Note 64 — Chapter III · HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURY.

In the Royal Museum of Natural History at Leyden are eight or ten cocoons of the Phalæna Atlas from Java. They consist of a strong silk, and are formed upon the leaves of a kind of Ficus. The first layer of the cocoon covers the whole of a leaf, and receives the exact impress of its form. Then two or three other layers are distinctly perceptible. Two or three leaves are joined together to form the cocoon. In regard to the looseness of the layers these cocoons do not correspond to M. Breton’s description of the cocoons of the wild silk-worms of China, which are very strong and compact, and therefore more resemble those of the Phalæna Paphia.