CHAP. C.

z/rtica'ce/e. a/o'HUS.

1351

worms on wild mulberry trees, and applied their silk to use. From China , theart passed into Persia , India , Arabia , and the whole of Asia . The caravansof Seres, or Serica (the part of China where the silk was most abundantlyproduced), “ performed long journeys, of 243 days, from the ‘ far coasts ’ ofChina to those of Syria . The expedition of Alexander into Persia and India first introduced the knowledge of silk to the Grecians, 350 years before Christ;and, with the increase of wealth and luxury in the Grecian court, the de-mand for silks prodigiously augmented. The Persians engrossed, for a time,the trade of Greece , and became rich from the commerce of silk, which theyprocured from China . The ancient Phoenicians also engaged in the traffic ofsilk, and carried it to the east of Europe ; but, for a long time, even those whobrought it to Europe knew not what it was, and neither how it was pro-duced, nor where was situated the country of Serica, from which it originallycame.” ( Kennels’s Amer. Silk-Grower’s Guide, p. 11.; N. Du Ham., 4. ; Nouv.Cours d’Agric., &c.) From Greece it passed into Rome ; and, though theexact year of its introduction is unknown, it was probably about the time ofPoinpey and Julius Cassar ; the latter, we find, having used it in his festivals.In the reign of Tiberius , an edict was passed prohibiting the use of silk aseffeminate. Heliogabalus , about 220, is said to have been the first emperorwho wore a robe made entirely of silk; which then, and for some time after-wards, sold for its weight in gold. Aurellan, in 280, is said to have deniedhis empress, Severa, a robe of silk, because it was too dear. About the be-ginning of the sixth century, after the seat of the Roman empire had beentransferred to Constantinople , two monks arrived at the court of the Emperor Justinian , from a missionary expedition into China : they had brought withthem the seeds of the mulberry, and communicated to him the discovery ofthe mode of rearing silkworms. Although the exportation of the insects fromChina was prohibited on pain of death, yet, by the liberal promises and thepersuasions of Justinian , they were induced to undertake to import some fromthat country; and they returned from their expedition through Bucharia and Persia to Constantinople in 555, with the eggs of the precious insects,which they had obtained in the “ far country,” concealed in the hollow oftheir canes, or pilgrim’s staves. Until this time, the extensive manufacturesof Tyre and Berytes had received the whole of their supply of raw silk fromChina through Persia . ( See M‘Culloch's Diet, of Com., Nouv. Cours, and Amer.Silk-Grower's Guide.') “ The eggs thus obtained were hatched in a hot-bed,and, being afterwards carefully fed and attended to, the experiment provedsuccessful, and the silkworm became very'generally cultivated throughoutGreeee.”(&f. Mag. vol. iii. p. 2.) The silkworm and the black mulberry wereintroduced simultaneously into Spain and Portugal by the Arabs , or Saracens ,on their conquest of Spain in 711. When the silkworm was first introduced intothe north of Europe , there appears little doubt but that it was fed on the leavesof the black mulberry. The white mulberry is more tender; and, putting forthits leaves much earlier than the black mulberry, it is more likely to be injuredby spring frosts. It was, consequently, long confined to Greece ; but, whenRoger, king of Sicily , in 1130, ravaged the Peloponnesus , he compelled theprincipal artificers in silk, and breeders of silkworms, to remove with him toPalermo , and determined to try the white mulberry in that country. Thewhite mulberry was accordingly transplanted into Sicily ; and, flourishing inits fine climate, that island became the great mart of nearly all the raw silkrequired for the manufactures of Europe . On Mount /Etna , the JlTorusnigra is grown at an elevation of 2500 ft., for the silkworm, to the exclusionof M. alba, probably on account of the tenderness of the latter tree in thatelevated region. (See Dr. R. A. Philippi on the vegetation of Mount /Etna , inthe Linnwa, as quoted in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag., vol. i. p. 50.) In 1440,the white mulberry was introduced into Upper Italy; and, under the reign ofEharles VII., the first white mulberry tree was planted in France , as it is said,J® Seigneur d’Allan; and it is added that this tree still exists at the gatesof Montelimart. Silk manufactures were first established in France in 1480,at lours. This was in the reign of Louis XI. ; that monarch having invited