December i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
4i3 
the worms of which though perfectly healthy were 
pronounced late and uufit to spin— even with a change 
of wind; and when they do spin, the cocoon is, of 
course, thin and valueless. So much for the romance 
of danger. The varied life of the worm has a touch 
of romance in it. It does not pass its days in a 
musty Uhinose house, but in the open. It is not set 
out in artificial plantations close by the villages, as 
in Shantung, hut, like our bees in summer time, it 
is taken to tho hills. ' The moth is tied to a twig 
to lay its eggs on tho leaves, or, when the eggs are 
hatched in the house, the infant worms are brushed 
off from a tray, and soon settle to work. The bush 
itself is not imposing — in our parts. It is kept well 
cropped, as much for the sake of fuel as to promote 
the growth of fresh leaves. It is so low that Renard 
might scan it all over without rising on tiptoe when 
in search of the sweet essence of silk. It is so 
small that a company of full grown worms will eat 
it up iu a day, and have therefore to bo constantly 
removed from one bush to another. We have to go 
very far east to see respectable shrubby trees where 
the worms can manage fairly well for themselves. 
But where I have seen the worms, it has been in 
the midst of charming scenery. In spring and autumn 
they have the company of some of the loveliest 
birds of passage, some of which are sweet birds of 
song. The hill sides are beautified at times with a 
perfect wealth of wild flowers. There is occasion- 
ally the clear, rustling brook with its moss-grown 
rocks, aud the secret treasure of ferns. Aad nestled in 
these sweet nooks, they have even there their changes 
according to the seasons. They pasture upon the airy 
heights in summer, and they are early withdrawn to the 
depth of the valley to avoid the autumn winds. In such 
scenes, then, the worms go through their various stages. 
First s little black mite, then a green worm, interest- 
ing from the variety of the shades of green through 
which it passes, and developing into a ring of formid- 
able proportions, the bulkiest of all our silkworms. 
Nor is the worm altogether unworthy of its surround- 
ings. The green worm itself— I speak of the full grown 
worm— is beautifully marked, though few would say 
so at lirst sight. Conspicuous is a brilliant yellow line 
along tho sides at the base. Just under this, along the 
length of the worm, are nine remarkable oval spots ou 
each sides, composed of a gold line enclosed by two 
black or black brown curves. These spots begin on 
tho (irst riug, miss the second and third rings, and 
then go on unbroken to tho tail. In every case I have 
M en, and I havo examined many hundreds, the mark 
011 the first ring is lighter, the gold line being set on a 
light brown ground. Immediately under this again 
there is a line of hairy tufts with bright blue base. 
When perfect thore are eleven on each side, beginning 
trom the first ring. Some worms, indeed many, have 
only a few and in some again they are altogether want- 
ing. There are other three such tufts with a blue 
base on u lower hue on eacli side, one right over each 
claw. Less conspicuous, because colourless, are two 
liu. s of hairy tufts along the ridge of the back, two on 
each riug. Hut where there are " gold stars " On the 
worm a certain proportion are always found forming 
the base of these tufts, and then the effect is very 
-trilling. The blue base of the tufts ..hove spoken of is 
small, a mere pin point, ami does not readily catch the 
eye — uiuny Chiuci-e who hand e tho worms are unaware 
' ' ' tie ir .-xiMcnco ; but the gold st irs flash out iu the 
mnlight like pearl drops. In a sense the most pro- 
Btinant trait in the worm is these gold irtnm" TTnon 
thoy nre present, lint I have mentioned tht m last, 
S» they in,. - , I to In- a blemish, and where too 
numerous il is duulured the worm cannot spin. Tho 
Mrfeot worm should be free from thorn. A worm 
which li is more than live or six begins to !>.■ in n bad 
w»y. Thej invariably occur on tho yellow lino 
above mentioned, and iu the hairy tufts 00 the ridge 
ol 'he >ick. where the numb, r is l..r.;e ti.. majority 
occur on the yellow line. Where they occur on the 
rid,;., of the hack there are gonnrally two'on each of two 
rings, with sometimes an odd one on » third ring. 
The lourth and fifth rings claim the greatest nuoiher, 
but they are not always in pairs even in these. Noxt 
in order comes the sixth ring, while in a large number 
of cases carefully counted I have ouly found one or 
two on the seventh ring. The same rule also obtains 
in regard to tho gold stars on the yellow line — the 
fourth aud the fifth rings never escaping if thero are 
stars on the worm. As to the number of gold stars 
commonly to be met with, the following table may bo 
of use. In twenty worms taken for the sake of their 
various markings, two had three gold stars, two bad 
four, three had five, three had six, four had eight, 
two had nine, two bad ten, aud two had sixteen. In 
another tot of four, ono had six, one hud eight, one 
bad ton, and one had fourteen. In another set, out of 
sixteen worms two had four, two bad six, five had 
eight, one had nine, oue had twelve, one had sixteen, 
one had seventeen, one had twenty, one had twenty- 
two, aud only one was altogether free. But this might 
be misleading if I did not add that the hunt in this 
case was for well-marked worms. As a set off against 
this it would be necessary to institute a separate inves- 
tigation to find out approximately how many worms 
are without gold stars. Certainly, in glancing over 
tho bushes the impression grows upon one that few 
are altogether free. Not unfrequently these " stars " 
shine with the clear sparkle of silver. But, as a rule, 
the term " gold stars " is the appropriate oue. The 
largest are equal in size to a large-headed pin. When 
the worm is in vigorous health they shine with quite 
a lustrous light, and the light would seem to pale 
somewhat with sickness, aud especially, when the 
worms are wasting in autumn from the effects of 
continuous north winds. I am incliued to believe, too, 
that the silvery look in some is to be thus explained. 
The head of the worm is in itself a noticeable feature. 
It is large even for the worm, aud has a look of the 
walrus about it. It has even a more peculiar look, 
when flattened and drawn iu under the skin of the first 
riug during the periods of moulting. It is marked all 
over with bright black spots, which though minute 
stand out very prominently on the light brown ground. 
There is a method in their apparent irregularity, aud 
I have mostly fouud them to consist of five large spots 
on either side of the head, forming on either side an 
irregular W read perpendicularly ; and again of a few 
smaller ones dotted over and about the siugular trian- 
gular space— slightly sunk right over the mandibles. 
A remarkable feature also is the hair all over the 
body, aud above all the vigorous crop of fine dark 
hair on the legs extending down to the very feet, so 
to say, i. e. to the feet prehensiles. But it the green 
variety can make thus a good show even among green 
leaves, what shall we say of a yellow worm, golden 
yellow, with other colours marking to suiff 1 This I 
have not seen noticed auywhere, aud I am not 
aware if it has been beard of iu .Shantung. It makes 
a pretty show on a shrub, aud ou a hillside too, when 
you have some twenty thnusaud pastured by them- 
selves ou the same slope. These have the same head 
exactly as the green variety, but the colour tints show 
some interesting variations. Thus tho yellow line 
becomes a rich orange colour ; tho blue base of the 
hairy tufts becomes lavender; the oval spots are all 
there, but appear as if a gold line were marked on 
a darker shade of yellow. The gold stars prevail 
hero apparently to the samo extent, and being of a 
ruddier line than the grouud colour of the worm they 
lose uone of thoir sparkling effect. The history of 
this lot gives us some hope for tho Chinese. Some 
few yeSCS ago my informant observed that several 
cocoons which he had secured from tho Jnloo district 
as "seod," prodiic-'d beautiful yellow moths such as 
he had never seen In r. . He therefore kept them by 
themselves. In d-i eour 0 it appeared tho worm was 
yellow and not green ; -mil their origintl appearance 
as well as the nigh reputation pi the Bast for good 
see I led him to devote special attention t.> this new 
variety. It finally appeared that the silk produced 
was UMUntOatably superior to the common sort as spun 
hv the gr i worm, nnd hence his pa rent resolution 
to cultivate only this i >rt, which ha- increased on his 
bauds to twenty-two thousand worms. It is interest- 
ing to know in this connection that .1 ron'h sent among 
others to Bufope was at once prooonnced a newspocies 
