LEPIDOPTERA. 249 



M. Guerin-Meneville showed still farther that ailantine, the 

 textile matter furnished by the cocoon of the Cynthia, is a sort of 

 iloss silk holding a middle place between wool and the silk of the 

 mulberry- tree worm, and which, as it can be produced at scarcely 

 any expense, would be very cheap, and would serve for the fabri- 

 cation of what are called fancy stuffs, for which ordinary floss silk 

 is now used. In 1862 M. Guerin-Meneville sent in a report to 

 the Minister of Agriculture on the progress of the cultivation of 

 the Ailanthus, and of the breeding of the silkworm, which was 

 reared in the open air on this tree. He mentions, in his report, 

 the rapid development of the cultivation of the tree in France, 

 the great number of eggs of the Ailanthus silkworm sold, the 

 ioundation of a model silkworm nursery at Yincennes, and this 

 one great point gained, that they had found out the way of 

 unwinding the silk from the cocoons of the Cynthia in one 

 unbroken and continuous thread. 



Till then European industry had only succeeded in drawing from 

 the cocoons of the Ailanthus silkworm a floss silk composed of 

 filaments more or less short, obtained by carding, and unable to 

 produce, when twisted, anything better than floss, that is to say, 

 refuse silk. It is to the Countess de Yernede de Corneillan on the 

 one hand, and to Doctor Forgemot on the other, that the merit is 

 due of having obtained an unbroken thread of silk from the cocoon 

 of Attacus Cynthia. 



A monograph on the Ailanthus silkworm appeared in 1866 under 

 the title, " L'Ailante et son Bombyx, par Henri Givelet." * It is 

 a complete account of all the results obtained up to the time, 

 both as regards the rearing of the silkworm and also as regards 

 the cultivation on a large scale of the Ailanthus, or false Japan 

 varnish tree.f 



The Castor-oil plant silkworm (Attacus (Bombyx) ricini) is a 

 species very nearly akin to the Ailanthus worm, perhaps only a 

 variety, and comes from India. The silk which it produces is 



* In 8vo, avec plans et planches coloriees. Paris, 1866. 



t A work by M. Ghierin-Meneville on the same subject, entitled, " Education des 

 Vers a soie de 1'Ailante et du Eicin," in 12mo, Paris, 1860, may also be consulted. 



[For a full account of successful experiments carried on in England, see Dr. 

 Wallace's Essay in " The Transactions of the Entomological Society of London," 

 3rd series, vol. v. pt. 2. Longmans and Co. ED.] 



