ON AILANTHINE. 261 



if not used alone, might be readily mixed with cotton or wool ; and 

 thus many new and beautiful, if not very durable, fabrics might be 

 produced. 



In 1814 Dr. Roxburgh* published an interesting memoir on 

 the silk-producing moths of the East Indies, and soon afterwards 

 the Arrindy, or Palma Christi silk-worm was introduced into 

 Europe. The Castor Oil Plant, in this climate and in the north 

 of France is but a delicate shrub ; in the south of Europe, how- 

 ever, where the temperature never reaches the freezing point, it 

 becomes a tree of very striking aspect, with large and richly tinted 

 foliage. In such districts, therefore, the Arrindy moth thrives 

 well, having plenty of food, undergoing its changes rapidly, and 

 yielding five and six crops annually of silk of excellent quality. 

 What was required for our climate, however, was an insect which, 

 while sufficiently hardy to stand our cold springs and autumns, 

 would also be regardless of storms, rain, dew, <fec. Such a worm 

 was first sent to Europe by the Abbe Fantoni, a Piedmontise 

 missionary in the province of Shan Tung. He sent some cocoons 

 immediately after the first gathering in 1856, to some friends in 

 Turin. The name of the tree, on the leaves of which they lived 

 was to him a mystery, but he described it as being like the leaf 

 of an acacia : so when the young brood hatched, various and many 

 were the plants tried for their food, until the leaves of the Ailan- 

 thus glandulosa were presented to them ; these they immediately 

 ate greedily, and always preferred them afterwards to any other 

 kind of food. 



There can now be little doubt but that the Arrindy or Palma 

 Christi moth, introduced into Europe from Dinagepore and Rung- 

 pore in Bengal in 1854, and the Ailanthus moth introduced into 

 Europe from the province of Shan Tung in China, in 1858,, 

 are one and the same animal. The insects introduced in 1854 

 were delicate, and did not stand much lowering of the temperature, 

 besides the tree on which they fed perishes at 32° or 33° Fah. 

 The insects introduced in 1858 were hardy, stood rain and cold, 

 and the tree which they preferred is a hardy one in our climate. 

 Those introduced in 1858, from China, would not eat the Palma 

 Christi, and very naturally it was believed that they were different 

 insects ; upon examination, however, they turn out to be the same. 

 Their changes, the colour of their larva, the character of the 



*Linnffian Transactions, Vol. 7. 



