BOTAKICAL SOCIETY OP CANADA. 
45 
ture. Two seedlings of the white mulberry reared in Kingston stood out all last 
winter with no covering except the snow, and grew luxuriantly during the summer. 
In the United States the mulberries are described as growing like willows. It 
would almost appear that the mulberry tree is an especial tree for the silk-worm, as 
no other insect feeds upon it, thereby ensuring the silk-worm its food. Another 
advantage the mulberry silk-wormhas over other silk yielding insects, is that it stays 
in one place ; you do not have to shut it up as we do other caterpillars ; but there it 
quietly feeds on its mulberry leaves, and contentedly waits for the next supply ; and 
when it has undergone its transformation into the moth, it perches itself on its 
cocoon, where it would stay if we did not take it off. They do not fly like other 
moths. There is no other silk-worm whose silk has so much lustre as the mulberry 
silk-worm. 
The Cecropia Moth (Atticus Cecropia) appears to be common in Canada ; spe- 
cimens arc frequently seen in the neighborhood of Kingston. Mr. Jaeger says this 
beautiful moth is found all the way from the Canadas down to the Mexican Gulf, as 
well as in all the Western States, and it appears in Canada between June and 
August, when the female deposits her white kidney -shaped eggs upon the apple, 
cherry or wild plum tree, the leaves of which constitute the food of the caterpillars, 
which are hatched out of the egg by the warmth of the atmosphere, which remains 
on the tree, feeding on its leaves, for two months, when it descends, and may be 
often seen creeping on paths and side-walks, searching for currant or barberry 
bushes, upon which it likes to build its cocoon. It lies in the cocoon and chrysalis 
state until the following summer. The scries of specimens now on the table will 
show the aspect of the insect in its various stages. One hundred years ago the 
Rev. Samuel Pullien, of London, was the first to unwind the cocoon of the cecropia 
moth, I tried the same experiment last year, but did not very well succeed ; with 
the mulberry silk-worm it is an easy matter. Although the cecropia cocoon may not 
readily unwind it might be valuable for spinning. All the waste cocoons of the 
common silk-worm are spun, and the material from it goes under the name of spun- 
silk. Spun-silk tartan is one of the fabrics made from the spoilt cocoons. The same 
could be made out of the cecropia cocoon, provided it would take on the dye. A 
pair of stockings made from the silk of the cecropia washed like a piece of linen. 
The Ailante Silk-wcrm is at present attracting much attention in Europe, in 
consequence of the efforts of M. Guerin Meneville, who addressed a note to the 
Emperor in March, 1859, on its introduction into France. This new kind of silk- 
worm lives in the open air on a very hardy plant, the ailante or Japan varnish tree, 
and is described in the Morning Chronicle as producing two crops a year of a 
strong silky fibre, which has been employed for centuries past in China to make 
clothes for the great mass of the population. The chief object of M. Meneville's 
note was to request the Emperor to provide the means of making an experiment on 
