8 



India. It has been acclimatised in Europe, and, crossed 

 with Bombyx attacus Peniyi, is successfully reared in 

 France, the eggs hatching at almost freezing point. The 

 silk is much cultivated and used in Japan. Its fibre is 

 oval, and 950th of an inch thick. 



Satumia pyretorum, from South China. — The worm feeds 

 upon the Liqwidamber formosana in Canton, Amoy, whore 

 the silk is stated to be woven into a coarse fabric. 



Neoris shadulla (Moore). — Yarkund. 



Theophila mandarina (Moore). — N. China. 



CHAPTER II. 



History of Silk. 



It may be useful to give a brief history of the silk of 

 commerce in introducing to the reader the wild silks of 

 India. 



The Chinese appear to be the first people who applied 

 themselves to sericulture. 



The words " Seres," used by Theophanes, and " Serinda," 

 b} T Procopius, were in all probability so used to indicate 

 that part of the East, which was no doubt China, where the 

 silk industry existed at a very remote period. 



Dr. Birdwood states* that Ptolemy was the first to use 

 the word Serice for China, or rather, the northern part of 

 it, known later as Cathay ; and that the word is derived 

 from the Chinese name of the silkworm, see, in Corean sir, 

 whence the Greek 2ifa, the silkworm ; 2%< ; the people 

 furnishing silk ; and 2^/hkoV, serikon, silk. The Latin 

 sericwm had been traced direct to the Mongol sirkeh ; and 

 the serikoth of Isaiah, xix. 9, has been supposed to be silk. 

 Of the same root as the Latin sericwm is the French sole, 

 the German seiden, the Russian sheolk, the Anglo-Saxon 

 seolc, the Icelandic silke, and the English silk. In Persian, 

 silk is ab-resham ; in Hindustani resh/m ; in Arabic khuz ; 

 in Malay sutra ; in Tamil pattu. 



We are informed by Hawae-nan-tze, in a Chinese work 

 called the " Silkworm Classic," that Te-ling-she, the 

 principal queen of Hwang-te, B.C. 2640, was the first to 



* See " Discussion " printed with the Author's lecture on the Wild Silks 

 of India before the Society of Arts, London, May 9, 1879. 



