144 



RAW-SILK. 



(K.) 

 Report from 

 Resident at 

 Soonamooky, 



those which are better disposed of in Dr. Wallich 's 

 hands, but I should be glad to be favoured with a 

 memorandum of the success of the eggs sent to 

 Calcutta. 



I regret to say, that all the cuttings kindly 

 sent to me by Dr. Lush have failed, after above 

 a month's trial and every possible care, owing 

 to the great distance travelled in slight paper 

 packages,* and the intense heat of the weather, 

 which destroyed the germ ; but it will only operate 

 as a temporary disappointment, after a better 

 mode of keeping up the moisture and vege- 

 tation is adopted in the way I have taken the 

 liberty to suggest to Dr. Lush. Meanwhile I have 

 the pleasure to state, that of the three papers of 

 the Italian eggs sent to me, a considerable propor- 

 tion have successfully hatched, and the silk-worms 

 have spun white cocoons, f such as I have described 

 to Dr. Lush, namely : • " Not so large as the 

 Bengal annual, and with a tinge of green, owing 

 perhaps to the change of plant on which they 

 were fed ; yet the small specimens of silk obtained, 

 as far as I can judge, evince tenacity of fibre and 

 softness approaching to the silk of our annuals, 



which 



* Three of which have reached me. 



f This is the more fortunate, as Dr. Lush now states that all 

 those reared at Poona and its vicinity had died. But unluckily 

 he does not specify if they had been fed on the leaves of the 

 doppiajbglia imported with them from St. Helena. 



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