large scale. Those who already possessed Mulberry trees, 
procured eggs which were liberally bestowed by Mr. 
Descroizilles, and that splendid industry bids fair to pro- 
duce important results, if not checked by mismanage- 
ment. 
Already smothered cocoons arc purchased for exporta- 
tion by a Mercantile Firm of Port Louis, the head of 
which is a Member of our Society, Mr. Hardwick Wilson, 
and is known to hold out encouragement to all industries 
besides our staple industry, the production of Sugar. 
Long before, the Society had called attention to 
another highly useful, industry : viz the manufacture of 
ropes, and pointed out plants growing wild in the Island, 
which would yield fibres more or less soft, or more or 
1/ y 
less fine. 
In a Report laid by us before the Society on the 25th 
October 1855 ; when Mr C. J. Bayley Avas President, 
and Sir James M. Iligginson, Patron : 1 wrote as fol- 
io avs : 
“ "We all know that Mauritius possesses plants Avhicli 
are essentially textile — and some Avill remember that 
during the Avar which was Avnged at the end of the 18th 
and at the beginning of the 19th century, by two Powers 
now so closely united, Avhen all exterior communication 
Avas cut off, the inhabitants themselves manufactured all 
the ropes that were required for their marine and their 
ordinary Avants. There is still in the central part of the 
toAA'ii a street, as every body knows, called “ Corderie 
street”— a name which is a commemoration, a living 
memento of the industry which Avas then carried on in 
former days. At a later period, when the town increased 
in size, other establishments Avere formed at “ Plaine 
Yerte ” and on the beach close to the “ Chaussee Tro- 
melin ” which were in operation for some time under the 
direction of Mr. Bega and some other persons.” 
It is well known, that the China Grass , Bcehmcria Nievu 
