A VISIT TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. Ill 



further eclipsed by the cocoons of a wild worm called Kourinoki, which 

 are of a brown colour and retinaceons, the chrysalis being quite exposed. 

 As no sample of the silk accompanies this latter, the presumption is, 

 that at present it has no commercial value. India, as may be imagined, 

 is rich in silks, both raw and manufactured ; but there is no part of the 

 collection of products from our Oriental Empire more attractive to a 

 technologist than the case arranged by Mr. F. Moore, containing numerous 

 specimens of coarse and wild silks produced by large species of moths. 

 The Tusseh silk is pretty well known in the English market ; it is supplied 

 by a large moth measuring five and a-half to six inches from wing to 

 wing, the Anthercea paphia of Linnaeus : The silk is strong and coarse, 

 of a flax -brown colour. Another species of silk called "Moonga" is 

 from Anther ceo, Assama, and approximates closely to the Tusseh ; but a 

 third variety in this case, described as Mezan-kooree silk produced by 

 Anthercea Mezankooria, is of a lighter colour than the Tusseh.* 



Algiers also seems to possess capabilities for the successful cultivation 

 of the silk-worm, and besides the ordinary species of Bombyx, I observed 

 two new sorts of cocoons, labelled Bombyx Cynthia and Bombyx arindia 

 the former light brown, and the latter reddish brown in colour ; both 

 being smaller in diameter and more elongated than the common kinds. 

 Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Sweden, and even Russia, also exhibit 

 silks in greater or less profusion.f 



Brazil was always celebrated for artificial flowers, and nature has cer- 

 tainly been very profuse in supplying that country with just the very 

 materials suited to the preparation of such elegancies. The plumage of 

 birds in the Brazils is peculiarly splendid, and the natives have long 

 been in the habit of selecting the various, rich coloured, parts of such 

 plumage, and grouping them into flowers without the aid of any paint 

 or dye, the beautiful green feathers of parrots forming the foliage, clipped 

 or cut into suitable shape. Another material worked up by the Brazilians 

 into artificial flowers is fish-scales, and they are so delicate in appearance 

 and durable, that they form ornaments of the most attractive character, 

 and the more so when combined and contrasted with a few feathers. 

 Shells also are occasionally converted into flowers, and their elegant 

 forms frequently resemble the petals of flowers in a remarkable degree. 

 Groups of flowers in all these materials are exhibited in the Brazilian 

 court, and must be closely examined to be justly appreciated. But by 

 far the greatest novelty in this respect is enclosed in a small case at the 

 entrance to the court, being nothing less than a group of flowers made 

 entirely from the wings and wing cases of insects, and to which the jurors 

 have awarded a prize medal. The leaves are formed from the pale green and 

 gauzy wings of some large fly. Flowers yellow, blue, and red, from the 



* The moths producing these silks were fully described in a valuable paper by- 

 Mr. Moore, in the second volume of the Technologist, p. 410. — Editor. 

 + See the paper on the Alianthus silk-worm, vol. ii. p. 336. 



