
J 
THE CYNTHIA SILK-WORM. 311 
woody spathe is not deciduous, and adds to the untrim ap- 
pearance of the tree. In Egypt the fruit clusters are often 
of a hundred pounds weight, and hang down from stems as 
large as a man’s wrist. The yellow dates are the smallest, 
and the black ones the largest in some places, but there is a 
variety of yellow dates three inches long. The cluster does 
not all ripen at once, but each date that matures is at once 
removed to make room for the rest. Dried, they form the 
chief food for the Arabs, and are much liked by all who are 
able to get them. The crushed and dirty dates that come to 
our markets are very inferior. 
The date tree is not so long lived as the cocoanut, and its 
uses are by no means so extensive. The wood is soft, the 
blades of the leaves hard and narrow, and of course the coir 
and oil are wanting, and yet the fruit is perhaps the most 
delicious produced by any palm. 
THE CYNTHIA SILK-WORM. 
BY W. V. ANDREWS. 

Ir is not at all a creditable circumstance to us, as an 
enterprising people, that so little has hitherto been done 
towards making silk-culture a source of national wealth. 
Thirty years ago, according to Mr. d’Homergues’ account, 
Some spasmodic efforts were made in this direction; but, for 
home cause, chiefly I imagine from the absence of skilled 
labor, the thing came to naught. In Connecticut, princi- 
Pally in the counties of Windham and Tolland, sewing-silk 
hy Manufactured to some extent; but even there the 
mds” persisted in reeling the silk after the fashion of 
= standmothers, and were far too knowing, and shrewd, 
allow themselves to be taught anything by outsiders, who, 
Probably under the cloak of a desire to communicate know- 


