Dec. 1, 18G4.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



RESTORATION OF THE SILKWORM. 221 



some more northern locality where the insect is still found, it is because 

 the tree in the colder locality would no longer be able to furnish a suffi- 

 ciently stimulating diet, and is, therefore, replaced by one more suitable 

 to the wants of the insect. And this after all is simply one of those 

 wise provisions of Nature whereby her productions and the conditions 

 under which they exist are mutually adapted to each other. 



As a proof of this, we find that although the larvse of the beautiful 

 Attacus atlas are known in Kumaon to feed freely and principally upon 

 the leaves of the yellow-flowering barberry (Berberis asiatlca ?), called 

 at IVlussooree Russot, yet with us, where the plant is equally common, 

 I have never yet succeeded in inducing the worm to touch it, nor have 

 I ever found either the larvas or the cocoons upon this shrub. And yet 

 out of forty- six cocoons now before me from Kumaon no fewer than 

 forty-three have been spun among the leaves of B. asiatica! Surely this 

 looks like a case in point ; besides which it is an unquestionable fact 

 that among the mulberry-trees which are known to be true species, and 

 not mere varieties, the leaves of those from the north possess far greater 

 thicknesss, consistency, and nourishment than those from the tropics or 

 warm lowland provinces. Take for example the leaves of Morus midti- 

 caulis and of M. cucullata, as compared with those of 31. sinensis, M. 

 nigra (?), and the wild indigenous trees of the North-Western Himalaya. 



At Pondicherry, according to information derived from my obliging 

 correspondent M. Perrottet, the Actias selene is entirely restricted to the 

 Odina wodier of Roxburgh, while at Mussooree it is polyphagous, feeding 

 on Coriaria nipalensis, Carpinus bimana, Andromeda ovalifolia, Cedrela 

 paniculata, the common walnut, Cerasus puddum, or wild cherry, 

 Pyrus variolosa, and several others. Again, Attacus cynthia, which in 

 China is nourished on the leaves of Ailanthus glandidosa, feeds in 

 Cachar upon a tree called " Lood," and at Mussooree on Coriaria 

 nipalensis, Xanthoxylon hostile, and some others ; and so on, indeed, 

 throughout the family. 



The wild indigenous mulberry of Mussooree, with thick coarse leaves 

 full of milky juice, is often so thickly covered with the larva? of Bomlyx 

 Huttoni, that by the beginning of May there is not a single leaf upon 

 the tree wherein the worm can spin its cocoon ; yet although the thin- 

 ner-leaved cultivated mulberry may abound in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, it never by any chance experiences the same treatment ; so 

 that taking the hint from Nature, I am inclined to recommend for the 

 Bombyx mori, when cultivated in the upper provinces, and more es- 

 pecially in the hills, such leaves as those furnished by M. nigra, A/". 

 sinensis, Be'dana or seedless long white mulberry, and others of the 

 thick rough-leaved kinds. 



At the same time it is highly probable that certain species, which 

 are wholly unadapted to a cold hill climate and the action of severe 

 frost, may thrive well in the lowland provinces of India, where they 

 will likewise be suitable to the worms of warm localities, such as I con- 



