29 



Newcastle, of the successful propagation and distribution in Italy of tlie larvte of tliis 

 motb. 



" Tbe following despatch and enclosures have been received through the Foreign 

 Office :— 



" Valetta, May 17, 1854. 



"Mv Lord Dcke — In my despatch dated 2nd February, 1854, I begged your 

 Grace to inform the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, that through the 

 very laudable efforts of Mr. Piddiuglon, of Calcutta, with tlie aid of the directors of 

 the Peninsular and Oriental Company (after many failures), I had received sound 

 eggs of the Indian silkworm {Bombyx Cynthia), called by the natives 'Eria' or 

 * Arrindy,' and which feeds on the leaves of the castor-oil plant. 



" These worms having passed through all tlieir mutations in Malta in a healthy 

 state, a second generation, from eggs laid here, are now hatching daily. 



" I have also had the satisfaction of learning that cocoons sent from Malta to the 

 Agricultural Society of Turin have produced moths. Eggs have also been sent to 

 Rome, and I am preparing to send them to other places in Italy, where they have 

 already been asked for. 



" I am not sure whether the natives of India usually spin the silk of this worm or 

 wind it, although it is said that by a weak solution of alkali they so far dissolve the 

 gum as to be enabled to wind the silk. But we have not yet succeeded in doing so 

 in Malta. 



" I enclose, from a Malta newspaper, some account of the periods at which the 

 first brood made their changes, and also, from the ' Piedmontese Official Gazette,' an 

 account of their progress at Turin, both of which may be interesting to the Society of 

 Arts. 



" I also send for the Society of Arts a few old cocoons, left by the chrysalides on 

 assuming the state of moths, in the hope that the Society may be able to find some 

 means of dissolving the gum, by which the worm unites the silken threads. 



" I have, &c., 

 " (Signed) William Reid, Governor. 



" His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G." 



The Eria Silhvorm of Assam* 



"Some time since, our contemporary the 'Mail' published the contents of a 

 pamphlet consisting of extracts from the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal' 

 on the silkworms of Bengal. The idea of introducing into Malta one of the species, 

 viz., the Eria, or Phaltena Cynthia, of Assam, was then already started; but it was 

 still a question whether the very first step of the introduction could be successfully 

 accomplished. It is now known that this difficulty has been overcome; that eggs 

 have been brought, worms hatched, fed on the leaves of the castor-oil plant, have spun 

 their silk shrouds, and gone through all the processes of their mysterious existence 

 round to the egg again, in a room of the Palace of St. Antonio. 



'"The subjoined memorandum, which we are authorised to publish, states the 



* From the ' Malta Times.' 



