98 ON SERICICULTURE. 



lielies into England, and endeavour to realize from our own 

 mulberry trees some of these extraordinary profits.* 



The Ailanthus silkworm, Bomhyx Cynthia^ feeds on the 

 Ailanihus glandulosttf a lofty ornamental tree of very quick 

 growth and handsome massive foliage, thriving in our 

 London squares and parks, and well suited for the adorn- 

 ment of parks and promenades in capital cities or country 

 town .f 



This fine tree, a denizen of Central Asia, was in 1751 im- 

 ported into Europe, and thence spread to Ameiica. It is 

 now acclimatized in all the temperate regions of the world, 

 and being of quick growth and bearing the knife well, it 

 may readily be converted into a bush for the purpose of 

 feeding the silkworms. The cocoon of the Ailanthus moth 

 is a greyish-brown pod, consisting of six or seven layers of 

 fine silken fibre, spun in one thread, but so as to leave an 

 opening at the top for the exit of the moth, and therefore 



* The culture of B. Mori has been for some years past pushed both in 

 Australia — especially in the neighbourhood of Sydney, where Messrs. 

 Asselin and Brady speak very favourably of the results already obtained, 

 and are carrying on the production of cocoons on an extended scale — 

 and at the Cape, where, according to the following extract from the 

 Graham's Town Journal, it is likely to prove a great success:—*' It is 

 satisfactory to find that the specimens of silk sent to the Paris Exhi- 

 bition have obtained high commendation. Sir B. Philipps, one of the 

 English jurors, had no hesitation in saying that the sample was of a very 

 fine and valuable description, and that silk was evidently an important 

 article of production for the Cape. Professor Leoni Levi, commissioned 

 expressly by the British Government to ascertain the best silk-producing 

 country, has selected the Cape for especial remark," 



f For the above reasons,, and also because in autumn the leaves drop 

 all at the same time, and can readily be cleared away, it would be well 

 suited for the adornment of the new Thames embankment. 



