ON SERICICULTURE. 95 



what important results may accrue, in Great Britain or 

 Ireland, or in some of her colonies, by the acquisition of a 

 silkworm suited to the climate? On the other hand, could 

 we put ourselves in the place of the poor Bombi/ces,— torn 

 from the calm repose of their native haunts, forced to travel 

 from clime to clime, hearing new languages, handled by- 

 queer foreigners, half-starved on unsuitable food, suffering 

 vicissitudes of temperature hitherto unknown, — what quaint 

 narratives might we fancy would be handed down from 

 generation to generation ! Have we no Entomological poet 

 whose imagination can depict these woes of the silkworm ? 



It has been thought desirable that some notice of these 

 experiments should appear in the annual Christmas retro- 

 spect offered to the Entomological eye ; I have therefore en- 

 deavoured, to the best of my ability, to fulfil the pleasing duty. 



To M. Guerin-Meneville belono;s the honour of having first 

 conceived the idea of, and of carrying out, the naturalization 

 of new silk-producing Bomhyces : to him, also, we owe the 

 introduction of several races. 



Lady Dorothy Nevill was the first in England to appre- 

 ciate these ideas, and to a certain extent to realize them ; 

 others have followed their footsteps, and the Ailanthus silk- 

 worm, the first on our list, may now be fairly considered as a 

 denizen, not merely of Great Britain and Europe, but also 

 of America, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, &c., &c., 

 while its introduction into New Zealand, Tasmania, and 

 other of our colonies, is but a question of time. 



In fact, the question of Sericiculture, now so wide spread, 

 demands serious attention ; it is rapidly passing out of the 

 domain of experiment into that of commercial enterprise; 

 and, as far as we can judge, another decade will see it firmly 

 established in many new localities. 



We may, therefore, fairly inquire what species have been 



