a pension for life of six thousand francs.
Secondly, to the Dame de Vernède de Corneillan,
daughter of Frederic de Girard, another brother
of Philippe de Girard, a like pension for life
of six thousand francs. It is of minor public
importance to know that Madame la Comtesse
de Corneillan, with true female perseverance in
asserting what she believes to be her rights,
is not content with the united pension of twelve
thousand francs, but boldly claims the promised
million (and that with interest) to which her
late uncle was fairly entitled. Her pretensions
have hitherto been rejected by the council of
state, and are likely so to remain.

Meanwhile, that lady has devoted great attention
to the new silkworm,* which feeds on the
leaves of the ailanthus-tree. She is doing for
it and its coccoons what her uncle did for the
fibre of flax, and is directing her thoughts to
England as a field of operations. Lady Neville's
intelligent experiments have proved how possible
is the acclimatation of the ailanthe silkworm on
the northern side of the English Channel; and
it will probably be more and more extensively
reared, as it becomes better known. Model
silkworm houses, at Kew and other public botanical
gardens, would greatly tend to popularise this
new branch of sericulture. The Prince of
Wales, it is whispered, intends to establish model
farms on his new estate. If the idea were
only suggested to him, he might be tempted to
rival the memory of Henry the Fourth of France
(who enriched his country with mulberry silk),
by rendering ailanthus silik an article of general
produce in the United Kingdom.

* See vol. iv., pages 233 and 423.

Madame de Corneillan offers her practical
experience for the furtherance of fresh attempts.
She entertains, moreover, the firm belief that,
without her assistance and concurrence, ailanthine
sericulture would remain in great measure
unproductive. For the following reason:

In consequence of the organic structure of
the new coccoons, which are spun by the insect
so as to leave an orifice, there is so great a
difficulty in reeling off the silk, that they were
subjected to the process of combing; which
process produced a silken flock or tow of quite
inferior quality. Nevertheless (as was stated in
All the Year Round), the Chinese possess the
secret of reeling off the silk so as to give a
continuous filament, like that obtained from the
coccoons of the mulberry worm. Madame de
Corneillan has had the satisfaction of discovering
this secret. Her reeled silks of the ailanthus
and ricinus worms—after winning, in February,
1862, the large gold medal of the Imperial
Acclimatation Society of France—obtained two
medals and an honourable mention at London.

Certain details in the mode of rearing have
been productive of injury to the new silkworms:
for instance, allowing them to spend the first
stage of their existence on leaves placed in
bottles of water, thereby rendering their food too
sloppy, and causing them to contract disease, if
not in the first, certainly in the second generation.
Eggs, or seeds (graines) as the French
call them, have also been supplied, which in
great part turned out sterile. As it is
Madame's interest that these mistakes should not
prejudice the new branch of industry, she is
publishing a pamphlet descriptive of her mode
of rearing, which is extremely simple, and has
the advantage of suppressing the expenses of
handiwork by leaving the worms to act for
themselves. Through the agency of her associates
in Italy, she is able to furnish eggs, warranted
good, to whoever is desirous of procuring them.
Of course, those persons will write in time, and
pre-paid, and likewise bear the cost of the eggs;
for the applications are so numerous, that to
comply with them gratis would absorb a fortune.

By a second discovery, also very important,
but which has reference to the mulberry silkworm,
Madame de Corneillan has proved it to be
an error that the moth, in escaping from the
coccoon (which is constructed closed, or without
an aperture), cuts it, and renders it unreelable.
It does not cut it. The lady has obtained
from coccoons, from which the moth had issued,
naturally, silk equally good with that from
coccoons in which the chrysalis had been
destroyed, thus restoring to the manufacturer,
without any additional expense to the silk-
growers, a large quantity of raw material,
capable of being worked into the finest fabrics.
Specimens of such silks are also exhibited in the
Museum of Patents.

But sericulture altogether is becoming a
broader and more complex study. The area
over which it may be practised promises to be
wider than was ever expected. The insect of
the mulberry is no longer the only one which
claims the attention of cultivators. While
Madame de Corneillan is devoting herself to
make the most of the moths of the ailanthus
and the ricinus [She has obtained a hybrid race,
which is reared in the open air, on ailanthus-
leaves, and furnishes perfectly white coccoons],
others are patronising and hope for equal success
with other hardy silk-producing caterpllars.

The culture of the oak silkworm, from
Japan, is not the least interesting of the
attempts made in this direction. A few grammes
of its eggs, sent to the Imperial Acclimatation
Society, were confided to some of its members.
Other eggs, placed in M. Guerin Méneville's
hands by Dr. Blecher, were distributed by that
gentleman amongst agriculturists, who, not
belonging to the Society, could not profit by
the distribution made to its members. It is
now possible to form some idea of the results
obtainable from the oak silkworm, M. Guerin
Méneville having presented to the Académie
des Sciences coccoons produced by worms
hatched from the eggs that had been confided to
him. Those eggs, although hatched somewhat
prematurely, gave caterpillars which have been
successfully reared at divers and distant points
of France—at Vincennes, for instance, and at
Toulon; and, above all, the caterpillars feed
and thrive on the leaves of the common oaks of
the forest, Quercus peduuculata and sessiflora.