

1 80 TREATISE UPON THE 



be not deceived, is what the botanists call quercus, orien- 

 talis caslanea folio, glande reconditd in capsuld crassd el 

 squamerosd. It is in the royal garden, as well as we re- 

 member ; but we have, assuredly, seen it near Toulouse, in 

 a garden, which would be too painful for us to name. 



The wild silk worms offagara and of the ash trees, are 

 the same, and are raised in the same manner. Those of the 

 oak tree are different, and require to be dealt with rather 

 differently. 



The great and essential difference between the silk worms, 

 of the mulberry tree, and the wild silk worms, is that the 

 Author of nature has given to these last a spirit of liberty 

 and independence absolutely unconquerable. Patience, per- 

 severance, and Chinese industry have been foiled there. It 

 would be useless to risk new attempts. Our religious books 

 have taken silk worms for the symbol of the resurrection, 

 be it the soul in grace, or of the body in life eternal. The 

 wild silk worms appear to be preferred. Their cocoons 

 being finished, they remain enclosed from the end of Sum- 

 mer, or the beginning of Autumn, until the Spring of the 

 next year. This long residence explains why they are made 

 so strong and so compact. Cocoons have even been seen, 

 after being forgotten a whole year, to send forth their but- 

 terflies the next; and, it is notorious in the province of 

 Clian-tong and several oilier places, that the metamorphose 

 of the chrysalides can be retarded to the middle of Summer. 



The Chinese have a manner of distinguishing the cocoons 

 which give male or female butterflies : among those they 

 can likewise select the ones which give the strongest and 

 the most beautiful butterflies. As the cocoons selected are 

 the hope of the next year, this choice is important. If the 

 rules to make this choice are the same as those which are 



