241 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



bodies against the vicissitudes of temperature, and other 

 changes of the weather ; while insects are taught by the 

 Governor of the universe to select instinctively the best 

 inaterials for their clothing." 



Before the introduction of coal colours, the little 

 cochineal insect afforded a large contribution to the 

 stores of commerce, giving us an interesting illustration 

 of the rapid progress made in the production of one 

 species only, namely, that of the Canary Islands, where 

 the cochineal insect, that which produces the beautiful 

 colour known as carmine, was first brought into competi- 

 tion with its fellows from Honduras. In the year 1831, 

 the total produce of Teneriffe was eight pounds of cochi- 

 neal, and, while writing of this once precious insect, its 

 value may be imagined when I tell you what a rich 

 Yorkshire dyer once told me, that when the dye was 

 first discovered, his father and another man joined in the 

 purchase of one bag, which, because of its costly nature, 

 they kept under their bed. It was and still is in the 

 London market called "grain" and this is how it came 

 to pass that it was thus called. The dried insect is so 

 like seed that it was believed, two centuries ago. to have 

 belonged not to the animal but the vegetable kingdom. 

 In a curious volume in my possession, written by Lemery 

 more than a hundred and fifty years since, there is a 

 very amusing description of the "article" which has 

 played an important part since in the commerce of 

 London. In this antique work it says, " The Cochenelle 

 is the seed of a plant about two or three feet high, 

 adorned with Leaves two Fingers thick, of a beautiful 

 Green, and very prickly " (he is evidently referring to the 

 cactus, upon which cochineal insects chiefly feed) ; " after 

 which grow Buds or Husks in form of a Heart, of a Green, 

 tending to a Yellow Colour, in which are enclosed a 



