Dec. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



LATELY INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE. 235 



any, and appeared extremely vigorous. Up to the evening of Monday, 

 the 22nd, it was eating voraciously ; but, on Tuesday morning, it was 

 found at the foot of its tree, and it died soon afterwards : the great cold 

 of the night was probably the cause. Wednesday, 24th, gathered all 

 the cocoons, fifteen in number, fearing that, as the thermometer had 

 been clown in the night to the freezing point, the cold might injure the 

 worms, or rather the chrysalids. Friday, 26th, divested the cocoons of 

 all leaf, and hung them up in a temperature seldom lower than sixty, 

 and occasionally warmer. On Friday, the 23rd of September, about 

 7'30, a bat, supposed to be in the room in which were the cocoons, was 

 caught, and proved to be a Bombyx Cynthia. The specimen was 

 unfortunately greatly injured by being caught with the tongs! It was 

 caged in a basket, where it lived between ten days and a fortnight. 

 During the day it remained very tranquil, towards evening increasing in 

 liveliness, and being invariably in a state of excitement in the night. 

 On Wednesday, the 19th of October, about twenty minutes, past five 

 o'clock P.M., another Bombyx emerged from its cocoon. The expansion 

 of its wings proceeded visibly but unequally, the upper one on the left 

 side keeping much in advance of the others. It should be mentioned 

 that the worms generally, previous to spinning, attained the full size 

 given by Mons. Bain (80 to 90 millimetres), and some even exceeded it. 

 It may be observed that the worms, on arriving, were apparently of 

 the same age, nevertheless there was an interval of three weeks between 

 the spinning of the first on the 29th July, and the death of the last 

 without spinning on the 22nd August. The Ailanthus has been long 

 known in England as an ornamental tree, bearing all the changes of our 

 variable climate; the silkworm, to judge by the limited experiment at 

 Sheriff Hutton Park, can be raised in the open air even in Yorkshire. 

 It is scarcely, therefore, being too sanguine to hope that at no distant 

 time a new cultivation will be practised, which may contribute some- 

 what to the prosperity of the country. In order to pursue the experi- 

 ment as rapidly as possible, the propagation of the plant has been tried 

 at Sheriff Hutton Park by several different methods — namely, by pieces 

 of the root which struck readily, by seeds sown in a cool frame, and by 

 seeds sown in an open border, which last succeeded the best, a crop of 

 vigorous young plants appearing in about four weeks. Believing that 

 the climate of this part of Yorkshire is not unsuitable, and that the 

 Ailanthus would grow well in not fertile land, I had some few planted 

 in a sandy situation, but the extraordinary frost of the 1st June destroyed 

 the young foliage, though it did not kill the trees. It was mentioned in 

 a French publication that, owing to the very unpleasant odour of the 

 Ailanthus glandulosa, it was safe from the attacks of ground game — a 

 statement which, I am sorry to say, my experience does not confirm, 

 rabbits having injured the trees planted in a spot to which they had 

 obtained access. 



