350 
MOTH* 
larly set apart for the purpose, taking Care to supply 
them every day with fresh leaves. The first method 
is used in China, Tonquin, and other hot countries, 
where they are hatched and form their coccoons of 
silk without requiring any attendance. In those 
hot climates the butterflies who spring from the 
worms, or rather caterpillars, choose a proper place in 
the mulberry-tree to deposit their eggs upon, which 
being found, they fasten them with a sort of glue 
with which most insects are naturally supplied for 
different purposes. These eggs remain there all the 
autumn and winter without the least injury ; and 
the manner in which they are fixed secures them 
from the influence of frosts. The insects never 
leave their eggs till nature has provided for them a 
sufficient supply of food in the young leaves, which 
burst from their buds some time before the silk- 
worms appear. Upon these leaves the little pro- 
geny feed with great voracity, and soon increase in 
size, so that at the end of a few months they distri- 
bute upon different parts of the tree little cones of 
silk, which resemble so many apples of gold amidst 
the beautiful green that surrounds them. This 
method of breeding these very useful insects- is un- 
doubtedly the best, but it cannot be practised in 
our cold European climates, where they would be 
subject to inconveniencies which all our care could 
not possibly prevent. By nets they might be de- 
fended from the depredations of birds, but nothing 
could secure them from the severity of the cold, or 
from the violent winds and rain with which we are 
