VARIETIES. 
185 
Silk  Worms. — One  of  the  most  active  and  distinguished  of  the  members 
of  the  society  of  acclimation,  M.  Guerin  Meneville,  who  has  been  espe- 
cially interested  in  the  introduction  of  new  silk  worms,  has  just  succeeded 
in  acclimating  in  France  a  new  silk  worm  from  China,  where  it  lives  in 
the  varnish  tree  (Aylanthus  glandulosa).  This  species  is  the  true  Bombyx 
Cynthia  of  Drury,  (1773,)  figured  for  the  first  time  by  Daubenton,  Jr.,  in 
his  colored  plates  which  were  published  between  1760  and  1765,  and  raised 
for  some  centuries  in  China,  where  its  silk  clothes  the  people.  Roxburgh, 
in  1804,  supposed  the  Eria  which  is  raised  in  British  India,  to  be  the  same, 
and  this  confusion  has  continued  till  recently,  so  that  the  Eria,  (or  Ar- 
rindy-arria,  as  it  is  called  in  Hindoostan,)  has  gone  by  the  name  of  Bombyx 
Cynthia.  The  Eria  is  a  different  species  living  on  the  Ricinus  ;  and  we 
have  several  times  spoken  of  it. 
The  study  of  the  species  by  Guerin  Meneville,  has  brought  to  light  dif- 
ferences between  the  two  in  the  cocoons  and  the  habits  of  the  worms.  The 
cocoons  carded  give  an  excellent  flock  of  silk  which  is  used  in  China  and 
Bengal  for  very  firm  tissues.  The  color  of  the  silk  is  a  fine  flax  gray  ;  and 
cloths  made  of  it  are  not  injured  by  the  rain,  or  oil,  and  wear  long. 
Now  that  the  introduction  of  the  silk-worm  is  accomplished,  attention 
is  turned  to  the  extension  of  it  industrially.  Guerin  Mineville  proposes 
for  this  end  the  making  of  plantations  of  Aylanthus,  a  tree  that  grows 
easily  upon  poor  soil ;  and  to  place  the  worms  upon  them  in  spring  that 
were  hatched  in  the  month  of  May,  and  let  them  eat  the  leaves.  Care 
should  be  taken  to  preserve  them  from  the  birds,  which  is  easily  done  by 
an  invalid  workman  incapable  of  other  work,  as  has  been  the  custom  for 
centuries  in  China.  At  the  end  of  June  the  first  crop  may  be  gathered, 
and  a  second  in  August.  The  cocoons  for  reproduction  should  be  preserved 
until  the  next  May,  which  requires,  as  with  the  silk-worm  of  Ricinus,  and 
the  Dipsacus  cullonum,  special  care  in  the  winter. — American  Jour.  Sci. 
and  Arts  Nov.  1858. 
On  the  Rate  and  Growth  of  Coral. — Mr.  Theodore  Lyman,  referring  to 
a  large  fragment  of  Madrepore  Coral,  taken  from  the  wreck  of  a  British 
man-of-war,  and  which  he  had  exhibited  at  a  recent  meeting,  said  that  he 
had  since  ascertained  that  the  vessel  was  lost  about  the  year  1806,  or  half  a 
century  since.  The  incrustation  around  the  iron  bolt,  shows  that  the  diam- 
eter of  the  coral  must  have  been  about  three  inches,  and  such  a  shaft,  he 
supposes,  would  have  supported  a  very  high  stem,  so  that  the  rate  of  growth 
might  have  been  perhaps  half  an  inch  a  year. — Proc.  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Inst, 
in  Silliman's  Journ.  Nov.  1858. 
Pepsin  Wine. — "We  find  in  "  L'Union  Medicale  "  that  the  following  pep- 
sin wine  is  extremely  agreeable  and  efficacious  : — Take  of  starchy  pepsin, 
prepared  according  to  Messrs.  Covisart  and  Bourdault's  formula,  one 
