COCHINEAL 2GI 



eggs, as they have then the greatest weight, and are most im- 

 pregnated with colouring matter. They are detached by a blunt 

 knife dipped in boiling water to kill them, and then dried in 

 the sun, when they have the appearance of small, dry, shri- 

 velled berries, of a deep-brown purple or mulberry colour, with 

 a white matter between the wrinkles. The collecting takes 

 place three times a year in the plantations, where the insect, 

 improved by human care, is nearly twice as large as the wild 

 coccus, which in Mexico is gathered six times in the same 

 period. Although the collecting of the cochineal is exceed- 

 ingly tedious — about 70,000 insects going to a single pound 

 " — yet, considering the high price of the article, its rearing 

 would be very lucrative, if both the insect and the plant it feeds 

 upon were not liable to the ravages of many diseases, and 

 the attacks of numerous enemies. 



The conquest of Mexico by Cortez first made the Spaniards 

 acquainted with cochineal. They soon learnt to value it as one 

 of the most important products of their new empire ; and in 

 order to secure its monopoly, prohibited, under pain of death, 

 the exportation of the insect, and of the equally indigenous 

 Nopal, or Cactus cochinellifer. In the year 1677, however, 

 Thierry de Meronville, a Frenchman, made an eflfort to deprive 

 them of the exclusive possession of the treasure they guarded 

 with such jealous care. Under a thousand dangers, and by 

 means of lavish bribery, he succeeded in transporting some of 

 tlie plants, along with their costly parasite, to the French colony 

 of San Domingo ; but, unfortunately^ his perseverance did not 

 lead to any favourable results, and more than a century elapsed 

 after this first ineffectual attempt before the rearing of cochineal 

 extended beyond its original limits. 



In the year 1827, M. Berthelot, director of the botanical 

 garden at Orotava, introduced it into the Canary Islands, where 

 it thrives admirably upon the Opuntia ficus indica ; so that in 

 1838 the exportation amounted to 18,000 lbs., and has since then 

 been continually increasing. Cochineal is now reared near 

 Valencia, Cadiz, and Malaga; in various parts of the West Indies 

 and the United States; in Brazil, East Indies, and Java; and 

 though Mexico still continues to furnish it in the greatest 

 abundance, yet in point of quality it is distanced by its youthful 

 rival, Teneriffe. 



