LEPIDOPTEEA. 221 



man distinguished in a very different way from that of M. Laffe- 

 mas. This was Olivier de Serres, the author of the " Theatre 

 de Tagriculture ; " he whom Henry IY. called his lord and 

 master in -agriculture. Olivier de Serres was the first among 

 his countrymen who had published instructions regarding the 

 cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. 

 Henry IY., who had noticed his writings, called him to Paris ; 

 and, on his solicitation, caused twenty thousand, mulberry trees 

 and a great quantity of silkworms' eggs, of which a distri- 

 bution was made over the whole of France, to be imported 

 from Italy. From that moment, sericiculture was propagated 

 rapidly in the Cevennes, in Provence, in Languedoc, in Touraine, 

 and many other provinces. Mulberry trees were planted at 

 Fontainebleau, in the royal park of Tournelles, and even in the 

 garden of the Tuileries, where an Italian lady, named Julie, 

 reared silkworms for Henry IY. 



Notwithstanding this great impulse, sericiculture dwindled 

 away on the death of that king. Ifc received a fresh impulse 

 under Colbert, the great minister, who succeeded in creating 

 the spirit of commerce and trade in France. New manufac- 

 tories were established, and plantations of mulberry trees formed 

 in many of the provinces. All this progress was suddenly 

 brought to a standstill by the iniquitous revocation of the Edict of 

 Nantes, which deprived France of her leading commercial men. 

 Driven from their own country, the Protestant families of Ce- 

 vennes established abroad silk manufactories, of which the fabrics 

 rivalled those of French production. 



In the eighteenth century, the intendants of the provinces tried, 

 but with very slight success, to give a fresh impetus to sericiculture 

 in France. The Abb6 Boissier de Sauvages published, about 

 1760, some works, which prove him to have been a patient 

 observer, an accurate reasoner, and a clever rearer of silkworms. 

 Boissier de Sauvages is the father of modern silk-culture. During 

 the first Revolution, men's minds were occupied with graver 

 subjects than the cultivation of the mulberry tree. But, on the 

 return of peace, they got to work again on all sides. In 1808, 

 the minister Chaptal estimated the weight of the cocoon harvest 

 at between five or six thousand kilogrammes ; whilst the inven- 



