yarn thus manufactured is wove into a coarse kind of white cloth, of a seemingly loose texture, but of incredible durability, the life of one person being seldom sufficient to wear out a garment made of it; so that the same piece descends from mother to daughter.
Dr. Roxburgh's correspondents furnished him with much additional information regarding this insect as a silk-producer. Mr. Atkinson states that he reared two parcels of them with a view towards winding off the cocoons, but all his endeavours to obtain cocoons that would reel off were in vain. He even brought a man from the country where this species of silk-worm is cultivated, and he laughed at Mr. Atkinson's endeavours to get cocoons to reel; asserting that it was impossible, and that they were always spun off into thread like cotton by the women only.
On the same subject Mr. Creighton writes as follows:—"The Palma Christi silk-worm goes by the same name as the plant does among the natives, which is Arrindy. They accordingly call it Arrindy-worm, Arrindy-thread, Arrindy-cloth, &c. They rear it in their houses much in the same way the silk-worm is reared. Their manner of spinning it is as follows:—Four or five of the cocoons are fastened to a stick stuck in the ground, or sometimes they hold it in their hand. These are united into one thread, and made fast to a piece of wood, with something heavy to make it spin round while suspended by the thread: when they let out suffi-
