26 TlMEHRI. 
" produce an article in bulk and quality that would 
f ' be hard to beat," he is but speaking of a de- 
funct industry which it appears impossible to revive. 
Cotton has died out also in the Islands, except in some 
of the Grenadines — small islands between Grenada and 
St. Vincent, where its cultivation, along with that of 
corn, affords subsistence to a sparse population, and 
where the remains of well built mansions, and 
other vestiges of an opulent proprietary testify to 
the prosperity which existed when €i Cotton was 
King." It is interesting to learn from Mr. BuTTER- 
WORTH'S report that a hundred years ago, the Society of 
Arts of London granted a gold medal to a planter of 
Tobago for the best sample of West Indian cotton, and 
that the sample shewn in the Exhibition last year from 
that Island was of " an excellent colour, and capable of 
" spinning into number 60s, and in grade equal to good 
u Orleans — shewing the growing capabilities of the colony 
" to be maintained." 
SILK, which formed a wonderfully interesting exhibit 
in the Indian Court, is reported on by Mr. WARDLE, 
who is enthusiastic in his belief in this produfi: as 
a source of wealth to many parts of Her Majesty's 
Empire. His work on the Silks of India is a most 
interesting book. Some Cocoons of a moth which is 
tolerably common here, have been sent by me to Mr. 
WARDLE for examination and report, and there are 
some specimens of Attacus-moth under observation at 
the Museum. I understand that an attempt at seri- 
culture was commenced by the late Mr. OLIVER, which 
however did not go beyond raising mulberry trees as 
food. There are so many indigenous, or easily cultivable, 
