LEPIDOPTERA. 249 
M. Guérin-Méneville showed still further that azlantine, the 
textile matter furnished by the cocoon of the Cynthia, is a sort of 
floss silk holding a middle place between wool and the silk of the 
mulberry-tree worm, and which, as it can be produced at scarcely 
any expense, would be very cheap, and would serve for the fabri- 
cation of what are called fancy stuffs, for which ordinary floss silk 
is now used. In 1862 M. Guérin-Méneville sent in a report to 
the Minister of Agriculture on the progress of the cultivation of 
the Ailanthus, and of the breeding of the silkworm, which -was 
reared in the open air on this tree. He mentions, in his report, 
the rapid development of the cultivation of the tree in France, 
the great number of eggs of the Ailanthus silkworm sold, the 
foundation of a model blieeoton nursery at Vincennes, and this 
one great point gained, that they had found out the way of 
unwinding the silk from the cocoons of the Cynthia in one 
unbroken and continuous thread. 
Till then European industry had only succeeded in drawing from 
the cocoons of the Ailanthus silkworm a floss silk composed of 
filaments more or less short, obtained by carding, and unable to 
produce when twisted, anything better than lose, that is to say, 
refuse silk. It is to the Countess de Vernéde de Corneillan on the 
one hand, and to Doctor Forgemot on the other, that the merit is 
due of having obtained an unbroken thread of silk from the cocoon 
of Attacus Cynthia. 
A monograph on the Ailanthus silkworm appeared in 1866 under 
the title, “ L’Ailante et son Bombyx, par Henri Givelet.”* It is 
a complete account of all the results obtained up to the time, 
both as regards the rearing of the silkworm and also as regards 
the cultivation on a large scale of the Ailanthus, or false Japan 
varnish tree. +t 
The Castor-oil Plant Silkworm (Attacus (Bombyx) ricini) is a 
species very nearly akin to the Alianthus worm, perhaps only a 
variety, and comes from India. The silk which it produces is 
_ * Tn 8vo, avec plans et planches coloriées. Paris, 1866. 
+ A work by M. Guérin-Méneville on the same subject, entitled, “‘ Education des 
Vers a Soie de |’Ailante et du Ricin,” in 12mo., Paris, 1860, may also be consulted. 
[For a full account of successful experiments carried on in England, see Dr. 
Wallace’s essay in “The Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,” 
3rd series, vol. y., pt. 2. Longmans and Co.—Ep. | 
