ON COCHINEAL. 
47 
ART. VIII. — ON COCHINEAL. 
By August Faber, Esq.* 
On board the "Tay" West India steamer, in which I came 
out, there was also as passenger, Mr. Innis, merchant, going 
out to Vera Cruz. His residence is in the city of Oaxaha 
(pronounced Oa/*aka) in the province of that name, where 
chiefly cochineal is grown. The following information, which 
I obtained from him, is in several respects very interesting : — 
1. "Silver cochineal is the impregnated female just before 
laying eggs; black cochineal is the female after laying and 
hatching the eggs. 
2. "The female, just before laying the eggs, spreads out a 
large quantity of white powder immediately around her, and 
to a great distance, in a circle ; and the Mexican growers are 
in the habit of blowing this white powder off the plant as 
much as possible, saying the young do better wuthout it." 
Now we begin to know something of the origin of the dif- 
ference of colour and shape and quantities, in this way : the 
black, if good, is always shelly, the real silver is never shelly ; 
and of black cochineal, there is never more than one bag in 
twenty, or in thirty, or fifty imported, being in fact only what 
had been kept for seed. 
The last quotation given above would suggest to me one 
more possible fact. 
Why, I would ask, is the Honduras cochineal (which, in 
fact, grows in Guatimala) invariably brilliant in colour (silver,) 
while the Mexican is invariably dull, the latter fetching 3d. 
and 4d. per lb. less than the former? I consider it very pro- 
bable, that the habit of blowing off what is given by nature, 
namely, the white powder deposited by the females, may be 
♦Extracted from a ldter dated "Madeira, October 18, 1845," ad- 
dressed to Dr. Pereira, and read before the Pharmaceutical Society. 
