WHITE-FRUITED MULBERRY-TREE. ] [) 
The Chinese appear to have been the first to cultivate the mulberry for feeding 
silkworms ; and they are supposed tu have discovered the art of making this del- 
icate luxury 2700 B. C., in the reign of Emperor Hong, whose Empress. Si-li 
chi, is said to have first observed the operations of the silkworm on wild mulberry- 
trees, and applied their labours to the production of silk. She collected them from 
the trees, and, with the aid of the females attached to her household, attended 
them with much care, in the imperial apartments, supplied them with mulberry- 
leaves, and kept them very clean. It was soon found that they thrived much 
better in this manner than in the open air, where they were constantly exposed 
to their natural enemies, serpents, spiders, &c, and to the ill effects of changes of 
temperature. The cocoons, produced in rooms, were more numerous, larger, and 
of better quality, than those gathered from the trees. Care was afterwards taken 
to hatch the eggs in rooms, and the superiority of this artificial mode of culture 
soon became more and more manifest, which was followed by the successive sove- 
reigns of that empire, and all the rich and affluent were dressed in garments of 
silk. Subsequently, it became an article of exportation, and a source of lmm t 
wealth. The traders of Serica first carried the silken stuffs over the whole 
breadth of Asia. Their caravans performed long journeys of two hundred and 
forty-three days, from the " far coasts" of China to those of Syria. The culture 
spread from China to India, Persia, and Arabia, and was for many centuries, as 
t is at the present day, a great source of wealth to these countries. 
The expedition of Alexander the Great into Persia and India, first introduced 
the knowledge of silk to the Greeks, about 350 years B. C. ; and, with the 
increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court, the demand for silken goods 
prodigiously augmented. The Persians engrossed, for a time, the trade of Greece, 
and became rich from the commerce of silk, which they procured from China. 
Among the most active traders of that epoch were the Phoenicians, who were also 
engaged in the traffic of silk, and carried it to the east of Europe ; but for a long 
time, even those who were concerned in its commerce, knew not what it was. how 
it was produced, nor where was situated the country of Serica, from which it 
originally came. Some, supposing it to be grown on trees, as hair grows on ani- 
mals; others, that it was produced by a shell-fish, similar to a mussel, which is 
known to throw out threads for the purpose of attaching itself to rocks: others, 
that it was the entrails of a sort of spider, which was fed for four years with paste, 
and then with the leaves of a kind of green willow, till it burst with tat ; and 
others, that it was the product of a worm which built nests of clay, and collected 
wax. But Aristotle, with more truth, thought it was unwound from the pupa of 
a large horned caterpillar. 
From Greece, the use of silk passed into Rome; and, though the exact year ol 
its introduction is unknown, it was probably about the time of Pompey and Julius 
Csesar; the latter, we find, having used it in his festivals. In the reign oi Tibe- 
rius, an edict was passed, prohibiting the use of silk as effeminate. Among all 
the articles of elegance belonging to the luxurious Cleopatra, none seemed more 
to excite admiration and astonishment, than the silken sails of her pleasure Dai 
in which she visited Alexandria. Heliogabalus, in the year 220 oi our era. is 
said to have been the first emperor who wore a robe made entirely ol silk ; which 
then, and for some time afterwards, sold for its weight in gold. Aurehan. in the 
year 280, is said to have denied his Empress, Sevcra. a robe oi silk, because H 
was too dear. ,. . _ . , 
About the beginning of the Vlth century, after the seal ol the Roman empire had 
been transferred to Constantinople, two monks arrived at the courl ol the hmpe- 
ror Justinian, from a mission into China, bringing with them the seeds ol the 
mulberry, and communicated to him the discovery ol the mode ot rearing silk- 
worms. Although the exportation of the insects from China, was prohibited, on 
