and which contained 17 kilogrammes of this com- 

 modity. Since that time the cultivation of this insect, the beginning of 

 which was due to M. Limonnet, has rapidly developed. In 1853, in 

 the province of Algiers alone, there were fourteen nopaleries, or 

 cactus gardens, containing 61,500 plants. The Government at that 

 time bought the harvests for fifteen francs the kilogramme. 



We have only pointed out in a general way how the cochineal 

 harvest is conducted. We will now enter into some details on the 

 subject. These insects are gathered when the females are about to 

 lay, that is, when a few young are hatched. It is when the females 

 are pregnant that they contain the greatest amount of colouring matter. 

 When the harvest time has arrived, the rearers stretch out on the 

 ground pieces of linen at the foot of the plants, and v detach the 

 cochineals from them, brushing the plants with a rather hard brush, 

 or scraping them off with the blade of a blunt knife. 



If the season is favourable, the operation may be repeated three 

 times in the course of a year in the same 'plantation. The insects 

 thus collected are killed, by dipping into boiling water, by being put 

 into an oven, or by being placed on a plate of hot iron. The 

 cochineals, when withdrawn from the boiling water, are placed upon 

 drainers, first in the sun, then in the shade, then in an airy place. 

 During their immersion in water they lose the white powder which 

 covers them. In this state they are called in Mexico ronagridas. 

 Those which have passed through the oven they call jaspeadas, and 

 are of an ashy grey ; those that are torrefied are black, and are called 

 negras. In commerce three sorts of cochineal are recognised ; first, 

 the mastique (mestique), of a reddish colour, with a more or less 

 abundant glaucous powder ; secondly, the noire, which is large and of 

 a blackish brown ; thirdly, the sylvestre, which is, on the contrary, 

 smaller and reddish. The latter is the least esteemed, and is gathered 

 on wild cacti. 



Each year there are imported into France 200,000 kilogrammes 

 of cochineals, which represents a value of about three millions of 

 francs. Every one knows that it is from cochineal that carmine is 



