WILD SILK WORMS. . 193 



lightful to render one's self useful, and to contribute to the 

 public abundance, that we do not doubt that many will 

 prefer these experiments to many amusements as expen- 

 sive as frivolous, which occupy the leisure of the rich on 

 their farms. The public, to whom they will render the 

 account of any partial successes, will compare them, improve 

 them one by the other, and decide upon the use the com- 

 mon good will prescribe. Who knows if it be not reserved 

 to some one of these experiments to enrich France, with 

 some new kind of silk, or perhaps even to simplify the man- 

 ner of raising the silk worms of the mulberry tree ? For, 

 at last, if it is more difficult to rear them on trees than the 

 wild silk worms, it is not impossible, perhaps, in climates 

 where the season is more favorable to them. Who knows, 

 even, if this will not be the true means of giving to our 

 silks a degree of perfection and beauty, which the con- 

 straint the worms labor under, deprives them of at pre- 

 sent. 



NOTICE ON THE ASH TREE OF CHINA, 

 CALLED HJANG-TCHUN. 



Here are distinguishable two kinds of ash trees: the 

 tcheou-tchun, the stinking ash tree ; and the kiang-tchun, 

 the fragrant ash tree. The first has always appeared to us 

 to be the same as ours, because we were contented with 

 appearances, and put ourselves to little trouble to examine 

 it nearer. What we have written on wild silk worms has 

 made us fear we were deceived: we have examined the 

 blossoms of that tree, they appear different to us from those 

 our botanists describe. The petals are five in number, and 

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