situations, and being burnt black at the slightest
touch of frost, yet, in countries where the winter
temperature never descends below freezing-point
it becomes a tree of very striking aspect, with
large and richly-tinted foliage. The further south
you travel in Europe, the finer stature do the
castor-oil plants attain in autumn; but all are
doomed to perish unless removed under shelter,
until you reach some favoured spots in Italy,
such as certain environs of Naples, where it remains
out-doors all winter long, sadly torn by the
winds, certainly, but still surviving. The ricinus
is much more ornamental in its tree than in its
plant condition, and it is worth all the trouble
which it gives the gardener to grow it as an
arborescent specimen anywhere in Northern Europe.
Of course if planted out in summer it
must be removed, at the beginning of October,
or earlier, to a green-house or orangery, in a tub
or box, by the appliances with which skilful horticulturists
are well acquainted. During the past
summer there was a handsome castor-oil tree in
the little garden at the foot of the Tour de St.
Jacques, Paris, growing, apparently, in the open
ground. It has retreated now to its winter quarters,
which, if not furnished apartments, at least
enjoy the comfort of a fire.

In the same year, 1854, M. Milne Edwards, one
of the Professors of the Museum of Natural
History, Paris, received eggs of this silkworm
from Signor Baruffi, of Turin, who obtained them,
through Signor Bergonzi, from Sir William Reed,
Governor of Malta, to whom they were sent from
Calcutta by Mr. Piddington. These eggs produced
about fifty individuals, in perfect health.
At the same time, the Paris Society of Acclimatation,
having obtained eggs from the same liberal
source, commenced a set of experiments there.
Trials of the castor-oil silkworm were also made
at Malta, Palermo, and Messina (where the
ricinus grows abundantly), at Turin, at Valencia,
in Spain in Algeria, and lastly at the Jardin des
Plantes, Paris, and especially in the reptile-house,
where perfect success in propagating the insect
was attained.

One of the great merits of this new species is
the rapidity with which its various metamorphoses
follow each other—the hatching of the
eggs, the successive moultings of the caterpillar,
the reclusion of the nymph, the development of
the moth, and the laying of fresh eggs. The more
rapidly those phases are run through, the less is
the danger of disease, and also the quicker
are the returns. Six or seven crops of silk
can be obtained in a year; and it is said that
in India they come on earlier still, amounting to
as many as twelve per annum: for the female lays
in less than twenty-four hours after her escape
from the chrysalis, in which she remains about a
fortnight. The perfect insect is large, strong, and
handsome, light-fawn coloured, with a few wavy
streaks of dirty-white, yellow, and black. The
cocoon is orange-yellow, like that of the common
silkworm; the silk is less beautiful, but remarkably
strong. In many parts of India it is
used for the every-day clothing of the poorer
classes all the year round, while everybody wears
it during the cold season. The stuff made from
it is coarse and loose in texture, but lasts for
ever, a dress of it passing from mother to daughter.
If our manufacturers could get an unlimited
supply of such silk they would turn it to a hundred
useful and ornamental purposes; but there
is no prospect of obtaining in Europe any
considerable quantity of a raw material which depends
on the castor-oil-tree for its production.
Wintering plants in boxes, in green-houses, for
the feeding of silkworms, is out of the question;
even heated orchard-houses can be turned to
much more remunerative account; and seedling
plants do not attain sufficient vigour to feed
caterpillars with their leaves until the summer is
too far advanced. This bombyx will eat lettuce
leaves—and also, it is said, willow and thistle
leaves—but the cocoons so obtained are one-
third less in size, and are probably inferior in
strength of filament. To show how little hope
was entertained of any practical benefit from the
castor-oil silkworm, the whole of the original
stock sent from Calcutta was suffered to become
extinct, except the colonies in Algeria and those
under the care of the Society of Acclimatation.

The sericultural experiment failing, another
has been tried by M. Gurin-Méneville, which
promised better from the very outset. His
bombyx, a native of China, is the silkworm
which feeds on the leaves of the Ailanthus
glandulosus, improperly termed by the French the
Vernis du Japon, or the Japan varnish. Now
the Ailanthus, which was introduced to Europe
some hundred years ago, is a vigorous, perfectly
hardy tree, which cares nothing for our winters,
and which throughout summer produces an abundance
of large, pinnacled, somewhat coarse leaves;
but what is that to us, so long as the silkworms
like them? It is a favourite as an ornamental
town tree, partly on account of its handsome
carriage, and partly because it offers considerable
resistance to the noxious influences to which
plants are exposed in towns. It is not nice
about soil or aspect. Its lofty stature is an inconvenience
both for the gathering of its leaves
and for allowing the caterpillars to feed on it at
liberty in the open air; but then it submits to be
cut down, sending up plenty of stout suckers
from the stump, so that it is easily kept in a
bushy state which allows the formation of ailanthus
thickets or shrubberies. You may see
healthy trees in the Boulevards of Paris; but,
what is of the greatest importance, the ailanthus
makes itself quite as much at home in England
as in France. Of the waggon-loads of leaves it
would give with the apronfuls to be had from
the mulberry and the handfuls from the ricinus,
there is no comparison.

Any reasonable number of ailanthuses may be
had during the present planting-season by advertising
in the Gardeners' Chronicle; and we
have the satisfactory certainty that, if properly
planted, they will grow and flourish with no