146 



PvAW-SILK. 



(K.) tenacity of the fibre does not solely depend on the 



Resident at 



saccharine and resinous, or solid nutritive matter 

 Soonamooky. which the worm is fed, but it is influenced, and 

 that very sensibly, by the temperature in which it 

 is reared, yet not accelerated by any artificial 

 process. 



Dr. Lush observes, that botanists appear to 

 have taken their character almost exclusively from 

 the leaf; we cannot therefore wonder, that con- 

 fusion exists in the nomenclature of species and 

 varieties. 



If by endless variety it is meant, that the same 

 plant bears different shaped leaves, the accom- 

 panying specimens, taken from the standard (sattee) 

 and the cut plant (or kajlah), curiously demon- 

 strate this hypothesis ; for on examining the late- 

 ral offsets, it w ill be seen that they bear leaves of 

 different forms, seemingly interchanging one with 

 the other.* Linnaeus gives seven distinct species 

 of the mulberry. 



l^-^ Query by Dr. Lush.— '' What kind of mul- 

 berry do the worms prefer?" 



Answer. Decidedly the indigenous (dessy or 

 lajlah) cut plant, the leaves being closely set and 

 more abundant, in the proportion of two and a 

 half to one, as explained in the sixth paragraph of 

 my letter of the 27th October 1832, and remark 



annexed 



* None of the natives here seemed aware of this peculiarity 

 until pointed out to them. 



