CHAP. C. Ull'nCA^CEJE. Jl/CMiUS. 1351 



worms on wild mulberry trees, and applied their silk to use. From China, the 

 art passed into Persia, India, Arabia, and the whole of Asia. The caravans 

 of Seres, or Serica (the part of China where the silk was most abundantly 

 produced), "performed long journeys, of 243 days, from the 'far coasts' of 

 China to those of Syria. The expedition of Alexander into Persia and India 

 first introduced the knowledge of silk to the Grecians, 350 years before Christ; 

 and, with the increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court, the de- 

 mand for silks prodigiously augmented. The Persians engrossed, for a time, 

 the trade of Greece, and became rich from the commerce of silk, which they 

 procured from China. The ancient Phoenicians also engaged in the traffic of 

 silk, and carried it to the east of Europe ; but, for a long time, even those who 

 brought it to Europe knew not what it was, and neither how it was pro- 

 duced, nor where was situated the country of Serica, from which it originally 

 came." (Kenric/c's Amer. Silk-Grower's Guide, p. 11.; N. Du Ham., 4. ; Nouv. 

 Cours d Agric., &c.) From Greece it passed into Rome ; and, though the 

 exact year of its introduction is unknown, it was probably about the time of 

 Pompey and Julius Caesar ; the latter, we find, having used it in his festivals. 

 In the reign of Tiberius, an edict was passed prohibiting the use of silk as 

 effeminate. Heliogabalus, about 220, is said to have been the first emperor 

 who wore a robe made entirely of silk ; which then, and for some time after- 

 wards, sold for its weight in gold. Aurelian, in 280, is said to have denied 

 his empress, Severa, a robe of silk, because it was too dear. About the be- 

 ginning of the sixth century, after the seat of the Roman empire had been 

 transferred to Constantinople, two monks arrived at the court of the Emperor 

 Justinian, from a missionary expedition into China : they had brought with 

 them the seeds of the mulberry, and communicated to him the discovery of 

 the mode of rearing silkworms. Although the exportation of the insects from 

 China was prohibited on pain of death, yet, by the liberal promises and the 

 persuasions of Justinian, they were induced to undertake to import some from 

 that country ; and they returned from their expedition through Bucharia 

 and Persia to Constantinople in 555, with the eggs of the precious insects, 

 which they had obtained in the " far country," concealed in the hollow of 

 their canes, or pilgrim's staves. Until this time, the extensive manufactures 

 of Tyre and Berytes had received the whole of their supply of raw silk from 

 China through Persia. ( See M^CullocKs Diet, of Com,, Nouv. Cours, and Amer. 

 Silk-Growers Guide.) " The eggs thus obtained were hatched in a hot-bed, 

 and, being afterwards carefully fed and attended to, the experiment proved 

 successful, and the silk worm became very generally cultivated throughout 

 Greece."(z/. Mag. vol. iii. p. 2.) The silkworm and the black mulberry were 

 introduced simultaneously into Spain and Portugal by the Arabs, or Saracens, 

 on their conquest of Spain in 7 1 1. When the silkworm was first introduced into 

 the north of Europe, there appears little doubt but that it was fed on the leaves 

 of the black mulberry. The white mulberry is more tender ; and, putting forth 

 its leaves much earlier than the black mulberry, it is more likely to be injured 

 by spring frosts. It was, consequently, long confined to Greece ; but, when 

 Roger, king of Sicily, in 1130, ravaged the Peloponnesus, he compelled the 

 principal artificers in silk, and breeders of silkworms, to remove with him to 

 Palermo, and determined to try the white mulberry in that country. The 

 white mulberry was accordingly transplanted into Sicily; and, flourishing in 

 its fine climate, that island became the great mart of nearly all the raw silk 

 required for the manufactures of Europe. On Mount ./Etna, the Aforus 

 nigra is grown at an elevation of 2500 ft., for the silkworm, to the exclusion 

 of M. alba, probably on account of the tenderness of the latter tree in that 

 elevated region. (See Dr. R. A. Philippi on the vegetation of Mount ^Etna, in 

 the Limited, as quoted in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag., vol. i. p. 50.) In 1440, 

 the white mulberry was introduced into Upper Italy; and, under the reign of 

 ( 'hades VII., the first white mulberry tree was planted in France, as it is said, 

 by the Seigneur d' Allan ; and it is added that this tree still exists at the gates 

 of Montelimart. Silk manufactures were first established in France in 1480, 

 at Tours. This was in the reign of Louis XI. ; that monarch having invited 



