Part First. Ancient History of Silk (part 2)

“We placed the above two species with five or six others, including the garden, the domestic, and the labyrinthic spiders, in empty wine-glasses, set in tea-saucers filled with water, to prevent their escape. When they discovered, by repeated descents from the brims of the glasses, that they were thus surrounded by a wet ditch, they all set themselves to the task of throwing their silken bridges across. For this purpose they first endeavored to ascertain in what direction the wind blew, or rather (as the experiment was made in our study) which way any current of air set,—by elevating their arms as we have seen sailors do in a dead calm. But, as it may prove more interesting to keep to one individual, we shall first watch the proceedings of the gossamer spider.

“Finding no current of air on any quarter of the brim of the glass, it seemed to give up all hopes of constructing its bridge of escape, and placed itself in the attitude of repose; but no sooner did we produce a stream of air, by blowing gently towards its position, than, fixing a thread to the glass, and laying hold of it with one of its feet, by way of security, it placed its body in a vertical position, with its spinnerets extended outwards; and immediately we had the pleasure of seeing a thread streaming out from them several feet in length, on which the little aëronaut sprung up into the air. We were convinced, from what we thus observed, that it was the double or bend of the thread which was blown into the air; and we assigned as a reason for her previously attaching and drawing out a thread from the glass, the wish to give the wind a point d’appui—something upon which it might have a purchase, as a mechanic would say of a lever. The bend of the thread, then, on this view of the matter, would be carried out by the wind,—would form the point of impulsion,—and, of course, the escape bridge would be an ordinary line doubled.”

Such is the opinion of Mr. Rennie, which is strongly corroborated by what has been said by M. Latreille—than whom no higher authority could be given. “When the animal,” says he, “desires to cross a brook, she fixes to a tree or some other object one of the ends of her first threads, in order that the wind or a current of air may carry the other beyond the obstacle;” and as one end is always attached to the spinnerets, he must mean that the double of the thread flies off. In his previous publications, however, Latreille had contented himself with copying the statement of Dr. Lister. “In order to ascertain the fact,” says Mr. Rennie, “and put an end to all doubts, we watched, with great care and minuteness, the proceedings of the long-bodied spider above mentioned, by producing a stream of air in the same manner, as it perambulated the brim of the glass. It immediately, as the other had done, attached a thread and raised its body perpendicularly, like a tumbler standing on his hands with his head downwards; but we looked in vain for this thread bending, as we had at first supposed, and going off double. Instead of this it remained tight, while another thread, or what appeared to be so, streamed off from the spinners, similar to smoke issuing through a pin-hole, sometimes in a line, and sometimes at a considerable angle, with the first, according to the current of the air,—the first thread, extended from the glass to the spinnerets, remaining all the while tight drawn in a right line. It further appeared to us, that the first thread proceeded from the pair of spinnerets nearest the head, while the floating thread came from the outer pair,—though it is possible in such minute objects we may have been deceived. That the first was continuous with the second, without any perceptible joining, we ascertained in numerous instances, by catching the floating line and pulling it tight, in which case the spider glides along without attaching another line to the glass; but if she have to coil up the floating line to lighten it, as usually happens, she gathers it into a packet and glues the two ends tight together. Her body, while the floating line streamed out, remained quite motionless, but we distinctly saw the spinnerets not only projected, as is always done when a spider spins, but moved in the same way as an infant moves its lips when sucking. We cannot doubt, therefore, that this motion is intended to emit (if eject or project be deemed words too strong), the liquid material of the thread; at the same time, we are quite certain that it cannot throw out a single inch of thread without the aid of a current of air. A long-bodied spider will thus throw out in succession as many threads as we please, by simply blowing towards it; but not one where there is no current, as under a bell-glass, where it may be kept till it die, without being able to construct a bridge over water of an inch long. We never observed more than one floating thread produced at the same time; though other observers mention several.

“The probable commencement, we think, of the floating line, is by the emission of little globules of the glutinous material to the points of the spinnerules—perhaps it may be dropped from them, if not ejected, and the globules being carried off by the current of air, drawn out into a thread. But we give this as only a conjecture, for we could not bring a glass of sufficient power to bear upon the spinnerules at the commencement of the floating line.

“In subsequent experiments we found, that it was not indispensable for the spider to rest upon a solid body when producing a line, as she can do so while she is suspended in the air by another line. When the current of air also is strong, she will sometimes commit herself to it by swinging from the end of the line. We have even remarked this when there was scarcely a breath of air.

“We tried another experiment. We pressed pretty firmly upon the base of the spinnerets, so as not to injure the spider, blowing obliquely over them; but no floating line appeared. We then touched them with a pencil and drew out several lines an inch or two in length, upon which we blew in order to extend them, but in this also we were unsuccessful, as they did not lengthen more than a quarter of an inch. We next traced out the reservoirs of a garden-spider (Epeira diadema), and immediately taking a drop of the matter from one of them on the point of a fine needle, we directed upon it a strong current of air, and succeeded in blowing out a thick yellow line, as we might have done with gum-water, of about an inch and a half long.

“When we observed our long-bodied spider eager to throw a line by raising up its body, we brought within three inches of its spinnerets an excited stick of sealing-wax, of which it took no notice, nor did any thread extend to it, not even when brought almost to touch the spinnerets. We experienced the same want of success with an excited glass rod; and indeed had not anticipated any other result, as we have never observed that either these attract or repel the floating threads, as Mr. Murray has seen them do; nor have we ever noticed the end of a floating thread separated into its component threadlets and diverging like a brush, as he and Mr. Bowman describe (See Fig. 11.). It may be proper to mention that Mr. Murray, in conformity with his theory, explains the shooting of lines in a current of air by the electric state produced by motion in consequence of the mutual friction of the gaseous particles. But this view of the matter does not seem to affect our statements.”

Nests, Webs, and Nets of Spiders.—“The neatest,” says Mr. Rennie, “though the smallest spider’s nest which we have seen, was constructed in the chink of a garden-post, which we had cut out the previous summer in getting at the cells of a carpenter-bee. The architect was one of the larger hunting-spiders, erroneously said by some naturalists to be incapable of spinning. The nest in question was about two inches high, composed of a very close satin-like texture. There were two parallel chambers placed perpendicularly, in which position also the inhabitant reposed there during the day, going, as we presume, only abroad to prey during the night. But the most remarkable circumstance was, that the openings (two above and two below) were so elastic, that they shut closely together. We observed this spider for several months, but at last it disappeared, and we took the nest out under the notion that it might contain eggs; but found none, and therefore concluded that it was only used as a day retreat.” The account which Evelyn has given of these hunting spiders is so interesting that we must transcribe it.

“Of all sorts of insects,” says he, “none have afforded me more divertisement than the venatores (hunters), which are a sort of lupi (wolves) that have their dens in rugged walls and crevices of our houses; a small brown and delicately-spotted kind of spiders, whose hinder legs are longer than the rest. Such I did frequently observe at Rome, which, espying a fly at three or four yards distance, upon the balcony where I stood, would not make directly to her, but crawl under the rail, till being arrived to the antipodes, it would steal up, seldom missing its aim; but if it chanced to want anything of being perfectly opposite, would, at first peep, immediately slide down again,—till taking better notice, it would come the next time exactly upon the fly’s back: but if this happened not to be within a competent leap, then would this insect move so softly, as the very shadow of the gnomon seemed not to be more imperceptible, unless the fly moved; and then would the spider move also in the same proportion, keeping that just time with her motion, as if the same soul had animated both these little bodies; and whether it were forwards, backwards, or to either side, without at all turning her body, like a well-managed horse: but if the capricious fly took wing and pitched upon another place behind our huntress, then would the spider whirl its body so nimbly about, as nothing could be imagined more swift: by which means she always kept the head towards her prey, though, to appearance, as immoveable as if it had been a nail driven into the wood, till by that indiscernible progress (being arrived within the sphere of her reach) she made a fatal leap, swift as lightning, upon the fly, catching him in the pole, where she never quitted hold till her belly was full, and then carried the remainder home.”

One feels a little sceptical, however, when he adds, “I have beheld them instructing their young ones how to hunt, which they would sometimes discipline for not well observing; but when any of the old ones did (as sometimes) miss a leap, they would run out of the field and hide themselves in their crannies, as ashamed, and haply not to be seen abroad for four or five hours after; for so long have I watched the nature of this strange insect, the contemplation of whose so wonderful sagacity and address has amazed me; nor do I find in any chase whatsoever more cunning and stratagem observed. I have found some of these spiders in my garden, when the weather, towards spring, was very hot, but they are not so eager in hunting as in Italy.”

We have only to add to this lively narrative, that the hunting-spider, when he leaps, takes good care to provide against accidental falls by always swinging himself from a good strong cable of silk, as Swammerdam correctly states, and which anybody may recognise, as one of the small hunters (Salticus scenicus), known by its back striped with black and white like a zebra.

Mr. Weston, the editor of “Bloomfield’s Remains,” falls into a very singular mistake about hunting-spiders, imagining them to be web-weaving ones which have exhausted their materials, and are therefore compelled to hunt. In proof of this he gives an instance which came under his own observation!

“As a contrast,” says Mr. Rennie, “to the little elastic satin nest of the hunter, we may mention the largest with which we are acquainted,—that of the labyrinthic spider (Agelena labyrinthica, Walckenaer). Our readers must often have seen this nest spread out like a broad sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, and sometimes on the ground. The middle of this sheet, which is of a close texture, is swung like a sailor’s hammock, by silken ropes extended all around to the higher branches; but the whole curves upwards and backwards, sloping down to a long funnel-shaped gallery which is nearly horizontal at the entrance, but soon winds obliquely till it becomes quite perpendicular. This curved gallery is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is much more closely woven than the sheet part of the web, and sometimes descends into a hole in the ground, though oftener into a group of crowded twigs, or a tuft of grass. Here the spider dwells secure, frequently resting with her legs extended from the entrance of the gallery, ready to spring out upon whatever insect may fall into her sheet net. She herself can only be caught by getting behind her and forcing her out into the web; but though we have often endeavored to make her construct a nest under our eye, we have been as unsuccesful as in similar experiments with the common house spider (Aranea domestica).

“The house spider’s proceedings were long ago described by Homberg, and the account has been copied, as usual, by almost every subsequent writer. Goldsmith has, indeed, given some strange mis-statements from his own observations, and Bingley has added the original remark, that, after fixing its first thread, creeping along the wall, and joining it as it proceeds, it ‘darts itself to the opposite side, where the other end is to be fastened!’ Homberg’s spider took the more circuitous route of travelling to the opposite wall, carrying in one of its claws the end of the thread previously fixed, lest it should stick in the wrong place. This we believe to be the correct statement, for as the web is always horizontal, it would seldom answer to commit a floating thread to the wind, as is done by other species. Homberg’s spider, after stretching as many lines by way of warp as it deemed sufficient between the two walls of the corner which it had chosen, proceeded to cross this in the way our weavers do in adding the woof, with this difference, that the spider’s threads were only laid on, and not interlaced. The domestic spiders, however, in these modern days, must have forgot this mode of weaving, for none of their webs will be found thus regularly constructed!”

The geometric, or net-working spiders (See Fig. 12. Plate IV.) are as well known as any of the preceding; almost every bush and tree in our gardens and hedge-rows having one or more of their nests stretched out in a vertical position between adjacent branches. The common garden spider (Epeira diadema), and the long-bodied spider (Tetragnatha extensa), are the best known of this order.

“The chief care of a spider of this sort,” says Mr. Rennie, “is, to form a cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she means to hang upon it; and after throwing out a floating line as above described, when it catches properly, she doubles and redoubles it with additional threads. On trying its strength she is not contented with the test of pulling it with her legs, but drops herself down several feet from various points of it, as we have often seen, swinging and bobbing with the whole weight of her body. She proceeds in a similar manner with the rest of the frame of her wheel-shaped net; and it may be remarked that some of the ends of these lines are not simple, but in form of a Y, giving her the additional security of two attachments instead of one.”

In constructing the body of the nest, the most remarkable circumstance is the using of her limbs as a measure, to regulate the distances of her radii or wheel-spokes (See Fig. 12. Plate IV., which represents the geometric net of the “Epeira diadema”), and the circular meshes interwoven into them. These are consequently always proportional to the size of the spider. She often takes up her station in the centre, but not always, though it is so said by inaccurate writers; but she as frequently lurks in a little chamber constructed under a leaf or other shelter at the corner of her web, ready to dart down upon whatever prey may be entangled in her net. The centre of the net is said also to be composed of more viscid materials than its suspensory lines,—a circumstance alleged to be proved by the former appearing under the microscrope studded with globules of gum. “We have not been able,” says Mr. Rennie, “to verify this distinction, having seen the suspensory lines as often studded in this manner as those in the centre.”

At the commencement of the last century a method was discovered in France by Monsieur Bon, of procuring silk from spiders’ bags, and its use was attempted in the manufacture of several articles. Mr. Bon has, however, noticed only two kinds of silk-making spiders, and these he has distinguished from each other as having either long or short legs, the last variety producing the finest quality of raw silk. According to this ingenious observer, the silk formed by these insects is equally beautiful, strong, and glossy with that formed by the silk-worm. When first formed, the color of these spiders’ bags is gray, but, by exposure to the air, they soon acquire a blackish hue. Other spider bags might probably be found of different colors, and affording silk of better quality, but their scarcity would render any experiment with them difficult of accomplishment; for which reason M. Bon confined his attention to the bags of the common sort of the short-legged kind.

These always form their bags in some place sheltered from the wind and rain, such as the hollow trunks of trees, the corners of windows or vaults, or under the eaves of houses. A quantity of the bags was collected from which a new kind of silk was made, said to be in no respect inferior to the produce of the silk-worm. It took readily all kinds of dyes, and might have been wrought into any description of silken fabric. Mr. Bon had stockings and gloves made from it, some of which he presented to the Royal Academy of Paris, and others he transmitted to the Royal Society of London.

This silk was prepared in the following manner:—Twelve or thirteen ounces of the bags were beaten with a stick, until they became entirely freed from dust. They were next washed in warm water, which was continually changed, until it no longer became clouded or discolored by the bags under process. After this they were steeped in a large quantity of water wherein soap, saltpetre, and gum-arabic had been dissolved. The whole was then gently boiled during three hours, after which the bags were rinsed in clear warm water to discharge the soap. They were finally set out to dry, previous to the operation of carding, which was then performed with cards differing from those usually employed with silk, being much finer. By these means silk of a peculiar ash color was obtained, which was spun without difficulty. Mr. Bon affirmed that the thread was both stronger and finer than common silk, and that therefore fabrics similar to those made with the latter material might be manufactured from this, there being no reason for doubting that it would stand any trials of the loom, after having undergone those of the stocking frame.

The only obstacle, therefore, which appeared to prevent the establishing of any considerable manufacture from these spider bags was the difficulty of obtaining them in sufficient abundance. Mr. Bon fancied that this objection could soon be overcome, and that the art of domesticating and rearing spiders, as practised with silk-worms, was to be attained. Carried away by the enthusiasm of one who, having made a discovery, pursues it with ardor undismayed by difficulties, he met every objection by comparisons, which perhaps were not wholly and strictly founded on fact. Contrasted with the spider, and to favor his arguments, the silk-worm in his hands made a very despicable figure. He affirmed that the female spider produces 600 or 700 eggs; while of the 100, to which number he limited the silk-worm, not more than one-half were reared to produce balls. That the spiders hatched spontaneously, without any care, in the months of August and September; that the old spiders dying soon after they have laid their eggs, the young ones live for ten or twelve months without food, and continue in their bags without growing, until the hot weather, by putting their viscid juices in motion, induces them to come forth, spin, and run about in search of food.

Mr. Bon’s spider establishment, was managed in the following manner:—having ordered all the short-legged spiders which could be collected by persons employed for the purpose, to be brought to him, he inclosed them in paper coffins and pots; these were covered with papers, which, as well as the coffins, were pricked over their surface with pin-holes to admit air to the prisoners. The insects were duly fed with flies, and after some time it was found on inspection that the greater part of them had formed their bags. This advocate for the rearing of spiders contended that spiders’ bags afforded much more silk in proportion to their weight than those of the silk-worm; in proof of which he observed, that thirteen ounces yield nearly four ounces of pure silk, two ounces of which were sufficient to make a pair of stockings; whereas stockings made of common silk were said by him to weigh seven or eight ounces.

It was objected by some of Mr. Bon’s contemporaries, that spiders were venomous; and this is so far true that a bite from some of the species is very painful, producing as much swelling as the smart sting of a nettle. Mr. Bon, however, asserted that he was several times bitten, without experiencing any inconvenience; if so, he was more fortunate or less sensitive than any of the spider-tamers with whom we have been acquainted. It was further asserted, that this venom extended itself to the silk which the spider produced; but this assertion was utterly absurd, as any one who has ever applied a cobweb to stop the bleeding from a cut ought to have known. Mr. Bon declared with perfect truth, that the silk, so far from being pernicious, was useful in staunching and healing wounds, its natural gluten acting as a kind of balsam.

The honest enthusiasm of the projector, and the singularity of a regular establishment being formed for rearing and working spiders, excited a considerable share of public attention. It was, indeed, an age of strange speculations, for nearly at the same time a German gentleman broached a scheme for turning tame squirrels and mice to account in spinning; and companies were formed in England, with large nominal capitals to carry out schemes still more preposterous. So important did Mr. Bon’s project appear to the French Academy, that they deputed the eminent naturalist, M. Réaumur, to investigate the merits of this new silk-filament.

After a long and patient examination M. Réaumur stated the following objections to Mr. Bon’s plan for raising spider-silk, which have ever since been regarded as insurmountable.

1. The natural fierceness of spiders renders them unfit to be bred together. On distributing four or five thousand of these insects into cells or companies of from fifty to one or two hundred, it was found that the larger spiders quickly killed and ate the smaller, so that in a short space of time the cells were depopulated, scarcely more than one or two being found in each cell.

2. The silk of the spider is inferior to that of the silk-worm both in lustre and strength; and produces less material in proportion, than can be made available for the purposes of the manufacture. The filament of the spider’s-bag can support a weight of only thirty-six grains, while that of the silk-worm will sustain a weight of one hundred and fifty grains. Thus four or five threads of the spider must be brought together to equal one thread of the silk-worm, and as it is impossible that these should be applied so accurately over each other as not to leave little vacant spaces between them, the light is not equally reflected, and the lustre of the material is consequently inferior to that in which a solid thread is used.

3. A great disadvantage of the spider’s silk is, that it cannot be wound off the ball like that of the silk-worm, but must necessarily be carded. By this latter process, its evenness, which contributes so materially to its lustre, is destroyed.

The ferociousness and pugnacity of the spiders are not exaggerated; they fight like furies. Their voracity, too, is almost incredible, and it is very questionable whether the mere collection of flies sufficient to feed a large number of the spiders would not involve an amount of expense fatal to the project as a lucrative undertaking. The strength of the spiders’ filament is, if anything, overstated by Réaumur. Deficiency of lustre arising from the carding of the filaments is common to the spider-fabric and to spun silk; this objection would, perhaps, not be of very great weight but for the decisive calculation by which Réaumur showed the comparative amount of production between the spider and the silk-worm.

The largest cocoons weigh four, and the smaller three grains each; spider-bags do not weigh above one grain each; and, after being cleared of their dust, have lost two-thirds of this weight; therefore the work of twelve spiders equals that of only one silk-worm; and a pound of spider-silk would require for its production 27,648 insects. But as the bags are wholly the work of the females, who spin them as a deposit for their eggs, it follows that 55,296 spiders must be reared to yield one pound of silk: yet this will be obtained only from the best spiders; those large ones ordinarily seen in gardens, &c., yielding not more than a twelfth part of the silk of the others. The work of 280 of these would therefore not yield more silk than the produce of one industrious silk-worm, and 663,552 of them would furnish only one pound of silk!

Although Réaumur’s report completely extinguished Mr. Bon’s project in France, it was revived in England two or three times in the early part of the last century. Swift has not neglected to make it a portion of his unrivalled satire against speculators and projectors, in his account of Gulliver’s visit to the Academy of Lagado:

“I went into another room, says he, where the walls and ceilings were all hung round with cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the artist to go in and out. At my entrance he called out to me not to disturb his webs. He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silk-worms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects, who infinitely excelled the former, because they understood how to weave as well as spin. And he proposed further, that, by employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silk should be wholly saved; whereof I was fully convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully colored, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us that the webs would take a tincture from them, and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to suit every body’s fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter to give a strength and consistency to the threads.”

The Ingenuity of Spiders.—Mr. Thomas Ewbank of New York, in a letter to the Editor of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, bearing date September 20th, 1842, gives us the following interesting description of the ingenuity of the Spider.

“The resources of the lower animals have often excited admiration, and though no comprehensive and systematic series of observations have yet been made upon them(?), the time is, I believe, not distant when the task will be undertaken—perhaps within the next century. But whenever and by whomsoever accomplished, the mechanism of animals will then form the subject of one of the most interesting and useful volumes in the archives of man.

“Among insects, spiders have repeatedly been observed to modify and change their contrivances for ensnaring their prey. Those that live in fields and gardens often fabricate their nets or webs vertically. This sometimes occurs in locations where there is no object sufficiently near to which the lower edge or extremity of the web can properly be braced; and unless this be done, light puffs or breezes of wind are apt to blow it into an entangled mass. Instead of being spread out, like the sail of a ship, to the wind, it would become clewed over the upper line, or edge, like a sail when furled up. Now how would a human engineer act under similar circumstances? But ere the reader begins to reflect(!), he should bear in mind that it would not do to brace the web by running rigging from it to some fixed or immovable object below—by no means;—for were this done, it could not yield to impulses of wind; the rigging would be snapped by the first blast, and the whole structure probably destroyed.

“Whatever contrivances human sagacity might suggest, they could hardly excel those which these despised engineers sometimes adopt. Having formed a web, under circumstances similar to those to which we have referred, a spider has been known to descend from it to the ground by means of a thread spun for the purpose, and after selecting a minute pebble, or piece of stone, has coiled the end of the thread round it. Having done this, the ingenious artist ascended, and fixing himself on the lower part of the web, hoisted up the pebble until it swung several inches clear of the ground. The cord to which the weight was suspended was then secured by additional ones, running from it to different parts of the web, which thus acquired the requisite tension, and was allowed, at the same time, to yield to sudden puffs of wind without danger of being rent asunder.

“A similar instance came under my notice a few days ago. A large spider had constructed his web, in nearly a vertical position, about six feet from the ground, in a corner of my yard. The upper edge was formed by a strong thread, secured at one end to a vine leaf, and the other to a clothes line. One part of the lower edge was attached to a Penyan sun-flower, and another to a trellis fence, four or five feet distant. Between these there was no object nearer than the ground, to which an additional brace line could be carried; but two threads, a foot asunder, descended from this part of the web, and, eight or ten inches below it, were united at a point. From this point, a single line, four or five inches long, was suspended, and to its lower extremity was the weight, a living one, viz. a worm, three inches long, and one-eighth of an inch thick. The cord was fastened around the middle of the victim’s body, and as no object was within reach, all its writhings and efforts to escape were fruitless. Its weight answered the same purpose as a piece of inanimate matter, while its sufferings seemed not in the least to disturb the unconcerned murderer, who lay waiting for his prey above.

“Whether the owner of the web found it a more easy task to capture this unlucky worm and raise it, than to elevate a stone of the same weight, may be a question(?). Perhaps in seeking for the latter, the former fell in his way, and was seized as the first suitable object that came to hand—like the human tyrant, (Domitian) who, to show his skill in archery, planted his arrows in the heads of men or cattle, in the absence of other targets. It may be, however, that a piece of stone, earth, or wood, of a suitable weight, was not in the vicinity of the web.

“To observe the effect of this weight, I separated, with a pair of scissors, the thread by which it was suspended, and instantly the web sunk to half its previous dimensions—the lower part became loose, and with the slightest current kept shaking like a sail shivering in the wind. A fresh weight was not supplied by the next morning; but instead of it two long brace lines extended from the lower part of the web to two vine tendrils, a considerable distance off. These I cut away to see what device would be next adopted, but on going to examine it the following day, I found the clothes line removed, and with it all relics of the insect’s labors had disappeared.”

Mason-Spiders.—A no less wonderful structure is composed by a sort of spiders, natives of the tropics and the south of Europe, which have been justly called mason-spiders by M. Latreille. One of these (Mygale nidulans, Walckn.), found in the West Indies, “digs a hole in the earth obliquely downwards, about three inches in length, and one in diameter. This cavity she lines with a tough thick web, which, when taken out, resembles a leathern purse; but what is most curious, this house has a door with hinges, like the operculum of some sea-shells, and herself and family, who tenant this nest, open and shut the door whenever they pass and repass. This history was told me,” says Darwin, “and the nest, with its door, shown me by the late Dr. Butt, of Bath, who was some years physician in Jamaica.”

“The nest of a mason-spider, similar to this,” says Mr. Rennie, “has been obligingly put into our hands by Mr. Riddle of Blackheath. It came from the West Indies, and is probably that of Latreille’s clay-kneader (Mygale cratiens), and one of the smallest of the genus. We have since seen a pair of these spiders in possession of Mr. William Mello, of Blackheath. The nest is composed of very hard argillaceous clay, deeply tinged with brown oxide of iron. It is in form of a tube, about one inch in diameter, between six and seven inches long, and slightly bent towards the lower extremity—appearing to have been mined into the clay rather than built. The interior of the tube is lined with a uniform tapestry of silken web, of an orange-white color, with a texture intermediate between India paper and very fine glove leather. But the most wonderful part of this nest is its entrance, which we look upon as the perfection of insect architecture. A circular door, about the size of a crown piece, slightly concave on the outside and convex within, is formed of more than a dozen layers of the same web which lines the interior, closely laid upon one another, and shaped so that the inner layers are the broadest, the outer being gradually less in diameter, except towards the hinge, which is about an inch long; and in consequence of all the layers being united there, and prolonged into the tube, it becomes the thickest and strongest part of the structure. The elasticity of the materials, also, gives to this hinge the remarkable peculiarity of acting like a spring, and shutting the door of the nest spontaneously. It is, besides, made to fit so accurately to the aperture, which is composed of similar concentric layers of web, that it is almost impossible to distinguish the joining by the most careful inspection. To gratify curiosity, the door has been opened and shut hundreds of times, without in the least destroying the power of the spring. When the door is shut, it resembles some of the lichens (Lecidea), or the leathery fungi, such as Polyporus versicolor (Micheli), or, nearer still, the upper valve of a young oyster-shell. The door of the nest, the only part seen above ground, being of a blackish-brown color, it must be very difficult to discover.”

Another mason-spider (Mygale cœmentaria, Latr.), found in the south of France, usually selects for her nest a place bare of grass, sloping in such a manner as to carry off the water, and of a firm soil, without rocks or small stones. She digs a gallery a foot or two in depth, and of a diameter (equal throughout) sufficient to admit of her easily passing. She lines this with a tapestry of silk glued to the walls. The door, which is circular, is constructed of many layers of earth kneaded, and bound together with silk. Externally, it is flat and rough, corresponding to the earth around the entrance, for the purpose, no doubt, of concealment: on the inside it is convex, and tapestried thickly with a web of fine silk. The threads of this door-tapestry are prolonged, and strongly attached to the upper side of the entrance, forming an excellent hinge, which, when pushed open by the spider, shuts again by its own weight, without the aid of spring hinges. When the spider is at home, and her door forcibly opened by an intruder, she pulls it strongly inwards, and even where half-opened often snatches it out of the hand; but when she is foiled in this, she retreats to the bottom of her den, as her last resource. The nest of this spider (the mason spider) is represented in Plate IV. Fig. 14., and shows the nest shut. Fig. 15., represents it open. Fig. 16. the spider (Mygale cœmentaria). Fig. 17. the eyes magnified. Figures 18 and 19 parts of the foot and claw magnified. Rossi ascertained that the female of an allied species (Mygale sauvagesii, Latr.), found in Corsica, lived in one of these nests, with a numerous posterity. He destroyed one of the doors to observe whether a new one would be made, which it was; but it was fixed immoveably, without a hinge; the spider, no doubt, fortifying herself in this manner till she thought she might re-open it without danger.

“The Rev. Revett Shepherd has often noticed, in the fen ditches of Norfolk, a very large spider (the species not yet determined) which actually forms a raft for the purpose of obtaining its prey with more facility. Keeping its station upon a ball of weeds about three inches in diameter, probably held together by slight silken cords, it is wafted along the surface of the water upon this floating island, which it quits the moment it sees a drowning insect. The booty thus seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when alarmed by any danger.” In the spring of 1830, Mr. Rennie found a spider on some reeds in the Croydon Canal, which agreed in appearance with Mr. Shepherd’s.

Among our native spiders there are several, which, not contented with a web like the rest of their congeners, take advantage of other materials to construct cells where, “hushed in grim repose,” they “expect their insect prey.” The most simple of those spider cells is constructed by a longish-bodied spider (Aranea holosericea, Linn.), which is a little larger than the common hunting spider. It rolls up a leaf of the lilac or poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done by the leaf-rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it sometimes seizes to save itself trouble, having first expelled, or perhaps devoured, the rightful owner. The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapestry of the caterpillar, but always weaves a fresh set of her own, more close and substantial.

Another spider, common in woods and copses (Epeira quadrata?) weaves together a great number of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and in front of it she spreads her toils for entrapping the unwary insects which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, are dragged into her den, and stored up for a time of scarcity. Here also her eggs are deposited and hatched in safety. When the cold weather approaches, and the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it for the more secure shelter of a hollow tree, where she soon dies; but the continuation of the species depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before winter, and remaining to be hatched with the warmth of the ensuing summer.

The spider’s den of united leaves, however, which has just been described, is not always useless when withered and deserted; for the dormouse usually selects it as a ready-made roof for its nest of dried grass. That those old spiders’ dens are not accidentally chosen by the mouse, appears from the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of this sort found during winter in a copse between Lewisham and Bromley, Kent (England), every second or third one was furnished with such a roof.

The Water Spider.—We extract the following exquisitely beautiful and interesting fact in nature, connected with diving operations, from the Rev. Mr. Kirby’s Bridgewater Treatise:—

“The Water Spider is one of the most remarkable upon whom that office (diving) is developed by her Creator. To this end, her instinct instructs her to fabricate a kind of diving-bell in the bosom of that element. She usually selects still waters for this purpose. Her house is an oval cocoon, filled with air, and lined with silk, from which threads issue in every direction, and are fastened to the surrounding plants; in this cocoon, which is open below, she watches for her prey, and even appears to pass the winter, when she closes the opening. It is most commonly, yet not always, entirely under water; but its inhabitant has filled it with air for her respiration, which enables her to live in it. She conveys the air to it in the following manner: she usually swims upon her back, when her abdomen is enveloped in a bubble of air, and appears like a globe of quicksilver; with this she enters her cocoon, and displacing an equal mass of water, again ascends for a second lading, till she has sufficiently filled her house with it, so as to expel all the water.

“The males construct similar habitations by the same manœuvres. How these little animals can envelope their abdomen with an air-bubble, and retain it till they enter their cells, is still one of Nature’s mysteries that have not been explained.

“We, however, cannot help admiring, and adoring, the wisdom, power, and goodness manifested in this singular provision, enabling an animal that breathes the atmospheric air, to fill her house with it under water, and which has instructed her in a secret art, by which she can clothe part of her body with air as a garment, and which she can put off when it answers her purpose.

“This is a kind of attraction and repulsion which mocks all our inquiries.”

Thus it appears, that by the successive descents of the little water-spider under the impulsion of its instinct, produce effects in its subaqueous pavilion equivalent to those produced in the diving-bell, or diving helmet, by the successive strokes of the condensing air-pump of scientific man!

In the language of the book of Psalms, this insect “LAYETH THE BEAMS OF” her “CHAMBERS IN THE WATERS,” and there secures her subaqueous chambers in the manner described.

Cleanliness of Spiders.—“When we look at the viscid material,” says Mr. Rennie, “with which spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the rough, hairy covering (with a few exceptions) of their bodies, we might conclude, that they would be always stuck over with fragments of the minute fibres which they produce. This, indeed, must often happen, did they not take careful precautions to avoid it; for we have observed that they seldom, if ever, leave a thread to float at random, except when they wish to form a bridge. When a spider drops along a line, for instance, in order to ascertain the strength of her web, or the nature of the place below her, she invariably, when she re-ascends, coils it up into a little ball, and throws it away. Her claws are admirably adapted for this purpose, as well as for walking along the lines, as may be readily seen by a magnifying glass. Fig. 13. Plate IV. shows the triple-clawed foot of a spider, magnified, the others being toothed like a comb, for gliding along the lines. This structure, however, unfits it to walk, as flies can do, upon any upright polished surface like glass; although the contrary is erroneously asserted by the Abbé de la Pluche. Before she can do so, she is obliged to construct a ladder of ropes, as Mr. Blackwall remarks, by elevating her spinneret as high as she can, and laying down a step upon which she stands to form a second; and so on, as any one may try by placing a spider at the bottom of a very clean wine glass.

“The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching bits of web and particles of dust; but these are not suffered to remain long. Most people may have remarked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushing its feet upon one another to rub off the dust, though we have not seen it remarked in authors that spiders are equally assiduous in keeping themselves clean. They have, besides, a very efficient instrument in their mandibles or jaws, which, like their claws, are furnished with teeth; and a spider which appears to a careless observer as resting idly, in nine cases out of ten will be found slowly combing her legs with her mandibles, beginning as high as possible on the thigh, and passing down to the claws. The flue which she thus combs off is regularly tossed away.

“With respect to the house-spider (A. domestica), we are told in books, that ‘she from time to time clears away the dust from her web, and sweeps the whole by giving it a shake with her paw, so nicely proportioning the force of her blow, that she never breaks any thing.’ That spiders may be seen shaking their webs in this manner, we readily admit; though it is not, we imagine, to clear them of dust, but to ascertain whether they are sufficiently sound and strong.

“We recently witnessed a more laborious process of cleaning a web than merely shaking it. On coming down the Maine by the steam-boat from Frankfort, in August 1829, we observed the geometric-net of a conic spider (Epeira conica, Walck.) on the framework of the deck, and as it was covered with flakes of soot from the smoke of the engine, we were surprised to see a spider at work on it; for, in order to be useful, this sort of net must be clean. Upon observing it a little closely, however, we perceived that she was not constructing a net, but dressing up an old one; though not, we must think, to save trouble, so much as an expenditure of material. Some of the lines she dexterously stripped of the flakes of soot adhering to them; but in the greater number, finding that she could not get them sufficiently clean, she broke them quite off, bundled them up, and tossed them over. We counted five of these packets of rubbish which she thus threw away, though there must have been many more, as it was some time before we discovered the manœuvre, the packets being so small as not to be readily perceived, except when placed between the eye and the light. When she had cleared off all the sooted lines, she began to replace them in the usual way; but the arrival of the boat at Mentz put an end to our observations.” Bloomfield, the poet, having observed the disappearance of these bits of ravelled web, says that he observed a garden spider moisten the pellets before swallowing them! Dr. Lister, as we have already seen, thought the spider retracted the threads within the abdomen.

“I could wish,” says Addison, in ‘The Spectator,’ “our Royal Society would compile a body of natural history, the best that could be gathered together from books and observations. If the several writers among them took each his particular species, and gave us a distinct account of its original, birth, and education; its policies, hostilities, and alliances; with the frame and texture of its inward and outward parts,—and particularly those which distinguish it from all other animals,—with their aptitudes for the state of being in which Providence has placed them; it would be one of the best services their studies could do mankind, and not a little redound to the glory of the All-wise Creator.”—‘Spectator,’ No. iii.

Although we do not consider Addison as a naturalist, in any of the usual meanings of the term, yet it would be no easy task, even for those who have devoted their undivided attention to the subject, to improve upon the admirable plan of study here laid down. It is, moreover, so especially applicable to the investigation of insects, that it may be more or less put in practice by any person who chooses, in whatever station or circumstances he happens to be placed. Nay, we will go farther; for since it agrees with experience and many recorded instances that individuals have been enabled to investigate and elucidate particular facts, who were quite unacquainted with systematic natural history, we hold it to be undeniable, that any person of moderate penetration, though altogether unacquainted with what is called “Natural History,” who will take the trouble to observe particular facts and endeavor to trace them to their causes, has every chance to be successful in adding to his own knowledge, and frequently in making discoveries of what was previously unknown. It is related of M. Pélissan, while a prisoner in the Bastille, that he tamed a spider by means of music. This in conjunction with Evelyn’s observations on hunting-spiders is strong proof of our position, and show that though books are often of high value to guide us in our observations, they are by no means indispensable to the study of nature, inasmuch as the varied scene of creation itself forms an inexhaustible book, which “even he who runneth may read.”

“It will be of the utmost importance, in the study here recommended, to bear in mind that an insect can never be found in any situation, nor make any movement, without some motive, originating in the instinct imparted to it by Providence. This principle alone, when it is made the basis of inquiry into such motives or instincts, will be found productive of many interesting discoveries, which, without it, might never be made. With this, indeed, exclusively in view, during an excursion, and with a little attention and perseverance, every walk—nay, every step—may lead to delightful and interesting knowledge.”—“Insect Architecture,” p. 219.

Chapter X. Fibres or Silken Material of the Pinna.

The Pinna—Description of—Delicacy of its threads—Réaumur’s observations—Mode of forming the filament or thread—Power of continually producing new threads—Experiments to ascertain this fact—The Pinna and its Cancer Friend—Nature of their alliance—Beautiful phenomenon—Aristotle and Pliny’s account—The Greek poet Oppianus’s lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer friend—Manner of procuring the Pinna—Poli’s description—Specimens of the Pinna in the British Museum—Pearls found in the Pinna—Pliny and Athenæus’s account—Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna for weaving—Scarceness of this material—No proof that the ancients were acquainted with the art of knitting—Tertullian the first ancient writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres of the Pinna—Procopius mentions a chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of gold—Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors—Golden fleece of the Pinna—St. Basil’s account—Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India—Diving for the Pinna at Colchi—Arrian’s account.

In the preceding chapter we have confined our remarks, principally, to the various attempts made to obtain a silken or filamentous material from the spider, and although those efforts have not been crowned with that degree of success which would render a speculation of the kind worthy of our attention in a pecuniary point of view, yet, it must be conceded, that the subject is scarcely the less interesting; and Mr. Bon, the gentleman who first undertook the training of spiders, has at least given us matter for further interesting speculation. It is now about 104 years since Mr. Bon commenced his experiments.

In this chapter, we shall proceed to describe the Pinna of the ancients, and upon which human ingenuity has been more successfully exercised in seeking, many feet below the surface of the Ocean, for the slender filaments, the produce of an animal in almost a vegetative state of existence.

The Pinna is a bivalve shell-fish, which, when full grown, is 18 inches long, and 6 wide at its broad end. It is found near the shores of South Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia; also in the Bay of Smyrna, and in the Indian Ocean. It does not fasten itself to rocks in the same position as the muscle, but sticks its sharp end into the mud or sand, while the rest of the shell is at liberty to open in the water. In common with the muscle, it has the power of spinning a viscid matter from its body, conformably with that of the spider and caterpillar. Although the pinna is vastly larger than the muscle, its shell being sometimes found two feet long, the threads which it produces are more delicate and slender than those of the muscle, being in fineness and beauty scarcely inferior to the single filament of the comparatively minute silk-worm. Threads so delicately thin, as may readily be imagined, do not singly possess much strength; but the little power of each is made up by the aggregate of the almost infinite number which each fish puts forth to secure itself in a fixed situation, and preserve it against the rolling of the waves. The threads are, however, similar in their nature to those of the muscle, differing only in their superior fineness and greater length. These fish have, therefore, been distinguished by some naturalists, the one as the silk-worm, the other as caterpillar of the sea.

It has been from a very remote period well known, that muscles have the power of affixing themselves either to rocks or the shells of one another, in a very firm manner; yet their method of effecting this was not understood until explained by the accurate observations of M. Réaumur, the first naturalist who ascertained that if, by any accident, the animals were torn from their hold, they possessed the power of substituting other threads for those which had been broken or injured. It was found by him, that if muscles, detached from each other, were placed in any kind of vessel and then plunged into the sea, they contrived in a very short time to fasten themselves both to the vessel’s side and one another’s shells: in this process, the extremity of each thread seemed to perform the office of a hand in seizing upon the body to which it would attach itself.

The threads issue from the shell at that part where it naturally opens, and in affixing themselves to any substance, form numerous minute cables, by which the fish steadies itself in the water. Each animal is provided with an organ, which it is difficult to designate by any name, since it performs the office of so many members, and is the only indicator of the existence of vital powers in the creature. It is by turns a tongue, an arm, and sometimes a leg. Its shape resembles that of a tongue, and is, therefore, most frequently called by that name. Whenever the fish requires to change its place, this member serves to drag its body forward, together with its cumbrous habitation: in performing a journey, the extremity of this organ, which may then be styled a leg, is fixed to some solid body, and being then contracted in length, the whole fish is necessarily drawn towards the spot where it intends to station itself; and by a repetition of these movements, the animal arrives at its destination. It is not often that the organ is put to this use, as the pinna is but little addicted to locomotion: some naturalists indeed affirm that it is always stable. The purpose to which the tongue is most frequently applied, is that of spinning the threads. Although this body is flat, and in form similar to a tongue through the greater part of its length, it becomes cylindrical about the base or root, where it is much smaller than in any other part: at this lower end are several ligatures of a muscular nature, which keep the tongue firmly fixed against the middle of the shell; four of these cords are very apparent, and serve to move the tongue in any direction according to the wants of the fish. Through the entire length of this member there runs a slit, which pierces so deeply into its surface, as almost to divide it into two longitudinal sections; this performs the office of a canal for the liquor of which the threads are formed, and serves to mould them into their proper form: the canal appears externally like a small crack, being almost covered by the flesh from either side, but internally it is much wider, and surrounded by circular fibres. The channel thus formed extends regularly from the tip to the base of the tongue, where it partakes of the form of the member and becomes cylindric, producing there a tube or pipe in which the canal terminates. The viscid substance is moulded in this tube into the shape of a cord, similar to the threads produced from it, though much thicker, and from which all the minute fibres issue and disperse. The internal surface of the tube, wherein the large cord is formed, is furnished with glands for the secretion of the peculiar substance employed in its production, and which is always in great abundance in this animal as well as in muscles.

Réaumur observed, “that although the workmanship of the land and sea animals when completed is alike, the manner of its production is very different. Spiders, caterpillars, &c., form threads of any required length, by making the viscous liquor of which the filament is formed pass through fine perforations in the organ appointed for spinning. But the way in which muscles form their thread is widely opposite; as the former resembles the work of the wire-drawer, so does the latter that of the founder who casts metals in a mould.” The canal of the organ destined for the muscle’s spinning is the mould in which its thread is cast, and gives to it its determinate length.

Réaumur learned the manner of the muscle performing the operation of swimming by actually placing some of these fish under his constant inspection. He kept them in his apartment in a vessel filled with sea water, and distinctly saw them open their shells and put forth their tongues. They extended and contracted this organ several times, obtruding it in every direction, as if seeking the fittest place whereon to fix their threads. After repeated trials of this kind, the tongue of one was observed to remain for some time on the spot chosen, and being then drawn back with great quickness, a thread was very easily discerned, fastened to the place: this operation was again resumed, until all the threads were in sufficient number: one fibre being produced at each movement of the tongue.

The old threads were found to differ materially from those newly spun, the latter being whiter, more glossy, and transparent than the former, and it was thence discovered that it was not the office of the tongue to transfer the old threads one by one to the new spots where they were fixed, which course M. Réaumur had thought was pursued. The old threads once severed from the spot to which they had been originally fixed were seen to be useless, and that every fibre employed by the fish to secure itself in a new position was produced at the time required; and, in short, that nature had endowed some fish, as well as land insects, with the power of spinning threads, as their natural wants and instincts demanded. This fact was incontrovertibly established by cutting away, as close to the body as they could with safety be separated, the old threads, which were always replaced by others in a space of time as short as was employed by other muscles not so deprived.

“The pinna and its cancer friend” have on more than one occasion been made subjects for poetry. There is doubtless some foundation for the fact of the mutual alliance between these aquatic friends which has been thus celebrated; yet some slight coloring may have been borrowed from the regions of fancy wherewith to adorn the verse, and even the prose history of their attachment may be exposed to a similar objection.

The scuttle-fish, a native of the same seas with the pinna, is its deadly foe, and would quickly destroy it, were it not for its faithful ally. In common with all the same species, the pinna is destitute of the organs of sight, and could not, therefore, unassisted, be aware of the vicinity of its dangerous enemy. A small animal of the crab kind, itself deprived of a covering, but extremely quick-sighted, takes refuge in the shell of the pinna, whose strong calcareous valves affords a shelter to her guest, while he makes a return for this protection by going forth in search of prey. At these intervals the pinna opens her valves to afford him egress and ingress: if the watchful scuttle-fish now approach, the crab returns instanter with notice of the danger to her hostess; who, timely warned, shuts her door and keeps out the enemy. When the crab has, unmolested, succeeded in loading itself with provisions, it gives a signal by a gentle noise at the opening of the shell, and when admitted, the two friends feast together on the fruit of its industry. It would appear an arduous, nay, a task almost impossible for the defenceless and diminutive crab, not merely to elude its enemies and return home, but likewise obtain a supply of provender sufficient to satisfy the wants of its larger companion. The following different account of the nature of this alliance is more credible:—

Whenever the pinna ventures to open its shell, it is immediately exposed to the attacks of various of the smaller kinds of fish, which, meeting with no resistance to their first assaults, acquire boldness and venture in. The vigilant guard, by a gentle bite, gives notice of this to his companion, who, upon such a hint, closes her shell, and having thus shut them in makes a prey of those who had come to prey upon her: when thus supplied with food, she never fails to share her booty with so useful an ally.

We are told that the sagacious observer, Dr. Hasselquist, in his voyage, (about the middle of the last century,) to Palestine, which he undertook for objects connected with the study of natural history, beheld this curious phenomenon, which, although well known to the ancients, had escaped the attention of the moderns.

It is related by Aristotle that the pinna keeps a guard to watch for her, which grows to her mouth, and serves as her caterer: this he calls pinnophylax, and describes as a little fish with claws like a crab. Pliny observes, that the smallest species of crab is called the pinnotores, and being from its diminutive size liable to injury, has the prudence to conceal itself in the shells of oysters. In another place he describes the pinna as of the genus of shell-fish, with the further particulars that it is found in muddy waters, always erect, and never without a companion, called by some pinnatores, by others pinnophylax; this being sometimes a small squill, and at others a crab, which remains with the pinna for the sake of food.

The description of the pinna by the Greek poet Oppianus, who flourished in the second century, has been thus given in English verse:—

The pinna and the crab together dwell,
For mutual succor in one common shell;
They both to gain a livelihood combine,
That takes the prey, when this has given the sign;
From hence this crab, above his fellows famed,
By ancient Greeks was Pinnotores named.

It is said that the pinna fastens itself so strongly to the rocks, that the men employed in fishing for it are obliged to use considerable force to break the tuft of threads by which it is secured fifteen, twenty, and sometimes even thirty feet below the surface of the sea.

It is fished up in the Gulf of Tarentum by the Pernonico, which consists of two semicircular bars of iron fastened together at the ends, at one of which is a wooden pole, at the other a ring and cord. The fishermen conduct their boat over the place, where the pinna is seen through the clear water, let down the Pernonico, and, having loosened the pinna by embracing it with the iron bars and twisting it round, draw it up to the boat. The pinna is also obtained by diving. Poli, in his splendid work on the Sicilian Testacea (Parma, 1795, folio,) gives beautiful representations of the several species and especially of the Pinna Nobilis. The following description of submarine scenery and operations, is so vivid and pleasing that we quote it at length.

Pinnis hujusmodi abundant præ cæteris litus Trinacriæ, sinus Tarentinus, oraque maritima Crateris Neapolitani, potissimum ultra Promontorium Pausilypi. Equidem persummâ adficimur animi jucunditate, quoties illarum piscationis recordamur, quam vere jam inchoato inibi facere iterum iterumque consuevimus. Est ad Insulam Nisitæ, quâ illa ad septentrionem vergit, respicitque contra Pausilypi Promontorium, amœnissimi maris plaga, quoddam maris ocium. Ibi inter ingentes, pulcherrimosque marinarum stirpium saltus, quibus plaga illa undique virescit, oculosque animumque recreat, Pinnarum greges sponte gignuntur; quæ mari tranquillo, umbrisque ab insulæ summitate cadentibus, ab iis qui cymbis insistunt, ad triginta fermè pedum altitudinem, subrectæ, inque fundo arenoso defixæ perspicuè cerni possunt. Urinatores igitur, sese mari submergentes, illis arripiendis destinantur. Quoniam vero, ne reiteratis quidem ictibus, ab arenâ, ubi consitæ sunt, educi queunt; arena etenim, et pondere suo et altissimâ aquarum mole sibi incumbente fortiter stipata, urinatorum conatibus validè resistit; hi maris fundum nacti, ibique veluti in solo sedentes, arenam Pinnæ circumjectam manibus averrunt, Pinnamque deinceps ambabus manibus comprehensam divellere conantur. Et si diutius, quam par est, spiritum cohibere nequeunt, ad summa æquorum ascendunt, suberibusque aquæ innatantibus inibi de industriâ positis innituntur, donec tandem aëris haustu recreati, maris fundum iterum petant, operamque penitus absolvant. v. ii. p. 230, 231.

This species of Pinna is especially abundant on the shores of Sicily, in the Gulf of Taranto, and in the Bay of Naples, particularly beyond the Cape of Posilipo. It always fills my mind with the greatest delight to recollect the manner of fishing for it, in which I have often taken a part at that spot in the commencement of spring. On the northern shore of the Isle of Nisida opposite Posilipo, is a most agreeable expanse of water, where the sea appears to be ever at rest. Here, amidst those vast and most beauteous submarine forests, with which the coast is decorated in every direction so as at once to charm the mind and refresh the eye, the Pinna grows spontaneously in large groups, and in calm water, when the shadows fall from the summit of the island, is clearly seen by persons in boats growing nearly upright and fixed in the sandy bottom at the depth of about thirty feet. There are divers, whose business it is to bring it up. But, since it cannot be loosened even by repeated blows, (for the sand firmly resists the attempts of the diver, being supported by its own weight and by the super-incumbent water,) in these circumstances he sits down at the bottom of the sea, brushes away with his fingers the earth which encompasses the shell, and then endeavors to pull it up by seizing it with both hands. If he is thus likely to be detained at the bottom for a longer time than he can hold his breath, he ascends to the surface, supports himself upon corks, which are in readiness for him, and, when he has sufficiently recovered himself by breathing, he again dives to the bottom to complete his task.

The specimens of Pinna in the British Museum show not only the tuft, but also the pearls and the mother of pearl. Poli found in one specimen of the Pinna Nobilis no less than twenty pearls, of which he has given figures in his splendid work. Pliny (l. ix. c. 35.) mentions the practice of diving for the Pinna in the Mediterranean Sea in order to obtain pearls from it: and Athenæus (l. iii. p. 93 Casaub.) has preserved extracts from two historical writers, one of whom accompanied Alexander on his Indian expedition, and who informs us, that the Pinna was procured in the Indian seas, by diving and for the sake of the pearls.

The Italians call the fibres Lana Pesce or Lana Penna, i. e. Fish Wool, or Pinna Wool. It is not equally good in all places. When the bottom of the sea is sandy, the shell with its bunch of fibres may be easily extracted, and they are silky and of a fine color. But in rushy and muddy bottoms so fast do they stick as to be generally broken in drawing up, and are of a blackish color without gloss.

The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water, and again in tepid water, then spread on a table to dry: while yet moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and then through a narrow one. That which is destined for very fine works is also drawn through iron combs, called scarde (cards). It is then spun with a distaff and spindle.

As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality, the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings and gloves, are expensive. They are esteemed excellent preservatives against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly carried on at Taranto, the ancient Tarentum.

The Lana Penna, having been spun, is now almost universally knit. But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this process prior to the second century, whatever garments they made of this material must have been woven.

The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Tertullian, who lived in the second century (De Pallio, iii. p. 115, Rigaltii). Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says,

Nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosæ lanusitatis plautiores conchæ comant.

Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was necessary also to fish for one’s dress. For fleeces are obtained from the sea, where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mossy hair. (See Fig. 7, Plate II.)

Procopius informs us (De Edif. lib. iii. c. 1.), that Armenia was governed by five hereditary satraps, who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor. Among these was a Chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna. (Χλαμὺς ἡ ἐξ ἐρίων πεποιημένη, οὐχ οἷα τῶν προβατίων ἐκπέφυκεν, ἀλλ’ ἐκ θαλάσσης συνειλεγμένων· πίννους τὰ ζῶα καλεῖν νενομίκασι, ἐν οἷς ἡ τῶν ἐρίων ἔκφυσις γίνεται.) This chlamys was fastened with a fibula of gold, in which a precious stone was set, and three hyacinths were suspended from it by golden chains (χρυσαῖς τε καὶ χαλαραῖς ἀλύσεσιν.) The chlamys was accompanied by a silken tunic, adorned with sprigs or “feathers” of gold. It is thus described:

Χιτὼν ἐκ μετάξης, ἐγκαλλωπίσμασι χρυσοῖς πανταχόθεν ὡραΐσμενος, ἃ δὴ νενομίκασι πλούμμια καλεῖν.

With the chlamys and tunic were worn boots of red leather, such as only the emperors of Rome and Persia were allowed to wear.

St. Basil mentions with admiration “the golden fleece” of the Pinna, which no artificial dye could imitate. Πόθεν τὸ χρυσοῦν ἔριον αἱ πίνναι τρέφουσιν, ὅπερ οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀνθοβάφων ἐμιμήσατο.—Hexaem. vii.

Whether the tuft of the Pinna was used for weaving before the time of the authors, who have now been cited, seems doubtful. As the Pinna is frequently mentioned by earlier writers, both Greek and Latin, but without any reference to the use of its tuft, it may be regarded as probable, that this kind of cloth was not invented before the time of Tertullian.

It is a no less curious question, Whence did the ancients obtain the fibres of the Pinna, and where was the manufacture of them carried on?

It has been commonly said at Tarentum, but apparently for no other reason than that the Pinna is obtained and the manufacture principally carried on at Taranto in modern times. By referring to the authorities above quoted, it will be seen that none of them makes any allusion to Tarentum. Consequently we have no direct evidence, that this was the seat of the ancient manufacture. On the contrary, we have testimony, that fine cloths of this substance were made in India, and thence imported into Greece and other countries.

The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a document of an age at least as late as the time of Tertullian, states that the business of diving for the wool of the Pinna was prosecuted near the city called Colchi in the south of India. Different species of Pinna with tufts of fine silk are now no less abundant in the Indian than the Mediterranean Sea. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea presents a sufficient proof, that this beautiful substance was spun and woven by the Indians, whereas we can only suppose from analogy that the manufacture was carried on in ancient times by the Tarentines.

Chapter XI. Fibres, or Silken Material of the Pine-Apple.

Fibres of the Pine-Apple—Facility of dyeing—Manner of preparing the fibres for weaving—Easy cultivation of the plant—Thrives where no other plant will live—Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke’s patent process of manufacturing cloth from the fibres of this plant—Its comparative want of strength—Silken material procured from the Papyfera—Spun and woven into cloth—Cloth of this description manufactured generally by the Otaheiteans, and other inhabitants of the South Sea Islands—Great strength (supposed) of ropes made from the fibres of the aloe—Exaggerated statements.

This plant, which has hitherto been valued solely as ministering to the luxuries of the table, has lately had a new interest attached to it from the discovery of a fibre contained in its leaves, possessing such valuable properties, that it will, in all probability, soon form a new and important article of commerce.

The fibres of the pine-apple plant are disposed in fasciculi, each apparent fibre being an assemblage of fibres adhering together, of such exceeding delicacy, as only to measure from 1/5000th to 1/7000th part of an inch in diameter; viewed under the microscope, they bear considerable resemblance to silk, from their glossy, even, and smooth texture. They appear altogether destitute of joints, or other irregularities, and are remarkably transparent, particularly when viewed in water: they are very elastic, of considerable strength, and readily receive the most delicate dyes. This last fact appears singular, when we bear in mind the resistance, if we may be allowed the expression, which flax offers to dyes. With much trouble, and by long processes, flax will receive a few dark dingy colors: all light and brilliant ones it wholly resists; they do not enter the fibre, but merely dry upon it externally, and afterwards easily peel, or rub off,—in short, it may be said to be painted, and not dyed.

The preparation of the pine-fibre is exceedingly simple. If a leaf of this plant be examined, it will be found to consist of an assemblage of fibres running parallel from one extremity of the leaf to the other, embedded in the soft pabulum. All the process necessary is to pass the leaf under a “tilt hammer,” the rapid action of which, in a few seconds, completely crushes it, without in the slightest degree injuring the fibre, which remains in a large skein, and then requires to be rinsed out in soft water, to cleanse it from impurities, and be afterwards dried in the shade. So simple and rapid is the process, that a leaf, in a quarter of an hour after being cut from the plant, may be in a state fit for the purposes of the manufacturer, as a glossy, white fibre, with its strength unimpaired by any process of maceration, which, by inducing partial putrefaction, not only materially injures the strength of flax, but also renders it of a dingy color.

The pine-plant abounds both in the East and West Indies, and may be easily propagated from the crown; offsets from round the base of the fruit, which often amount to upwards of twenty in number; and from the young plants which spring from the parent stem; its cultivation requires but little care or expense, and is of such hardy growth, as to be almost independent of those casualties of weather, which often prove so detrimental to more delicate crops—it is one of those plants which Nature has scattered so profusely through tropical regions, whose leaves are thick and fleshy, to contain a large supply of nourishment, and covered by a thick, glazed cuticle; admitting of so little evaporation, that many of them will thrive upon a barren rock, where no other plant would live. Also from the large portion of oxalic acid which the leaves contain, no animal will touch them, and are, therefore, exempt from the trespasses of cattle, &c. Indeed no greater proof of the hardiness of the plant can be given, than the fact, that in many places where lands have been under tillage,—afterwards abandoned, and allowed to return to a state of nature, the pine-apple plant exhibits the only trace of former cultivation; every other cultivated plant has died away before the encroachments of the surrounding wood, while they alone remained increasing from year to year, and spread into large beds.

Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke obtained a patent in England, bearing date December 9, 1836, for the following mode of preparing the filaments of this plant, the “Bromelia ananas.” We give the patentee’s own description (with slight emendations), as received from the patent office, London, and which is as follows.

“I (the said Frederick Burt Zincke) do hereby declare that the nature of my said invention consists—Firstly, in preparing or manufacturing the leaf of the plant, commonly called the pine-apple, by bruising, beating, washing, and drying the same, in such manner as to separate the long fibrous parts from the cuticle pabulum, and other matter comprising the said leaf. Secondly, in the application of the fibrous substance, so prepared to various manufactures and purposes, for which silk, flax, cotton, hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials are now used. And further, I describe the manner in which my said invention is to be performed by the following statement: For the purpose of preparing the fibre, I cut the leaves from the pine-apple plant, at any period from the time of their obtaining their full growth, till the ripening of the fruit, for I find that if the leaves are taken before they are full grown, the fibre is less strong, and if suffered to remain on the plant, after the ripening of the fruit, the fibre becomes harsh, and is more difficult to divest of the extraneous matter. The small thorns having been trimmed from the edge of the leaves, with a sharp knife, the leaves should be crushed, so as to disengage the fibre from the other matter composing the leaf, for which purpose the employment of a mallet upon a block of wood, will fully answer the intended purpose. This process of crushing is to be continued until the fibre appears in an assemblage of long silky filaments, with more or less of the pulpy and other matter of the leaf adhering to them; to cleanse them from which they are to be well rinsed in soft water, immediately after having been crushed or beaten, and then the water should forthwith be squeezed out of them, by drawing them between the edges of two pieces of wood, placed parallel to each other, so as to admit of the fibres being drawn out rather lightly between them, for if the green matter is allowed to dry on the fibre, it of course becomes more difficult to cleanse. The washing must be carefully performed, so as to prevent the fibre from becoming tangled or knotted. The operation of washing or rinsing must be repeated until the fibre be thoroughly cleansed. If it be found difficult to clean the fibre from the extraneous matter, in consequence of not collecting the leaves from the plant sufficiently early, or from any other cause, the operation will be facilitated by boiling the fibre, after it has been beaten, and partially purified in a solution of soap in soft water. For this purpose the fibre must be regularly disposed in any suitable vessel, so as to prevent its becoming tangled, with sufficient water to cover it, in which soap has been dissolved, in the proportion of about 5 lbs. to 50 lbs. of fibre, a light weight being then placed upon it, to keep the fibre beneath the surface of the liquor; the whole is then to be boiled for the space of three or four hours, and after boiling, to be well rinsed out in soft water, and squeezed as before directed. The fibre having been cleansed by these processes, is to be gradually dried in the shade, and occasionally shaken out, so as to prevent the too close adhesion of the filament in drying, which would otherwise take place. The fibre may be obtained free from the extraneous matter of the leaf by other modes; but I prefer that which I have above described. As to the second part of my said invention, it is only necessary to observe that from the superiority of this fibre in several respects over those now in common use(?), it is adapted to a vast number of purposes, in which fibrous materials are now employed; it is of a glossy white color, it receives dyes with facility, it possesses great strength, and is divisible to an exceeding degree of fineness, for upon examination each filament that appears a single fibre, is, in fact, a bundle of very delicate fibres, adhering more or less strongly together. These qualities render it applicable to the manufacture of shawls, drills, damask-linens, plushes, carpets, rugs, lace, bonnets, paper; as a material for rope, twine, or thread, and a variety of other purposes to which silk, cotton, flax hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials are now applied. As a material for spinning in the ordinary method in which flax is now spun through hot water, this fibre requires to undergo the process generally in use for bleaching flax. I find the period at which the bleaching can be most conveniently performed, is when the fibre is in the state called technically “a roving;” for the coarser yarns the first stages of the bleaching process will be sufficient, but this operation must be carried further, in proportion to the fineness of the yarn intended to be spun. The effect of the bleaching upon the fibre is, to disengage part of the adhesive matter, which connects the fine filaments together, and render the yarn susceptible of longation, between the receiving and delivering rollers in spinning, after it has passed through the hot water; I therefore claim as my invention, the preparing and manufacturing into the fibres hereinbefore particularly described; the leaf of the plant commonly called the pine-apple, by any mode or modes of preparation, and also the application of the said fibres, when prepared and manufactured, to the several purposes hereinbefore also particularly specified, the same being to the best of my knowledge (information, remembrance, and belief), now and not heretofore practised.”

M. de la Rouverie affirms, that he procured a beautiful vegetable silk from the Papyfera or paper mulberry; cutting the bark while the tree was in sap, beating it with mallets, and steeping it in water; he obtained a thread from the fibres, almost equal to silk in quality; and this was woven into a cloth the texture of which appeared as if formed of that material. The finest sort of cloth among the inhabitants of Otaheite, and other of the South Sea Islands, is made of the bark of this tree.

According to M. Chevremont, Engineer of Mines, “ropes made of aloes have four times the resistance of those of hemp of the same diameter, and made by the same process(?). The fibres of the aloe contain a resinous substance which protects the ropes from the action of moisture: even at sea, and renders the tarring of them unnecessary. They are lighter than hempen ropes, and lose nothing of their strength by being wet(?). When plunged into water, they are shortened only two per cent., so that they become less rigid than ropes made of hemp(?).”

There appears to be a good deal of exaggeration in regard to the great superiority of the fibres of these plants over cotton, flax, &c. This is particularly the case in regard to Mr. Zincke, for although he succeeded in producing some very beautiful specimens of fabric, in conformity with the foregoing specification, yet, the manufacture does not appear to make much progress, chiefly on account of the inferiority in point of strength of the cloth, more especially when bleached.

Chapter XII. Mallows.

CULTIVATION AND USE OF THE MALLOW AMONG THE ANCIENTS.—TESTIMONY OF LATIN, GREEK, AND ATTIC WRITERS.

The earliest mention of Mallows is to be found in Job xxx. 4.—Varieties of the Mallow—Cultivation and use of the Mallow—Testimony of ancient authors—Papias and Isidore’s mention of Mallow cloth—Mallow cloth common in the days of Charlemagne—Mallow shawls—Mallow cloths mentioned in the Periplus as exported from India to Barygaza (Baroch)—Calidāsa the Indian dramatist, who lived in the first century B. C.—His testimony—Wallich’s (the Indian botanist) account—Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Sacontăla of Calidāsa—Valcălas or Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Ramayana, a noted poem of ancient India—Sheets made from trees—Ctesias’ testimony—Strabo’s account—Testimony of Statius Cæcilius and Plautus, who lived 169 B. C. and 184 B. C.—Plautus’s laughable enumeration of the analogy of trades—Beauty of garments of Amorgos mentioned by Eupolis—Clearchus’s testimony—Plato mentions linen shifts—Amorgine garments first manufactured at Athens in the time of Aristophanes.

The earliest mention of mallows is that given in the book of Job, in the following words: “For want and famine they were solitary: fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper-roots for their meat.”—Job xxx. 4.

We find in ancient authors of a more modern date, distinct mention of three species of malvaceous plants, which are still common in the South of Europe. These are, the Common Mallow, Malva Silvestris, Linn.; the Marsh Mallow, Althæa Officinalis, Linn.; and the Hempleaved Mallow, Althæa Cannabina, Linn.

The Common Mallow is called by the Latin writers Malva, by the Greek Μαλάχη, or Μολόχη.

This plant was used for food from the earliest times. Hesiod represents living on Mallows and asphodel as the sign of moderation, contentment, and simplicity of manners.

Νήπιοι, οὐδ’ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντὸς,
Οὐδ’ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῃ τε καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ’ ὄνειαρ.—Op. et Dies, 41.

Fools! not to know how much more the half is than the whole, and how much benefit there is in mallows and asphodel.

A dish of these vegetables was probably the cheapest of all kinds of food; they grew wild in the meadow and by the wayside, and were gathered and dressed without any labor or trouble.

Various authors however mention the cultivation of the Common Mallow in gardens. See Virgil, Moretum, 73. Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. xix. c. 22 and 31. Isidori Orig. l. xvii. c. 10. Papiæ Vocabular. v. Malva. Geoponica, xii. l. Palladuis, iii. 24. xi. ll.

Dioscorides (l. ii. c. III.) calls it the Garden Mallow. Aristophanes (Plutus 544.) mentions eating the shoots of mallows instead of bread, intending by this to represent a vile and destitute kind of living. Plutarch (Septem Sapientum Convivium) says, “The mallow is good for food, and the Anthericus is sweet.” According to Le Clerc ὁ ἀνθέρικος (Anthericus) means the scapus of the asphodel: if he is right, this plant was eaten as we now eat asparagus. It is also remarkable that on this supposition Plutarch mentions the same two plants, which are also mentioned together by Hesiod.

According to Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. vii. 7. 2.) the mallow was not eaten raw, as in a salad, but required to be cooked. Cicero (Epist. ad Fam. vii. 26.) mentions the highly-seasoned vegetables at a dinner given by his friend Lentulus. Having been made ill by them, he says, that he, “who easily abstained from oysters and lampreys, had been deceived by beet and mallows.” Probably the leaves of the mallow were on this occasion boiled, chopped, and seasoned, much in the same way as spinach is now prepared in France.

Moschus in the following well-known lines refers to the common mallow together with other culinary vegetables:

Αἲ, αἲ, ταὶ μαλάχαι μὲν, ἐπὰν κατὰ κᾶπον ὄλωνται,
Ἠδὲ τὰ χλωρὰ σέλινα, τό τ’ εὐθαλὲς οὖλον ἄνηθον,
Ὕστερον αὖ ζώοντι, καὶ εἰς ἔτος ἄλλο φυόντι.

Mallows, alas! die down, and parsley, and flourishing fennel;
Then they spring up afresh, and live next year in the garden.

This is accurately true of the common mallow, the root of which is perennial, so that the stems grow up and die down again every year. Accordingly Theophrastus brings it as an example of a plant with annual stems.

Horace in two passages signifies his partiality to mallows, calling them “leves,” light to digest.

Let olives be my food, endive, and mallows light.

Od. l. i. 31. v. 16.

Mallows, salubrious to a frame o’er-filled.

Epod. 2. 57.

Martial recommends this vegetable on account of its laxative effect:

Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis. (iii. 47.)

Exoneratarus ventrem mihi villica malvas
Attulit, et varias, quas habet hortus, opes. (x. 48.)

Diphilus of Siphnos (as quoted by Athenæus, l. ii. p. 58. E. Casaub.), after enumerating the medical virtues of the Common Mallow, says, that “the wild was better than the cultivated kind.”

Without quoting other classical authorities, the ancient practice may be illustrated by the observations of modern travellers, who mention that the Common Mallow is still an article of consumption in the same parts of the world.

Biddulph, who visited Syria about the year 1600, says, he “saw near Aleppo many poor people gathering mallows, and three-leaved grass, and asked them what they did with it, and they answered, that it was all their food, and that they boiled it, and did eat it.” (Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Library of the E. of Oxford, p. 807.)

Dr. Sibthorp states, that the Malva Silvestris grows wild in Cyprus, and is called Μόλωχα. He also says, “The wild mallow is very common about Athens: the leaves are boiled and eaten as a pot-herb, and an ingredient in the Dolma.” (Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited by Walpole, p. 245.) Dr. Holland mentions both Malva Silvestris and Althæa Officinalis among the officinal plants, which he found in Cephalonia. (Travels in Greece, p. 543, 4to.).

The Althæa Officinalis, or Marsh Mallow, is called by the Greek authors Ἀλθαία, by the Latin, Hibiscus. Theophrastus says, that it went also under the name of wild mallow. Whilst the Common Mallow, though highly esteemed for its medicinal virtues, was principally regarded as a substantial article of food; the Marsh Mallow, on the contrary, seems to have been rarely used except as an article of the Materia Medica; and, as its peculiar properties were likely to be more matured in the wild than cultivated state, it does not appear to have been grown in gardens. Theophrastus describes it by comparing it with the Common Mallow, and mentions its application, both internally and externally, as a medicine. Dioscorides (l. iii. c. 139.) gives similar details. Besides mentioning the proper name of the plant in Greek and in Latin, he calls it, “a kind of wild mallow.” Palladius (l. xi. p. 184. Bip.) explains “Hibiscus” to be the same as “Althæa.” See also Pliny, l. xx. c. 14. ed. Bip. Virgil alludes to the use of it as fodder for goats, and as a material for weaving baskets.

The Hemp-leaved Mallow, Althæa Cannabina, is once mentioned by Dioscorides (lib. iii. c. 141.). Giving an account of hemp, he distinguishes between the cultivated and the wild. He says of the wild hemp, that the Romans called it Cannabis Terminalis. After mentioning the medical properties of the plant, Dioscorides says, that its bark was useful for making ropes. The truth of this observation will be apparent to every botanist. The plants belonging to the natural order Malvaceæ are all remarkable for the abundance of strong and beautiful fibres in their bark.

But of the European species there is none superior in the fineness, the strength, the whiteness, and lustre of its fibres, to the Common Mallow, the Malva Silvestris. We have seen that the ancients were familiarly acquainted with this plant; that it was commonly cultivated in their gardens; and that they gathered it, when growing wild, to be taken as food or medicine. In these circumstances they could scarcely fail to observe the aptitude of its bark for being spun into thread. More especially in places where they had no other native supply of fibrous materials; in Attica, for example, which probably produced neither hemp nor flax, it seems in the highest degree probable, that the fitness of the mallow to supply materials for weaving would not be overlooked.

In producing the evidence, which establishes this as a positive fact, we shall begin with the latest testimonies and proceed in a reverse order upward to the most ancient. According to this plan, the first authority is that of Papias, who wrote his Vocabulary about the year 1050. He gives the following explanations:

Malbella vestis quæ ex malvarum stamine conficitur, quam alii molocinam vocant.
Molocina vestis quæ albo stamine sit: quam alii malbellam vocant.

These passages clearly describe a kind of cloth made of the white fibres of the common mallow. Malbella, the same with Malvella, is a Latin adjective, in the form of a diminutive, from Malva: Molocina, the same with Μολόχινη, is a Greek adjective from Μολόχη, and signifies made of mallow.

Papias, who seems in compiling his dictionary to have made great use of Isidore, perhaps derived these explanations in part from the following passage of the latter author:

Melocinia (vestis est), quæ malvarum stamine conficitur, quam alii molocinam, alii malvellam vocant. Isid. Hisp. Orig. xix. 22.

The cloth called Melocinea is made of the thread of mallows, and is called by some Molocina, by others Malvella.

The passages of Papias cannot be taken as a proof, that mallow-cloth was woven in his day. But that it was in fashion as late as the age of Charlemagne appears from the following line, which is quoted by Du Cange (Glossar. Med. et Inf. Lat. v. Melocineus) from a poem in praise of that monarch, attributed to Alcuin:

Tecta melocineo fulgescit femina amictu.

Wrapt in a mallow shawl the lady shines.

The word “fulgescit” aptly describes the lustre of the material under consideration. From the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea we learn, that cloths made of mallow, were among the articles of export from India, being brought from Ozene (Ugain) and Tagara in the interior of the country to the sea-port of Barygaza (Baroch). P. 146. 169, 170, 171.

The genus Hibiscus, Linn. is very abundant in India. The bark of a certain species of this genus, especially of H. Tiliaceus and H. Cannabinus, is now very extensively employed for making cordage, and might unquestionably have been used for making cloth.

H. Tiliaceus is also represented in Rheede’s Hort. Malabaricus (vol. i. fig. 30.). It grows about 15 feet high.

Dr. Wallich (Cat. of Indian Woods, p. 18.) mentions two other species as used for making cordage from the bark.

The late Mr. John Hare, who lived in India a long time, says, that a coarse kind of cloth, used for making sacks, &c., is now woven from Hibiscus bark.

As a further evidence, that the Molochina mentioned in the Periplus were made from the bark of the Hibiscus, we may refer to that admirable specimen of Eastern taste and ingenuity, the Sacontăla of the great Indian dramatist Calidāsa. Several passages of this poem make mention of the Valcăla, which the Sanscrit Lexicons, themselves of great antiquity, explain as meaning either bark, or a vesture made from it. We learn from Dr. Wallich, a celebrated Indian botanist, that many kinds of Hibiscus had this quality in an eminent degree, and, as their bark was in common use for making all kinds of cordage, it might undoubtedly be employed for weaving.

The Sacontăla is of a date as ancient as the Periplus. Professor Von Bohlen (Das alte Indien, vol. ii. p. 477.) asserts, that the author Calidāsa certainly flourished as early as the first century B. C. Sir William Jones makes him older by several centuries. (Works, vol. vi. p. 206.) The place also agrees as well as the time. The Hibiscus Tiliaceus, according to Sir J. E. Smith, is “one of the most common trees in every part of the East Indies, thriving in all sorts of situations and soils, and cultivated for the sake of its shade even more than the beauty of its flowers, in towns and villages and by road-sides. A coarse cordage,” he adds, “is made of the bark; the wood is light and white, useful for small cabinet-work; the mucilage of the whole plant is applied to some medical purposes.” The Molochina, mentioned in the Periplus, were brought from Ozene and Tagara, and may have come from still further North. The hermitage, described in the drama, was at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and near the river Malina, and, according to the representations given by the poet, the Valcălas (translated by Sir W. Jones “mantles of woven bark,” and by Chézy, “vêtemens d’écorce”), were worn both by the hermits and by the beautiful Sacontăla, while she was their inmate.

“Valcălas” are mentioned in precisely the same manner in the Ramayana, one of the most noted of the heroic poems of ancient India. They are represented as coarse garments worn by ascetics.

If the explanation now given be admitted as applicable to the Molochina of the Periplus, it may throw light upon some other passages of ancient authors.

Ctesias, in his Indica, mentions “sheets made from trees.”

Strabo’s account of the webs, which he calls Serica, an account derived from the writings of Nearchus, admiral of Alexander the Great, represents those webs as made from fibres, which were scraped from the bark of trees. This would apply exactly to the supposed use of the Hibiscus for making cloth. The bark must have been first stript from the tree, and the fibres then scraped from the inside of the bark.

To the same source we may, we think, trace the idea of Arethas (in Apoc. c. 57.), that the Byssus, Rev. xix. 8., was “the bark of an Indian tree made into flax.”

Although the date of the following inscription, found at Rome, is uncertain, it may be conveniently brought in here. It is published by Muratori, Novus Thesaurus Vet. Inscriptionum, tom. ii. p. 939.

P. AVCTIVS P. L. LYSANDER. VESTIARIVS. TENVIARIVS. MOLOCHINARIVS. VOT. SOL.

Muratori in his Note says, that “Vestiarius Tenuiarius” was the man who made thin garments, and “Molochinarius” the man who made such garments of a mallow color.

The authors, next in regard to antiquity, who make mention of Molochina, are the writers of the Latin Comedy, Statius Cæcilius, who died 169 B. C., and Plautus, who died 184 B. C.

Nonius Marcellus (l. xvi.) quotes the following line from the Pausimachus of the former dramatist:

Carbasina, molochina, ampelina.

The passage of Plautus is in the Aulularia (Act iii. Scene v. l. 40.), where we have a ludicrous enumeration, extending through more than ten lines, of all the persons concerned in the manufacture or sale of garments.

Solearii astant, astant molochinarii.

All the lexicographers and commentators explain Molochinarius to be one who dyes cloth of the color of the mallow. Lanarius was a woollen-draper; Coactiliarius, a dealer in felts, a hatter; Lintearius a linen-draper; and Sericarius a silk-mercer. According to the same analogy, Molochinarius would mean a dealer in Molochina, i. e. in all kinds of cloth made from mallows.

The class of writers, which will now be produced as affording testimony respecting the use of the mallow for weaving, are Greek authors, and who instead of the common Greek terms employ the Attic term Ἀμοργὸς and its derivatives.

Ἀμοργὸς has been explained by some of the lexicographers to be a kind of flax (See Julius Pollux, L. vii. § 74.). Perhaps by this explanation nothing more was intended than that it was a plant, the fibres of which were used to spin and weave into cloth. It is highly probable that it was the Malva Silvestris or Common Mallow, and that it was called Ἀμοργὸς.

According to the Attic lexicons of Pausanias (apud Eustath. l. c.) and of Mœris, Ἀμοργὸς was an Attic term. We now find traces of it in seven Attic writers, four or five of whom wrote comedy. These are Aristophanes, Cratinus, Antiphanes, Eupolis, Clearchus, Æschines, and Plato.

I. We shall take first Aristophanes, whose comedy called Lysistrata is frequently quoted by Pausanias and Cratinus, and being still extant throws considerable light upon the subject. It was represented in the year 412. B. C. Lysistrata says (l. 150),

Κᾂν τοῖς χιτώνιοισι τοῖς ἁμόργινοις
Γυμναὶ παριοῖμεν,

“And if we should present ourselves naked in shifts of amorgos;” showing that these shifts were transparent. Accordingly Mœris says, that the ἀμόργινον was λεπτὸν ὕφασμα, “a thin web.” Bisetus in his Greek commentary on this play, after quoting the explanations of Stephanus Byzantinus, Suidas, Eustathius, and the Etymologicum Magnum, judiciously concludes as follows: “From all these it is manifest, that ἀμόργινοι χιτώνες, whether they took their name from a place, from their color, or from the raw material, were a kind of valuable robe, worn by the rich, fashionable, and luxurious women.”

A subsequent passage of the Lysistrata (v. 736-741) still further illustrates this subject. A woman laments, that she has left at home her ἀμοργις without being peeled (ἄλοπον), and she goes to peel it (ἀποδείρειν). The mallow no less than flax and hemp, would require the bark to be stript off, and doubtless the best time for stripping it is as soon as the plant is gathered.

II. Cratinus died about 420 B. C. The following line, from his comedy called Μαλθακοὶ, represents a person spinning Ἀμοργός.

Ἀμοργὸν ἔνδον βρυτίνην νήθειν τινα.

Cratina Fragmenta, a Runkel, p. 29.

III. Julius Pollux, speaking of garments made of Ἀμοργὸς (L. vii. c. 13.) quotes the Medea of Antiphanes thus: Ἦν χιτὼν ἁμόργινος. This author was contemporary with Aristophanes.

IV. Eupolis wrote about the same time, and his authority may be added to the rest as proving that garments of Amorgos were admired by luxurious persons at Athens.

V. Clearchus of Soli mentions the use of a cover of Amorgos for inclosing a splendid purple blanket. This application of it is agreeable to the foregoing evidence, showing that the amorgine webs were transparent. The silky translucence of the lace-like web of mallow would have a very beautiful effect over the fine purple of the downy blanket.

VI. Æschines in an oration against Timarchus, the object of which is to hold up to contempt the extravagancies of this Athenian spendthrift, in his enumeration of them, he mentions (p. 118, ed. Reiskii.) that Timarchus took to his house a “woman skilled in making cloths of Amorgos.”

VII. Plato in the 13th Epistle, addressed to Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, which, if not genuine, is at least ancient, proposes to give to the three daughters of Cebes three long shifts, not the valuable shifts made of Amorgos, but the linen shifts of Sicily.

The mention of amorgine garments by the writers, who have now been cited, seems to prove, that the fashion of making and wearing them first came in among the Greeks at Athens in the time of Aristophanes, who lived, as the reader will have observed, in the fifth century before Christ. From them the fashion may have extended itself into Sicily and Italy, which will account, if Amorgina were the same with Molochina, for the striking agreement in this respect between the writers of Greek and of Latin Comedy. In subsequent ages the manufacture seems to have declined, probably in consequence of the abundance of silk and other rich and beautiful goods imported from Asia. But the mention of these stuffs in the writings of Isidore and Alcuin renders it probable, that they were brought again into use in the fifth and following centuries of the Christian era.

Chapter XIII. Spartum, or Spanish Broom.

CLOTH MANUFACTURED FROM BROOM BARK, NETTLE, AND BULBOUS PLANT.—TESTIMONY OF GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS.

Authority for Spanish Broom—Stipa Tenacissima—Cloth made from Broom-bark—Albania—Italy—France—Mode of preparing the fibre for weaving—Pliny’s account of Spartum—Bulbous plant—Its fibrous coats—Pliny’s translation of Theophrastus—Socks and garments—Size of the bulb—Its genus or species not sufficiently defined—Remarks of various modern writers on this plant—Interesting communications of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass. to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth.

Pliny says, that “in the part of Hispania Citerior about New Carthage whole mountains were covered with Spartum; that the natives made mattresses, shoes, and coarse garments of it, also fires and torches; and that its tender tops were eaten by animals.” He also says, that it grows spontaneously where nothing else will grow, and that it is “the rush of a dry soil.”

The question now arises, what plant Pliny intended to describe. Clusius, who travelled in Spain chiefly with a view to botany, supposed Pliny’s “Spartum” to be the tough grass, used in every part of Spain for making mats, baskets, &c., which Linnæus afterwards called Stipa Tenacissima. It is not surprising, that the opinion of so eminent a botanist as Clusius has been generally adopted. It is, however, far more probable, that the plant, which Pliny intended to speak of, was the Spartium Junceum, Linn., so familiarly known under the name of Spanish Broom.

In the first place, the name Spartum should be considered as decisive of the question, unless some sufficient reason can be shown for ascribing to it in this passage a sense different from that which it commonly bore. Spartus or Spartum, is admitted to be used by all authors, Greek and Latin, and even by Pliny himself in another passage, to denote the Spanish Broom. We learn from Sibthorp, that the Spanish Broom is still called Sparto by the Greeks, and that it grows on dry sandy hills throughout the islands of the Archipelago and the continent of Greece. Sparto was indeed properly the Greek name of this shrub, the Latin name being Genista, and the use of the Greek name in Hispania Citerior may have been owing to the Grecian settlements on that coast, colonized from Marseilles.

Besides the passages of Latin authors referred to by Schneider and Billerbeck, and which it is unnecessary to repeat, the following from Isidore of Seville appears decisive respecting the acceptation of the term.

“Spartus frutex virgosus sine foliis, ab asperitate vocatus; volumina enim funium, quæ ex eo fiunt, aspera sunt.” Originum L. xvii. c. 9.

This is the definition of a learned and observant author, who lived in Spain, and who must have been familiar with the facts. “Frutex virgosus sine foliis” is a clear and striking description of the Spanish Broom, the leaves of which are so small as easily to escape observation. The Stipa Tenacissima, on the other hand, is not a shrub with twigs, but a grass, which grows in tufts, the long leaves being as abundant and useful as the stems or straws. Clusius himself (l. c.) in laying down the distinction between the Spartum of the Greeks, which he supposed to be the Spanish Broom, and the Spartum of Pliny, which he supposed to be the Stipa Tenacissima, asserts that the former is a shrub (frutex), the latter a herb with grassy leaves (herba graminacea folia proferens). It is clear, therefore, that the inhabitants of Spain in the time of Isidore still used the term Spartus in its original acceptation, viz. to denote the Spartium Junceum of Linnæus.

When the Stipa Tenacissima was brought into use for making ropes and for other purposes, for which the Spanish Broom was employed, the name of the latter would naturally be extended to the former, and we may thus account for the fact that the Stipa Tenacissima is now universally known in Spain by the name Esparto. Indeed it is possible, that the employment of the Stipa Tenacissima for these purposes may have been as ancient as the time of Pliny; and his use of the word “herba” in describing it, as well as the locality which he assigns to it, the hilly country about Carthage, favors the common interpretation, and perhaps even authorizes the conclusion, that his account is the result of confounding the two plants together, so that he says of one supposed plant things, which were partly true of both, and partly applicable either to the Spanish Broom, or to the Stipa Tenacissima only. But, even if this be admitted, it is still possible that the plant, from whose fibres the “pastorum vestis” was manufactured, was not the grassy Stipa, but the shrub, the Spanish Broom.

In order to establish this point we now proceed to mention the evidence respecting the application of it to such uses. It has been employed for making cloth in Turkey, in Italy, and the South of France, but in circumstances, which were either specially favorable to the manufacture, or where flax could not be cultivated. It is manufactured into shirts in Albania according to Dr. Sibthorp. Nearly a century ago, Pope Benedict XIV. brought a colony of Albanians to inhabit a barren and desolate portion of his territory on the sea-coast. Here they obtained a very fine, strong, durable thread from the Broom and the Nettle, and used it, when woven, in place of linen. Trombelli, who relates this fact, also gives an account of the manufacture of broom-bark in the vicinity of Lucca, where the hills, called Monte Cascia, are covered with this plant. “Formerly,” he says, “the people derived no other advantage from the shrub than to feed sheep and goats with it, and to heat their stoves and furnaces. But their ingenuity and industry have now made it far more profitable. They steep the twigs for some days in the thermal waters of Bagno a Acqua near Lucca. After this process the bark is easily stript off, and it is then combed and otherwise treated like flax. It becomes finer than hemp could be made; it is easily dyed of any color, and may be used for garments of any kind.” In the vicinity of Pisa we find that the twigs of the Spanish Broom were in like manner soaked in the thermal waters, and that a coarse cloth was manufactured from the bark.

But the manufacture has been carried to a far greater extent in the South of France. In the Journal de Physique, Tom. 30. 4to. An. 1787. p. 294., is a paper by Broussonet Sur la culture et les usages économiques du Genêt d’Espagne. A minute and highly curious account is here given of the mode of preparing the fibres, which is practised by the inhabitants of all the villages in the vicinity of Lodêve in Bas Languedoc. The shrub abounds on the barren hills of that region, and all that the people do to favor its growth is to sow the seed in the driest places, where scarce any other plant can vegetate. After being cut, the twigs are dried in the sun, then beaten, macerated in water, and treated in the same way as flax or hemp (See Zincke’s process, Chapter XI.). The coarser thread is used to make bags for holding the legumes, corn, &c.; the finer for making sheets, napkins, and shirts. The peasants in this district use no other kind of linen, not being acquainted with the culture either of flax or hemp. The ground is too dry and unproductive to suit these plants. The linen made of the Spanish Broom is as supple as that made from hemp; it might be even as beautiful as real linen, if more pains were taken with it. It becomes whiter, the oftener it is washed. It is rarely sold, each family making it for its own use. The stalks, after the rind has been separated from them, are tied in small bundles, and sold for lighting fires.

Let us now see how far Pliny’s account of the Spartum agrees with these representations of the mode of manufacturing Broom-bark. The Spartum, of which he speaks, is “the rush of a dry soil,” a description far more applicable to the young twigs of the Spanish Broom than to the grassy stems of the Stipa Tenacissima, or indeed to any other plant. His Spartum was used for making fires and for giving light (hinc ignes facesque), purposes for which the Stipa Tenacissima is not at all adapted, but to both of which the stems and twigs of the Spanish Broom are applied. The tender tops of Pliny’s Spartum served as food for animals. According to Trombelli sheep and goats feed upon the Spanish Broom in Italy; but we cannot find that this is the case with the Stipa Tenacissima. Pliny’s Spartum, after being steeped in water, was beaten in order to be made useful (Hoc autem tunditur, ut fiat utile); and this process was quite necessary in preparing the twigs of Spanish Broom, whereas the Stipa Tenacissima is most commonly manufactured without going through any such process. Clusius indeed states (l. c.) that by macerating it in water like flax, and then drying and beating it, the Spaniards of Valencia make a kind of shoes, which they call Alpergates, also cords, and other finer articles; but, at the same time, he says, that it is made into mats, baskets, ropes, and cables, merely by being dried, platted, and twisted, without any other operation. The same account is given by Townsend, who visited the country as late as 1787, and who further states, that “the esparto rush” had latterly “been spun into fine thread for the purpose of making cloth.” It seems, however, that this had only been done as an experiment, whereas the accounts which have been quoted show, that the manufacture of cloth from broom-bark had been long established in Albania, Italy, and the South of France. In the latter district more especially, the entire dependence of the people on this material as a substitute for flax and hemp, and the primitive mode in which this domestic manufacture was carried on in a retired and mountainous region, seem to indicate the high antiquity of the practice. All the other authors, who mention the use of the Stipa Tenacissima, certainly give little countenance to the idea of its fitness to supply a thread for making cloth. Mr. Carter, adopting the common opinion that the Spartum of Pliny is the Stipa Tenacissima, observes, that “at present the meanest Spaniard would think clothing made from this grass very rough and uncomfortable.” We shall only quote one other authority, that of Löfling, the favorite pupil of Linnæus, who became botanist to the King of Spain, and whose Iter Hispanicum (Stockholm, 1758.) relates particularly to the plants of that country. He follows Clusius in supposing the Spartum of Pliny to be the Stipa Tenacissima of Linnæus. He mentions, that its stem is two or three feet high, with leaves so long, thin, tough, and convoluted, that they are admirably adapted for the purposes to which they are applied. He adds, “Hispanis nominatur Esparto. Usus hujus frequentissimus per universam Hispaniam ad storeas ob pavimenta lateritia per hyemem: ad funes crassiores pro navibus ad que corbes et alia utensilia pro transportandis fructibus.” (p. 119.)

Pliny’s remark, that the Spartum, of which he speaks, could not be sown (quæ non queat seri), is not true of the Spanish Broom; but this is of little importance in the present inquiry, because it is coupled with the remark, that nothing else could be sown in the same situation (nec aliud ibi seri aut nasci potest); a remark, which is totally unfounded in fact. The Spanish Broom would unquestionably be propagated by its seed, which is very abundant.

From these facts, the reader will have no difficulty in forming his decision. Notwithstanding the respect due to the authority of Clusius, into which that of all the subsequent writers seems to resolve itself, it appears to us that the evidence preponderates against the use of Stipa Tenacissima for making cloth in ancient times, and points to the conclusion, that the coarse garments, to which Pliny alludes, were fabricated from the fibrous rind of Spartium Junceum.

One of the most interesting facts in the geography of plants is the frequent substitution in one country, of a plant of a certain natural order for another of the same natural order in another country. The Indians have a plant, bearing a very close and striking resemblance to the Spartium Junceum, which they employ just as the natives of Bas Languedoc employ that plant. We refer to the Crotalaria Juncea, called by the natives Goni, Danapu, or Shanapu, and by us the Sun-plant, or Indian Hemp. From the bark are made all kinds of ropes, packing-cloths, sacks, nets, &c. In order to improve the fibre, the plants are sown as close as possible and thus draw up to the height of about ten feet. According to Dr. Francis Buchanan, the plant thrives best on a poor sandy soil, and requires to be abundantly watered. After being cut down it is spread out to the sun and dried. The seed is beaten out by striking the pods with a stick. After this the stems are tied up in large bundles, about twelve feet in circumference, and are preserved in stacks or under sheds. When wanted, the stems are macerated during six or eight days. They are known to be ready, when the bark separates easily from the pith. “The plant is then taken out of the water, and a man, taking it up by handfuls, beats them on the ground, and occasionally washes them until they be clean; and at the same time picks out with his hand the remainder of the pith, until nothing except the bark be left. This is then dried, and being taken up by handfuls, is beaten with a stick to separate and clean the fibres. The hemp is then completely ready, and is spun into thread on a spindle, both by the men and women. The men alone weave it, and perform this labor in the open air with a very rude loom.” The fabric made from it is a coarse, but very strong sack-cloth.

“The fibres, when prepared,” says Ironside, “are so similar to hemp, that Europeans generally suppose them to be the produce of the same plant.”

Theophrastus (Hist. Pl. viii. 13.) gives the following account of a bulbous plant, called by him Βολβὸς ἐριοφόρος, the root of which supplied materials for weaving:—“It grows in bays, and has the wool under the first coats of the bulb so as to be between the inner eatable part and the outer. Socks and other garments are woven from it. Hence this kind is woolly, and not hairy, like that in India.”

It is difficult to determine what plant is meant, though the description seems accurate and scientific. Billerbeck absurdly supposes it to be cotton-grass. By former botanists, men of great eminence, it was supposed to be Scilla Hyacinthoides. Sprengel objects, that this species does not grow in Greece. Sir James Smith however (article Scilla in Rees’s Cyclop.) represents it as growing in Madeira, Portugal, and the Levant. If this account be true, Theophrastus may have been acquainted with it. In another article, Eriophorus, Sir J. Smith doubts whether either Scilla Hyacinthoides or any other bulb produces wool of such quality and in such quantity as to answer the description of Theophrastus. But, we learn from other well-informed botanists, that various bulbs have under the outermost coats a copious tissue of tough fibres, fully sufficient to be employed in weaving. This is particularly the case with the genera Amaryllis, Crinum, and Pancratium, as well as Scilla. The fibrous coats serve as a protection to the interior and more vital parts of the bulb.

Hoffmansegg and Link, who travelled in Portugal, in the description of Scilla Hyacinthoides, say, “Bulbus tomento viscoso tectus.”

Sonnini says of the Scilla Maritima, “The Greeks of the Archipelago call it Kourvara-skilla, kourvara signifying properly a ‘tuft of thread’ (peloton de fil).” Does this refer to the fibres mentioned by Theophrastus? The size of this bulb, which is the common squill, used in pharmacy, seems to favor this supposition. It is often as large as a man’s head. Hoffmansegg and Link say it grows abundantly on barren hills in Spain and Portugal; but add, “The name maritima is not quite proper: for the plant is seldom met with near the sea-shore, and sometimes very remote from it.” On the other hand, it must have been so called, because it was reported by others to grow on the sea-shore; and Sir James Smith (in Rees’s Cyclopedia) expressly states, that it grows on “sandy shores.” Redouté says the same.

From the account of Pancratium by Sir James Edward Smith (in Rees’s Cyclop.), we learn that two species grow in Greece, viz. P. Maritimum and Illyricum.

The remarks now offered appear to prove, that there certainly may have been a bulb, such as Theophrastus describes, though we have not sufficient information to decide its genus and species. It may have been the Scilla Maritima.

It is to be observed, that he refers also to an Indian bulb, having similar properties. Perhaps he alluded to some plant of a kind similar to Agave Vivipara, the leaves of which are extensively used in India for making cordage.

We cannot better conclude this part of the subject, than by giving the following interesting communication of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass., to the Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, a gentleman who has, in our opinion, rendered most valuable services, not only to the people of the United States, but to the world at large, since his appointment to the office of Commissioner of Patents.

Northampton, Hampshire County, Mass.

“Dear Sir: The favorable notice of silk culture in document No. 109, from the Patent Office report of February, 1843, is my apology for presenting the enclosed samples of paper, made of mulberry foliage and bark. Unfortunately, the external cuticle of the bark had not been removed; producing the spots, but does not injure the paper for the use intended, which was for the purpose of depositing silk-worms’ eggs upon something dark; and this being unbleached, is considered adapted to the habits of the silk-worm, and is now in successful experiment.

“The four samples are all of one batch; the darkest, having more of the outside cuticle, was most buoyant, rose to the top and came off first.

“A quantity of genuine Canton foliage, which retains its verdure in greater perfection and later than any other mulberry, is gathered, dried, and sent to the mill for making paper, bleached, without spots, fit for cotton paper, as hoped; and, if successful, I shall take pleasure in sending you a sample, to be preserved with the enclosed.

“I began, some ten or twelve years since, to bring silk culture into notice among the members of the Hampshire Agricultural Society, believing that if we tried the right kind of trees, (such as used in China,) we could raise silk, yet could not afford to pay $1 per tree, as then asked for multicaulis; not reflecting how easily they could be propagated by cuttings and layers. Under this view of the subject, I wrote to the Rev. E. C. Bridgman, missionary at Canton, China, a native of Hampshire county, with the request that he would procure and forward me some mulberry seed of the most approved kind for growing in China, for the use of members of the agricultural society. He promptly attended to the request; the seed was forwarded and sown in the spring of 1834 or 1835. It grew finely, and developed a splendid leaf.

“About two years since, while Dr. Parker, with a Chinaman, was here on a visit, on being shown the Canton foliage, it was readily recognized. As the trees had grown here very luxuriantly, and developed a larger leaf than in China, Dr. Parker suggested that our soil might be more congenial to the plant than even China, its native soil.

“Soon after receiving the seed from Canton, a friend sent me another parcel from the South of Asia, with high commendations, that if it would grow here, it would be of essential benefit to the United States for raising silk. It succeeded well, and is more hardy than the white mulberry, very productive in small branches, and a good-sized leaf. I named the latter Asiatic Canton. These two kinds are highly approved of for feeding silk-worms—the Canton for leaf-feeding, and the Asiatic for branch feeding. I have, however, almost every variety which was cultivated during the mulberry speculation—covering, altogether, some ten or twelve acres, besides a large number of young Canton and Asiatic seedlings, of this year’s sowing, from seed of my own raising, to enlarge the plantations.

“A few days since, the Rev. William Richards, of the Sandwich Islands, with the young prince, called on me. At a former visit, I had supplied him with Canton mulberry-seed, silk-worms’ eggs, and dry mulberry foliage to use in case the eggs should hatch on the passage; but this they did not do until his arrival home. About the same time, other eggs had been received there from China; but the cocoons raised from them were not one quarter as large as the American, and must have required some 10,000 to 12,000 to make a pound of silk, while in America 2,400 to 3,000 would make a pound.

“Mr. Titcomb, also a silk-grower in one of the islands, having the American and Chinese, crossed them: but the crossing produced cocoons so small as to require from 5,000 to 6,000 to make a pound of silk, while not over 3,000 of the American would be required to do the same thing(!).

“Mr. Richards was shown several pamphlets, newspapers, cap and writing paper, supposed to have been made of mulberry bark. He said rags were not used in India, China, or the islands, for making paper, but they always make it of some vegetable leaf; that the bark was too valuable for that, and was used to make fabrics. (See Chapters XI. and XII. of this Part. Also Appendix A.)

“We, as Americans, have the appropriate soil and climate for the Canton and Asiatic mulberry, with the pea-nut variety of worms, which, being managed with due care and attention, together with the skill, ingenuity, and perseverance of Americans—and, in addition, and could we have the aid of our country to encourage new beginners—we might hope to compete with any nation in the production of silk, their cheap labor and cheap living to the contrary notwithstanding. There is abundant evidence that worms fed exclusively on the Canton mulberry have been larger, and produced heavier cocoons, by one-third in size of worms and weight of cocoons, than by other feed. I have supplied an order of the peanut variety of eggs, to go to Guatemala; and Canton seed, of my own raising, to go to Rio; and now have an order for a number of the genuine Canton mulberry trees, roots, or cuttings, to go to Lima, where the applicant went on business, a few years since, taking with him a few multicaules, at $2 each—now multiplied to 50,000; who, without any practical knowledge of raising trees, reeling and manufacturing silk, or having seen a silk-worm or reel until he introduced them in 1843, has now presented me with beautiful samples of floss cocoons, reeled and sewing silk, done by ladies as a diversion, without any assistance, and very little instruction from him. The silk is of good quality. Samples had been sent by a mercantile house in Lima to England, for an opinion of the quality; but no return had been received when he came away. He has come to this place with a native Spaniard, to obtain more perfect information in all the branches of reeling, twisting, coloring(!), &c.; to procure machinery, with a view of enlarging operations, so that he might turn off twenty-five pounds per day of sewings, cords, braids, &c. He represents the climate and soil as adapted to the culture of silk, and could feed every month in the year; that the necessaries of living are procured with but little labor; that the laboring population are indolent, the wealthy classes too proud to labor. He feels confident of success, and that he can introduce habits of industry by silk culture, that would counteract their natural indolence; and he will inform me of his success in due time, that may be more interesting than speculations upon what he intends doing. He has engaged several to perfect themselves in reeling, &c., to accompany him when he returns to Lima with his machinery. He has become so satisfied with the superiority of the genuine Canton mulberry, that he has engaged to take it on with him for propagation and use.

“I have letters from widely different locations, rendering favorable accounts of this year’s success in growing silk, and in corroboration of the prevalent opinion that the silk cause will finally prevail. I have several letters on this subject—one from a gentleman presiding over one of our most eminent literary institutions, under date of June, 1844. Discoursing about the culture of silk, he writes as follows:

“‘If this earnest waking up to a scientific and practical consideration of the subject be not soon crowned with signal success, it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but merely from the high price of labor here, compared with the scanty wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration, though it may retard for a while the complete success of this department of productive industry, will not prevent its ultimate triumph.’

“Another gentleman, under date of August, 1844, writes from the far West, ‘that the soil and climate of the Western and South-western States are admirably suited to the growth of the mulberry and raising silk-worms,’ and that ‘eventually the two great staples of the Western and South-western States will be silk and wool.’ It is the opinion of competent skilful silk manufacturers, who have made critical experiments upon the Pongee-silk (so called) of foreign make, by tests which they consider satisfactory and decisive, that it is only a vegetable production, and that the material was never operated upon by the silk-worm(?). There can be no reasonable doubt about the ultimate success of silk-culture in some future years; but to accelerate that desirable event, which may constitute an important American staple for revenue (which might not only enrich the Government, but reward the labor of personal enterprize), a bounty is deemed necessary to stimulate and encourage that portion of the agricultural population whose circumstances or health disqualifies them for the more laborious exercises of the fields, to commence operations upon a new and untried crop. Our extensive imports of raw and manufactured silks are encouraged by us as consumers, instead of being producers. We now contribute to support foreign enterprize and industry, to produce the article of silk, which we might, with proper encouragement, raise ourselves, not only for our own consumption, but for exportation.”

Very respectfully, yours, &c.
Daniel Stebbins.

Henry L. Ellsworth, Esq.,
Commissioner of Patents.

The amount of silk imported into the United States annually, nearly equals that of linen and woollen together, and is equal to one half of all other fabrics combined. Is it not then, an important consideration, that this expenditure be saved to the nation?