THE AILANTHUS SILKWORM AND THE AILANTHUS TREE. 337 



is the facility with which it can be reared in parts of the country that are 

 little populated, and where labour is scarce and costly. To complete the 

 success of this new agricultural industry, there must be a means found for 

 disposing of the produce, for without that no one would know what to do 

 with their cocoons, or dare to enter upon this undertaking on a large scale, 

 even after experience has taught them that it will become really advanta- 

 geous. At present no one, as mine has been the first trial of these worms 

 in England, has been even consulted on the commercial value of these 

 cocoons ; but Monsieur Andre Marchand, Rue des Petites Ecuries, No. 50, 

 at Paris, not content with buying the cocoons, but to facilitate plantations 

 of Ailanthus and the cultivation of its Silkworm, offers for sale all that is 

 necessary for this purpose. Those in this country who are desirous of 

 engaging in this pursuit can be supplied with plants and the eggs of the 

 Silkworms by Mr. McGhee, Tyne Hall, Ilford, Essex. By this means I 

 trust that this new branch of industry is destined to become, as in China, 

 an object of real utility to the country ; and unless unforeseen and insur- 

 mountable difficulties arise to extinguish this already successful agricultural 

 trial at Dangstein, the acclimatization of this domestic worm may prove a 

 source of riches for Great Britain. 



Europe is indebted for this species of Silkworm to the Abbe Fantoni, a 

 Piedmontese missionary in the province of Hang Tung, who sent some 

 living cocoons to friends in Turin in 1856 immediately after the first 

 gathering. These cocoons began to yield moths towards the middle of June 

 in 1857, and eggs were hatched in a few days after. 



As Father Fantoni had told his friends that the Chinese fed them with 

 the leaf of a tree something like an Acacia, they tried the worms with the 

 Ailanthus glandulosa leaves, which they discovered were eaten greedily. 

 These worms multiplied, and some eggs were transmitted to France, where 

 they are now becoming a great source of profit. 



The eggs of the Bombyx cynthia are twice as large as those of the common 

 Silkworm, and the females lay about half as many. They are oval, equally 

 long at both ends, white, and marked with black, caused by the particles of 

 gum inside them. One gramme of eggs of the Bombyx cynthia contains about 

 one hundred eggs. 



The quantity of eggs laid by the females is very variable, and are accord- 

 ing to the size of the moths. If they are in strong health one will give from 

 two hundred to four hundred eggs ; but the right portion would be about 

 two hundred and fifty to each. When the eggs are near hatching, they flatten 

 a little, and lose their weight, and assume a greyish tint which is produced 

 by the caterpillar inside. 



The caterpillars are hatched about eight or twelve days after the eggs 

 are laid, according to the temperature. The most characteristic colour at 

 this age is to appear black, but seen through a microscope they are yellow 

 underneath. They have a transverse black mark all along their body. 

 Like many other caterpillars, they change their skins four times, or go 

 through four changes before they make their cocoons. Before each change 



VOL. II. • B B 



