THE MULBERRY. 143 



Wishing and supplying the manufacture. They were 

 immediately sent off, and soon returned, with the eggs 

 of the silk-worm concealed and preserved in a hollow 

 cane : these eggs were hatched by the heat of a 

 dunghill. The attempt succeeded; the worms were 

 fed with the leaves of wild mulberry trees; they mul- 

 tiplied rapidly; and the produce of their labours 

 proved to be as good silk as that which had been 

 made in the East. 



The animal by which silk is originally made is a 

 species of moth (Phalccna Mori.} When perfect, or 

 in the winged state, it is of a whitish colour, with a 

 pale brown line across the upper wings, and displays 

 in itself none of that lustre which its labours pro- 

 duce. The caterpillar, in which state it spins the 

 silk, and is thence called the silk- worm, is about 

 three-quarters of an inch long, of a yellowish gray 

 colour; it feeds very voraciously on the leaves of 

 the black and white mulberry tree indiscriminately; 

 and it will also feed upon lettuce and some other 

 plants. For about six weeks, the silk worm remains 

 in the caterpillar or larva state, changing its skin 

 four times during that period, and ceasing to feed 

 for a short tune previous to each change. When 

 full grown, it eats no more, but, chooshlg a conve- 

 nient place, begins to envelop itself in silken fibres; 

 and it continues this operation till it has spun an 

 oval case or ball of yellowish silk, about the size of 

 a pigeon's egg, in which it remains as a chrysalis for 

 about fifteen days, at the end of which it gnaws 

 through the end of the silken ball, and comes out a 

 winged moth, to deposit its eggs for a fresh genera- 

 tion, and very soon after to die. 



Those who cultivate the worm for silk do not suffer 

 it to reach this last stage, because the silken fibre 

 would be cut into small pieces by the opening at which 

 the moth escapes. When the whole ouantitv of silk 



