161 — 
family which is plentiful around Durban, not to speak of our 
cultivated orange and lemon groves.” 
“ Jubbulpoor, July 2, 1871. 
“ My dear Sir, — I see by the Natal papers and Mr Sander- 
son’s card, that my small efforts are appreciated. I find there 
has been an annoying mistake about the parcel of Indian 
seeds ( Himalyan ) for you, my London agents having care- 
lessly sent the same to Mrs Lowther, at Bedford. However, 
as my friend Dr W. Jamesou, of Seharimpoor, promised you 
were to have a very large select batch of seeds just after that 
dispatch, I am in great hopes you will long ago have received 
the same. I have recently been catching- numbers of Saturnia 
Atlas moths (of the Tussur silk worm, wild), and think it 
worth the experiment to try a few eggs by post. There is a 
Ziyphus Jujuba, a tree of large size, ou my premises, which 
has bred a great number this year. But this insect is very 
plentiful here (as in other hilly districts with heavy rainfall) 
on other trees — Acacia Arablca, Phyllanthus, and I think on 
Palma Christi. Tou should first put the eggs on Acacia Caffra, 
covering well over with mosquito gauze, as bats, birds, rep- 
tiles, and large ants are all eager hunters of these worms. 
I trust these egss may arrive dormant and yet vital. It 
is a delicate experiment, and I am not sanguine a direct 
steamer (with an ice house on board) would vastly alter the 
attempt into a near certainty. If you can only naturalize 
this product along the coast, you will have done a great deal 
for the colony. The fabric here is seldom less than 2s. per 
yard. With English looms and reeling machinery you would 
reduce much of the outlay in spinning and winding even now 
and sell the stock in the colony. It would become a staple in 
time, and with cheap Indian supervision do a great deal for 
colonization. The Enia and Moonyu worms of Assam (mons- 
ters in comparison with S. Atlas) would, I think, also succeed 
wherever you have no frosts, and a good regular rainy season. 
The silk canvas produced by these splendid giants is almost 
imperishable. I wore it in the most thorny backwoods ; it was 
