CULTURE OF COCHINEAL IN INDIA. 
139 
veral of the leaves had withered. Capt. N., on his arrival at 
Calcutta, sent the survivors to the Botanic Garden, where 
they were placed on the several species of Cactus, or Opuntia. 
On the China and Manilla species of the Nopal, and even on 
that from Kew, the survivors began to die fast. It fortunately 
occurred to make trial of the indigenous Opuntia, on which 
they were luckily found to thrive amazingly; and so rapidly, 
that Captain Neilson himself writes, on the 3d August, 1795, 
that he had the day before seen at the Company's Garden 
near Calcutta about one thousand fine plants covered with the 
insects: enough to stock all India. He hopes that Dr. Ander- 
son had received the plants and insects sent by Dr. Roxburgh; 
and expresses his intention of bringing a fresh supply, with 
the hopes of "seeing in a very few months the plant and in- 
sect an object of cultivation over all the Carnatic, which 1 am 
inclined to think a more favorable climate for it than that of 
Bengal." Capt. N. concludes by saying, that great numbers 
of gentlemen in Bengal have already begun Nopal Plantations; 
and that Dr. Roxburgh had sent the insect to different parts 
of the country. 
The insects sent to Dr. Anderson were delivered over to 
Dr. Berry, Superintendent of the Company's Nopalry at Mad- 
ras, who, on the 26th August, reported, that the climate seemed 
most congenial to them in all exposures, as they had gone 
through all their stages from 28th July to the 24th August. 
He found the same want of success with the foreign, and, as 
in Calcutta, was obliged to have recourse to the country No- 
pal. As this was common everywhere, the culture and col- 
lection of the Insect very rapidly spread, particularly as the 
Collectors of Revenue were each furnished with a small quan- 
tity, and directed to exert themselves in the most strenuous 
manner; also to enclose spots of ground fifty or sixty feet 
square at some of the villages under each collectorate. On 
the 8th December, 1795, Dr. Berry further reported, that this 
Cochineal dyed casimere, cloth, and flannel with a color equal 
in brightness to the best scarlet, but that four limes the quan- 
tity of the Sylvestre Cochineal reared in India was required 
