378 CATALOGUE OF 



during the two preceding dynasties. During the Siing dynasty, in 

 the reign of Heaou-wod (A.D. 460), the silkworm monastery was 

 built, and the empress personally gathered the mulberry-leaves, as 

 had been the practice in the preceding dynasty. 



"In the northern Tse dynasty (A.D. 490), a silkworm palace was 

 erected, and the empress went in person to gather the mulberry- 

 leaves. According to the regulations of the Suy dynasty (A.D. 620), 

 the empress went to the appointed place to gather the mulberry- 

 leaves. During theTang dynasty,in the reign of Chin-kwan (A.D. 650), 

 the empress did the same. In the first year of the following monarch, 

 Heen-k'hing (A.D. 655), and in the reign of Keen-yuen (A.D. 747), 

 the empresses all attended to the silkworm ceremony. At the same 

 time a decree was issued, requiring that the silkworms should be fed 

 in the palace, when the empress went in person to inspect them. 

 During the Sung dynasty, in the reign of K'hae-paou (A.D. 960), 

 on recording the ceremonies performed at the celestial sacrifice, the 

 prayer is given which was offered when the empress went in person 

 to rear the silkworms. From all which we perceive that the empresses 

 through successive dynasties attended in person to the business of 

 rearing the silkworms. By selecting these extracts from the his- 

 torical documents, we have set this matter in a very clear light, and 

 placed the whole at the head of our treatise." 



The essay from which the preceding extract has been made, con- 

 tains many other interesting details, showing the importance attached 

 in the earlier periods of Chinese history to the manufacture of silk 

 generally, and especially to the cultivation of the mulberry in its 

 various modifications. 



"The culture of the mulberry silkworm" (Bombyx 31ori), says 

 Dr. Eoyle (Eeport on the Paris Universal Exhibition, pt. III. 

 p. 216), "was early introduced into India from China, where it 

 flourishes chiefly about Nankin, or in 32° of north latitude ; but in 

 India none of the old silk filatures extend to beyond 26° of north 

 latitude. This can, I conceive, be ascribed only to the excessive heat 

 and dryness of the North-western provinces of India being unsuitable 

 to the animal, besides producing a drier and harder leaf than it likes 

 for its food." 



The Eev. ~W. Fox, curate of "West Mailing, Kent, records the fact 

 (see Athenaeum for October 16th, 1858) of the occurrence of Boinbyx 

 Mori having been found in a wild state in England, and gives the 

 following remarks : — " On the 10th July, 1858, a number of silk- 

 worms, estimated at from eighty to one hundred, were found under 



