590 



Inscets. 



the year 1242, we are told that part of the streets of 

 London were covered or shaded with silk, for the recep- 

 tion of Richard, the brother of Henry III., on his return 

 from the Holy Land. In 1454 the silk manufactures of 

 England are said to have been confined merely to rib- 

 bons, laces, and other trifling articles. Queen Elizabeth, 

 in the third year of her reign, was furnished by her silk- 

 woman with a pair of black knit silk stockings, which 

 she is stated to have admired as " marvellous delicate 

 wear;" and after the using of which she no longer 

 had cloth ones as before. James I., whilst king of 

 Scotland, requested of the Earl of Mar the loan of a pair 

 of silk stockings to appear in before the English am- 

 bassador, enforcing his request with the cogent appeal, 

 " For ye would not, sure, that your king should appear 

 as a scrub before strangers." 



THE CLOTHES MOTH. (Tinea pellionella.) 



THE larva of this little Moth is well known from the 

 damage it commits in woollen cloth and furs. These 

 substances constitute the principal support of the Cater- 

 pillar, and therefore the parent is, by its natural instinct, 

 directed to deposit its eggs in them. As soon as it quits 

 the egg, the Caterpillar begins to form for itself a nest : 

 for this purpose, after having spun a fine coating of silk 



