Ch.il SOUTFI AMERICA. ^29 



are often different from thofe gathered by another -, 

 every individual adhering to his own method. 



The cochineal infed may in fome circumftances 

 be compared to the filkvvorm, particularly in the man- 

 ner of depofiting its eggs. 1 he infe6t:s deflined for 

 this particular are taken at a proper time of their 

 growth, and put into a box v/ell clofed, and lined 

 vvith a coarfe cloth, that none of them be lofi:. In 

 this confinement they Liy their eggs and die. The 

 box is kept clofe flriut till the time of placing the eggs 

 on the nopal, when, if^any motion is perceived, it is a 

 fufficient indication that th^ animalcule has life, though 

 the egg is fo minute as hardly to be perceived and 

 this IS the feed placed on the foliage of the nopal, 

 and the quantity contained in the fhell of a hen's egg 

 is ilifficient^lor covering a whole plant. It is re- 

 markable, that this iniccl: dots not, or at leafi in 

 any vifiblc manner, irrjure the plant ; but extrafts its 

 nounOiment from the m'Oic fucculent juice, which it 

 fucks by means of its probofcis through the fine tegu- 

 ments of the leaves. 



The principal countries where the cochineal infeds 

 are bred, are Oaxaca, Flafcala, Ceulula, Nueva Gal- 

 licia, and Chiapa, in the kingdom of New Spain j 

 .and Hambato, Loja, and Tucuman in Peru. And 

 though the nopal thrives equally in all, yet it is only 

 in Oaxaca that they are gathered in large quantities, 

 and form a branch of comimerce, the cultivation of 

 thefe little creatures being there the chief employ- 

 ment of the Indians ; whereas in others, where the 

 inhabitants take but little trouble in their cultivation,, 

 they breed wild, and thofe gathered in them are ac- 

 cordingly callecf grana fylveftria*. Not that either 

 the infects or nopals are of different fpecies for with 

 regard to the difadvantageous difference between the 



* This wild cochineal is generally known in England by the 

 jpame cochineal mellit].iie. 



colour 



