174 SILK:. 



This loose, furzy substance, which is about one-tenth 

 part of the whole silk on the cocoon, is called in 

 French fleuret, and in English floss, from the Latin 

 flos, flower a name which reminds us of lucas a 

 non lucenda. As soon as the threads of the silk in 

 the process of reeling come out fine and regular, this 

 floss is seperated from them and put aside for use, as 

 will be presently mentioned. To it are added all the 

 threads which, either from some defect in the cocoons, 

 or from the awkwardness of the women employed in 

 the different operations of reeling, winding, and 

 doubling, either break off so as not to be easily uni- 

 ted to the other threads, or come out uneven, or oth- 

 erwise unfit for use ; these are called the waste silk, 

 and added to ihe floss, assume with it the same name. 

 This mass, boiled in soap and water, afterwards 

 carded and spun on the spinning wheel, takes the name 

 in French of bourre de soi or filoselle. Boyer, in his 

 dictionary, translates the word filoselle into English 

 by ferret silk or flurt silk. This last name is evi- 

 dently a corruption, or an English pronunciation of 

 the French word fleuret, floss silk. 



" This floss, ferret, or flurt silk, by whatever 

 name it may be called, is employed in making silk 

 stockings, mittens, gloves, suspenders, night caps, and 

 in general, all kinds of silk hosiery. I have heard 

 that the women of Connecticut knit silk stockings 

 and mittens out of the silk which they extract from 

 the cocoons. 



