“These webs, it was quickly perceived, w_The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances; Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.

as is generally believed, _but at the earth’s surface_. The lines of

which they were composed, being brought into contact by the mechanical

action of gentle airs, adhered together, till, by continual additions,

they were accumulated into flakes or masses of considerable magnitude,

on which the ascending current, occasioned by the rarefaction of the

air contiguous to the heated ground, acted with so much force as to

separate them from the objects to which they were attached, raising

them in the atmosphere to a perpendicular height of at least several

hundred feet. I collected a number of these webs about mid-day, as they

rose; and again in the afternoon, when the upward current had ceased,

and they were falling; but scarcely one in twenty contained a spider:

though, on minute inspection, I found small winged insects, chiefly

_aphides_, entangled in most of them.

“From contemplating this unusual display of gossamer, my thoughts were

naturally directed to the animals which produced it, and the countless

myriads in which they swarmed almost created as much surprise as the

singular occupation that engrossed them. Apparently actuated by the

same impulse, all were intent upon traversing the regions of air;

_accordingly, after gaining the summits of various objects, as blades

of grass, stubble, rails, gates, &c., by the slow and laborious process

of climbing, they raised themselves still higher by strengthening

their limbs; and elevating the abdomen, by bringing it from the usual

horizontal position into one almost perpendicular, they emitted from

their spinning apparatus a small quantity of the glutinous secretion

with which they construct their webs_. This viscous substance being

drawn out by the ascending current of rarefied air into fine lines

several feet in length, was carried upward, until the spiders, feeling

themselves acted upon with sufficient force in that direction, quitted

their hold of the objects on which they stood, and commenced their

journey by mounting aloft.

“Whenever the lines became inadequate to the purpose for which they

were intended, by adhering to any fixed body, they were immediately

detached from the spinners and so converted into terrestrial gossamer,

by means of the last pair of legs, and the proceedings just described

were repeated; which plainly proves that these operations result from

a strong desire felt by the insects to effect an ascent[167].” Mr.

Blackwall has recently read a paper (still unpublished) in the Linnæan

Society, confirmatory of his opinions.

[167] Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 453.

6. “Without going into the particulars,” says Mr. Rennie, “of what

agrees or disagrees in the above experiments with our own observations,

we shall give a brief account of what we have actually seen in our

researches. So far as we have determined, then, all the various species

of spiders, how different soever the form of their webs may be, proceed

in the circumstance of shooting their lines precisely alike; but those

which we have found the most manageable in experimenting, are the

small gossamer spider (_Aranea obtextrix_, BECHSTEIN), known

by its shining blackish-brown body and reddish-brown semi-transparent

legs; but particularly the long-bodied spider (_Tetragnatha extensa_,

LATR.), which varies in color from green to brownish or

grey--but has always a black line along the belly, with a silvery white

or yellowish one on each side. The latter is chiefly recommended by

being a very industrious and persevering spinner, while its movements

are easily seen, from the long cylindrical form of its body and the

length of its legs.

“We placed the above two species with five or six others, including

the garden, the domestic, and the labyrinthic spiders, in empty

wine-glasses, set in tea-saucers filled with water, to prevent their

escape. When they discovered, by repeated descents from the brims of

the glasses, that they were thus surrounded by a wet ditch, they all

set themselves to the task of throwing their silken bridges across. For

this purpose they first endeavored to ascertain in what direction the

wind blew, or rather (as the experiment was made in our study) which

way any current of air set,--by elevating their arms _as we have seen

sailors do in a dead calm_. But, as it may prove more interesting to

keep to one individual, we shall first watch the proceedings of the

gossamer spider.

“Finding no current of air on any quarter of the brim of the glass, it

seemed to give up all hopes of constructing its bridge of escape, and

placed itself in the attitude of repose; _but no sooner did we produce

a stream of air, by blowing gently towards its position, than, fixing

a thread to the glass, and laying hold of it with one of its feet, by

way of security, it placed its body in a vertical position, with its

spinnerets extended outwards; and immediately we had the pleasure of

seeing a thread streaming out from them several feet in length, on

which the little aëronaut sprung up into the air_. We were convinced,

from what we thus observed, that it was the double or bend of the

thread which was blown into the air; and we assigned as a reason for

her previously attaching and drawing out a thread from the glass, the

wish to give the wind a _point d’appui_--something upon which it might

have a _purchase_, as a mechanic would say of a lever. The bend of the

thread, then, on this view of the matter, would be carried out by the

wind,--would form the point of impulsion,--and, of course, the escape

bridge would be an ordinary line doubled.”

Such is the opinion of Mr. Rennie, which is strongly corroborated

by what has been said by M. Latreille--than whom no higher authority

could be given. “When the animal,” says he, “desires to cross a brook,

she fixes to a tree or some other object one of the ends of her first

threads, in order that the wind or a current of air may carry the other

beyond the obstacle[168];” and as one end is always attached to the

spinnerets, he must mean that the double of the thread flies off. In

his previous publications, however, Latreille had contented himself

with copying the statement of Dr. Lister. “In order to ascertain the

fact,” says Mr. Rennie, “and put an end to all doubts, we watched, with

great care and minuteness, the proceedings of the long-bodied spider

above mentioned, by producing a stream of air in the same manner, as

it perambulated the brim of the glass. It immediately, as the other

had done, attached a thread and raised its body perpendicularly, like

a tumbler standing on his hands with his head downwards; but we looked

in vain for this thread bending, as we had at first supposed, and

going off double. Instead of this it remained tight, while another

thread, or what appeared to be so, streamed off from the spinners,

similar to smoke issuing through a pin-hole, sometimes in a line, and

sometimes at a considerable angle, with the first, according to the

current of the air,--the first thread, extended from the glass to

the spinnerets, remaining all the while tight drawn in a right line.

It further appeared to us, that the first thread proceeded from the

pair of spinnerets nearest the head, while the floating thread came

from the outer pair,--though it is possible in such minute objects

we may have been deceived. That the first was continuous with the

second, without any perceptible joining, we ascertained in numerous

instances, by catching the floating line and pulling it tight, in

which case the spider glides along without attaching another line to

the glass; but if she have to coil up the floating line to lighten

it, as usually happens, she gathers it into a packet and glues the

two ends tight together. Her body, while the floating line streamed

out, remained quite motionless, but we distinctly saw the spinnerets

not only projected, as is always done when a spider spins, but moved

in the same way as an infant moves its lips when sucking. We cannot

doubt, therefore, that this motion is intended to emit (if eject

or project be deemed words too strong), the liquid material of the

thread; at the same time, we are quite certain that it cannot throw

out a single inch of thread _without the aid of a current of air_. A

long-bodied spider will thus throw out in succession as many threads

as we please, by simply blowing towards it; but not one where there is

no current, as under a bell-glass, where it may be kept till it die,

without being able to construct a bridge over water of an inch long. We

never observed more than one floating thread produced at the same time;

though other observers mention several.

[168] ----“L’un des bouts de ces premiers fils, afin que le vent ou

un courant d’air pousse l’autre extrémité de l’un d’eux au delà de

l’obstacle.”--Dict. Classique d’Hist. Nat., vol. i. p. 510.

“The probable commencement, we think, of the floating line, is by the

emission of little globules of the glutinous material to the points of

the spinnerules--perhaps it may be dropped from them, if not ejected,

and the globules being carried off by the current of air, drawn out

into a thread. But we give this as only a conjecture, for we could not

bring a glass of sufficient power to bear upon the spinnerules at the

commencement of the floating line.

“In subsequent experiments we found, that it was not indispensable for

the spider to rest upon a solid body when producing a line, as she

can do so while she is suspended in the air by another line. When the

current of air also is strong, she will sometimes commit herself to it

by swinging from the end of the line. We have even remarked this when

there was scarcely a breath of air.

“We tried another experiment. We pressed pretty firmly upon the base

of the spinnerets, so as not to injure the spider, blowing obliquely

over them; but no floating line appeared. We then touched them with a

pencil and drew out several lines an inch or two in length, upon which

we blew in order to extend them, but in this also we were unsuccessful,

as they did not lengthen more than a quarter of an inch. We next

traced out the reservoirs of a garden-spider (_Epeira diadema_), and

immediately taking a drop of the matter from one of them on the point

of a fine needle, we directed upon it a strong current of air, and

succeeded in blowing out a thick yellow line, as we might have done

with gum-water, of about an inch and a half long.

“When we observed our long-bodied spider eager to throw a line by

raising up its body, we brought within three inches of its spinnerets

an excited stick of sealing-wax, of which it took no notice, nor did

any thread extend to it, not even when brought almost to touch the

spinnerets. We experienced the same want of success with an excited

glass rod; and indeed had not anticipated any other result, as we have

never observed that either these attract or repel the floating threads,

as Mr. Murray has seen them do; nor have we ever noticed the end of a

floating thread separated into its component threadlets and diverging

like a brush, as he and Mr. Bowman describe (See Fig. 11.). It may

be proper to mention that Mr. Murray, in conformity with his theory,

explains the shooting of lines in a current of air by the electric

state produced by motion in consequence of the mutual friction of the

gaseous particles. But this view of the matter does not seem to affect

our statements.”

NESTS, WEBS, AND NETS OF SPIDERS.--“The neatest,” says

Mr. Rennie, “though the smallest spider’s nest which we have seen,

was constructed in the chink of a garden-post, which we had cut out

the previous summer in getting at the cells of a carpenter-bee. The

architect was one of the larger hunting-spiders, erroneously said by

some naturalists to be incapable of spinning. The nest in question was

about two inches high, composed of a very close satin-like texture.

There were two parallel chambers placed perpendicularly, in which

position also the inhabitant reposed there during the day, going,

as we presume, only abroad to prey during the night. But the most

remarkable circumstance was, that the openings (two above and two

below) were so elastic, that they shut closely together. We observed

this spider for several months, but at last it disappeared, and we took

the nest out under the notion that it might contain eggs; but found

none, and therefore concluded that it was only used as a day retreat.”

The account which Evelyn has given of these hunting spiders is so

interesting that we must transcribe it.

“Of all sorts of insects,” says he, “none have afforded me more

divertisement than the _venatores_ (hunters), which are a sort of

_lupi_ (wolves) that have their dens in rugged walls and crevices of

our houses; a small brown and delicately-spotted kind of spiders, whose

hinder legs are longer than the rest. Such I did frequently observe

at Rome, which, espying a fly at three or four yards distance, upon

the balcony where I stood, would not make directly to her, _but crawl

under the rail, till being arrived to the antipodes, it would steal

up, seldom missing its aim; but if it chanced to want anything of

being perfectly opposite, would, at first peep, immediately slide down

again,--till taking better notice, it would come the next time exactly

upon the fly’s back: but if this happened not to be within a competent

leap, then would this insect move so softly, as the very shadow of the

gnomon seemed not to be more imperceptible, unless the fly moved; and

then would the spider move also in the same proportion, keeping that

just time with her motion, as if the same soul had animated both these

little bodies; and whether it were forwards, backwards, or to either

side, without at all turning her body, like a well-managed horse: but

if the capricious fly took wing and pitched upon another place behind

our huntress, then would the spider whirl its body so nimbly about, as

nothing could be imagined more swift: by which means she always kept

the head towards her prey, though, to appearance, as immoveable as if

it had been a nail driven into the wood, till by that indiscernible

progress (being arrived within the sphere of her reach) she made a

fatal leap, swift as lightning, upon the fly, catching him in the pole,

where she never quitted hold till her belly was full, and then carried

the remainder home_.”

One feels a little sceptical, however, when he adds, “I have beheld

them _instructing their young ones how to hunt_, which they would

sometimes discipline for not well observing; but when any of the old

ones did (as sometimes) miss a leap, _they would run out of the field

and hide themselves in their crannies, as ashamed, and haply not to

be seen abroad for four or five hours after_; for so long have I

watched the nature of this strange insect, the contemplation of whose

so wonderful sagacity and address has amazed me; nor do I find in any

chase whatsoever more cunning and stratagem observed. I have found some

of these spiders in my garden, when the weather, towards spring, was

very hot, but they are not so eager in hunting as in Italy[169].”

[169] Evelyn’s Travels in Italy.

We have only to add to this lively narrative, that the hunting-spider,

when he leaps, takes good care to provide against accidental falls by

always swinging himself from a good strong cable of silk, as Swammerdam

correctly states[170], and which anybody may recognise, as one of the

small hunters (_Salticus scenicus_), known by its back striped with

black and white like a zebra.

[170] Book of Nature, part i. p. 24.

Mr. Weston, the editor of “Bloomfield’s Remains,” falls into a

very singular mistake about hunting-spiders, imagining them to be

web-weaving ones which have exhausted their materials, and are

therefore compelled to hunt. In proof of this he gives an instance

which came under his own observation[171]!

“As a contrast,” says Mr. Rennie, “to the little elastic satin

nest of the hunter, we may mention the largest with which we are

acquainted,--that of the labyrinthic spider (_Agelena labyrinthica_,

WALCKENAER). Our readers must often have seen this nest spread

out like a broad sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, and

sometimes on the ground. The middle of this sheet, which is of a close

texture, is swung like a sailor’s hammock, by _silken_ ropes extended

all around to the higher branches; but the whole curves upwards and

backwards, sloping down to a long funnel-shaped gallery which is nearly

horizontal at the entrance, but soon winds obliquely till it becomes

quite perpendicular. This curved gallery is about a quarter of an inch

in diameter, is much more closely woven than the sheet part of the web,

and sometimes descends into a hole in the ground, though oftener into

a group of crowded twigs, or a tuft of grass. Here the spider dwells

secure, frequently resting with her legs extended from the entrance of

the gallery, ready to spring out upon whatever insect may fall into her

sheet net. She herself can only be caught by getting behind her and

forcing her out into the web; but though we have often endeavored to

make her construct a nest under our eye, we have been as unsuccesful

as in similar experiments with the common house spider (_Aranea

domestica_).

“The house spider’s proceedings were long ago described by Homberg,

and the account has been copied, as usual, by almost every subsequent

writer. Goldsmith has, indeed, given some strange mis-statements from

his own observations, and Bingley has added the original remark, that,

after fixing its first thread, creeping along the wall, and joining

it as it proceeds, it ‘_darts itself to the opposite side_, where the

other end is to be fastened[172]!’ Homberg’s spider took the more

circuitous route of travelling to the opposite wall, carrying in one

of its claws the end of the thread previously fixed, lest it should

stick in the wrong place. This we believe to be the correct statement,

for as the web is always horizontal, it would seldom answer to commit

a floating thread to the wind, as is done by other species. Homberg’s

spider, after stretching as many lines by way of _warp_ as it deemed

sufficient between the two walls of the corner which it had chosen,

proceeded to cross this in the way our weavers do in adding the _woof_,

with this difference, that the spider’s threads were only laid on, and

not interlaced[173]. The domestic spiders, however, in these modern

days, must have forgot this mode of weaving, for none of their webs

will be found thus regularly constructed!”

[171] Bloomfield’s Remains, vol. ii. p. 64, _note_.

[172] Animal Biography, iii. 470, 471.

[173] Mem. de l’Acad. des Sciences, pour 1707, p. 339.

The geometric, or net-working spiders (See Fig. 12. Plate IV.) are as

well known as any of the preceding; almost every bush and tree in our

gardens and hedge-rows having one or more of their nests stretched out

in a vertical position between adjacent branches. The common garden

spider (_Epeira diadema_), and the long-bodied spider (_Tetragnatha

extensa_), are the best known of this order.

“The chief care of a spider of this sort,” says Mr. Rennie, “is, to

form a cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she means to hang

upon it; and after throwing out a floating line as above described,

when it catches properly, she doubles and redoubles it with additional

threads. On trying its strength she is not contented with the test of

pulling it with her legs, but drops herself down several feet from

various points of it, as we have often seen, swinging and bobbing with

the whole weight of her body. She proceeds in a similar manner with the

rest of the frame of her wheel-shaped net; and it may be remarked that

some of the ends of these lines are not simple, but in form of a Y,

giving her the additional security of two attachments instead of one.”

In constructing the body of the nest, the most remarkable circumstance

is the using of her limbs as a measure, to regulate the distances of

her _radii_ or wheel-spokes (See Fig. 12. Plate IV., which represents

the geometric net of the “_Epeira diadema_”), and the circular meshes

interwoven into them. These are consequently always proportional to

the size of the spider. She often takes up her station in the centre,

but not always, though it is so said by inaccurate writers; but she

as frequently lurks in a little chamber constructed under a leaf

or other shelter at the corner of her web, ready to dart down upon

whatever prey may be entangled in her net. The centre of the net is

said also to be composed of more viscid materials than its suspensory

lines,--a circumstance alleged to be proved by the former appearing

under the microscrope studded with globules of gum[174]. “We have not

been able,” says Mr. Rennie, “to verify this distinction, having seen

the suspensory lines as often studded in this manner as those in the

centre.”

[174] Kirby and Spence, Intr. i. 419.

At the commencement of the last century a method was discovered in

France by Monsieur Bon, of procuring silk from spiders’ bags, and its

use was attempted in the manufacture of several articles. Mr. Bon has,

however, noticed only _two_ kinds of silk-making spiders, and these he

has distinguished from each other as having either long or short legs,

the last variety producing the finest quality of raw silk. According to

this ingenious observer, the silk formed by these insects is equally

beautiful, strong, and glossy with that formed by the silk-worm.

When first formed, the color of these spiders’ bags is gray, but, by

exposure to the air, they soon acquire a blackish hue. Other spider

bags might probably be found of different colors, and affording silk

of better quality, but their scarcity would render any experiment with

them difficult of accomplishment; for which reason M. Bon confined his

attention to the bags of the common sort of the short-legged kind.

These always form their bags in some place sheltered from the wind

and rain, such as the hollow trunks of trees, the corners of windows

or vaults, or under the eaves of houses. A quantity of the bags was

collected from which a new kind of silk was made, said to be in no

respect inferior to the produce of the silk-worm. It took readily all

kinds of dyes, and might have been wrought into any description of

silken fabric. Mr. Bon had stockings and gloves made from it, some

of which he presented to the Royal Academy of Paris, and others he

transmitted to the Royal Society of London.

This silk was prepared in the following manner:--Twelve or thirteen

ounces of the bags were beaten with a stick, until they became entirely

freed from dust. They were next washed in warm water, which was

continually changed, until it no longer became clouded or discolored

by the bags under process. After this they were steeped in a large

quantity of water wherein soap, saltpetre, and gum-arabic had been

dissolved. The whole was then gently boiled during three hours, after

which the bags were rinsed in clear warm water to discharge the

soap. They were finally set out to dry, previous to the operation of

carding, which was then performed with cards differing from those

usually employed with silk, being much finer. By these means silk of

a peculiar ash color was obtained, which was spun without difficulty.

Mr. Bon affirmed that the thread was both stronger and finer than

common silk, and that therefore fabrics similar to those made with the

latter material might be manufactured from this, there being no reason

for doubting that it would stand any trials of the loom, after having

undergone those of the stocking frame.

The only obstacle, therefore, which appeared to prevent the

establishing of any considerable manufacture from these spider bags

was the difficulty of obtaining them in sufficient abundance. Mr. Bon

fancied that this objection could soon be overcome, and that the art

of domesticating and rearing spiders, as practised with silk-worms,

was to be attained. Carried away by the enthusiasm of one who, having

made a discovery, pursues it with ardor undismayed by difficulties, he

met every objection by comparisons, which perhaps were not wholly and

strictly founded on fact. Contrasted with the spider, and to favor his

arguments, the silk-worm in his hands made a very despicable figure. He

affirmed that the female spider produces 600 or 700 eggs; while of the

100, to which number he limited the silk-worm, not more than one-half

were reared to produce balls. That the spiders hatched spontaneously,

without any care, in the months of August and September; that the old

spiders dying soon after they have laid their eggs, the young ones

live for ten or twelve months without food, and continue in their bags

without growing, until the hot weather, by putting their viscid juices

in motion, induces them to come forth, spin, and run about in search of

food.

Mr. Bon’s spider establishment, was managed in the following

manner:--having ordered all the short-legged spiders which could be

collected by persons employed for the purpose, to be brought to him,

he inclosed them in paper coffins and pots; these were covered with

papers, which, as well as the coffins, were pricked over their surface

with pin-holes to admit air to the prisoners. The insects were duly

fed with flies, and after some time it was found on inspection that

the greater part of them had formed their bags. This advocate for the

rearing of spiders contended that spiders’ bags afforded much more silk

in proportion to their weight than those of the silk-worm; in proof

of which he observed, that thirteen ounces yield nearly four ounces

of pure silk, two ounces of which were sufficient to make a pair of

stockings; whereas stockings made of common silk were said by him to

weigh seven or eight ounces.

It was objected by some of Mr. Bon’s contemporaries, that spiders were

venomous; and this is so far true that a bite from some of the species

is very painful, producing as much swelling as the smart sting of a

nettle. Mr. Bon, however, asserted that he was several times bitten,

without experiencing any inconvenience; if so, he was more fortunate

or less sensitive than any of the spider-tamers with whom we have been

acquainted. It was further asserted, that this venom extended itself

to the silk which the spider produced; but this assertion was utterly

absurd, as any one who has ever applied a cobweb to stop the bleeding

from a cut ought to have known. Mr. Bon declared with perfect truth,

that the silk, so far from being pernicious, was useful in staunching

and healing wounds, its natural gluten acting as a kind of balsam.

The honest enthusiasm of the projector, and the singularity of a

regular establishment being formed for rearing and working spiders,

excited a considerable share of public attention. It was, indeed, an

age of strange speculations, for nearly at the same time a German

gentleman broached a scheme for turning tame squirrels and mice to

account in spinning; and companies were formed in England, with large

nominal capitals to carry out schemes still more preposterous. So

important did Mr. Bon’s project appear to the French Academy, that they

deputed the eminent naturalist, M. Réaumur, to investigate the merits

of this new silk-filament.

After a long and patient examination M. Réaumur stated the following

objections to Mr. Bon’s plan for raising spider-silk, which have ever

since been regarded as insurmountable.

1. The natural fierceness of spiders renders them unfit to be bred

together. On distributing four or five thousand of these insects into

cells or companies of from fifty to one or two hundred, it was found

that the larger spiders quickly _killed and ate the smaller_, so that

in a short space of time the cells were depopulated, scarcely more than

one or two being found in each cell.

2. The silk of the spider is inferior to that of the silk-worm both

in lustre and strength; and produces less material in proportion, than

can be made available for the purposes of the manufacture. The filament

of the spider’s-bag can support a weight of only thirty-six grains,

while that of the silk-worm will sustain a weight of one hundred and

fifty grains. Thus four or five threads of the spider must be brought

together to equal one thread of the silk-worm, and as it is impossible

that these should be applied so accurately over each other as not to

leave little vacant spaces between them, the light is not equally

reflected, and the lustre of the material is consequently inferior to

that in which a solid thread is used.

3. A great disadvantage of the spider’s silk is, that it cannot be

wound off the ball like that of the silk-worm, but must necessarily

be carded. By this latter process, its evenness, which contributes so

materially to its lustre, is destroyed.

The ferociousness and pugnacity of the spiders are not exaggerated;

they fight like furies. Their voracity, too, is almost incredible,

and it is very questionable whether the mere collection of flies

sufficient to feed a large number of the spiders would not involve an

amount of expense fatal to the project as a lucrative undertaking.

The strength of the spiders’ filament is, if anything, overstated by

Réaumur. Deficiency of lustre arising from the carding of the filaments

is common to the spider-fabric and to spun silk; this objection would,

perhaps, not be of very great weight but for the decisive calculation

by which Réaumur showed the comparative amount of production between

the spider and the silk-worm.

The largest cocoons weigh four, and the smaller three grains each;

spider-bags do not weigh above one grain each; and, after being cleared

of their dust, have lost two-thirds of this weight; therefore the _work

of twelve spiders_ equals that of _only one silk-worm_; and a pound of

spider-silk would require for its production 27,648 insects. But as the

bags are wholly the work of the females, who spin them as a deposit for

their eggs, it follows that 55,296 spiders must be reared to yield one

pound of silk: yet this will be obtained only from the best spiders;

those large ones ordinarily seen in gardens, &c., yielding not more

than a twelfth part of the silk of the others. The work of 280 of these

would therefore not yield more silk than the produce of one industrious

silk-worm, and 663,552 of them would furnish only one pound of silk!

Although Réaumur’s report completely extinguished Mr. Bon’s project

in France, it was revived in England two or three times in the early

part of the last century. Swift has not neglected to make it a portion

of his unrivalled satire against speculators and projectors, in his

account of Gulliver’s visit to the Academy of Lagado:

“I went into another room, says he, where the walls and ceilings were

all hung round with cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the artist to

go in and out. At my entrance he called out to me not to disturb his

webs. He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of

using silk-worms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects, who

infinitely excelled the former, because they understood how to weave

as well as spin. And he proposed further, that, by employing spiders,

the charge of dyeing silk should be wholly saved; whereof I was fully

convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully

colored, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us that the webs would

take a tincture from them, and as he had them of all hues, he hoped

to suit every body’s fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for

the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter to give a

strength and consistency to the threads.”

THE INGENUITY OF SPIDERS.--Mr. Thomas Ewbank of New York,

in a letter to the Editor of the Journal of the Franklin Institute,

bearing date September 20th, 1842, gives us the following interesting

description of the ingenuity of the Spider.

“The resources of the lower animals have often excited admiration, and

though no comprehensive and systematic series of observations have yet

been made upon them(?), the time is, I believe, not distant when the

task will be undertaken--perhaps within the next century. But whenever

and by whomsoever accomplished, the mechanism of animals will then form

the subject of one of the most interesting and _useful_ volumes in the

archives of man.

“Among insects, spiders have repeatedly been observed to modify

and change their contrivances for _ensnaring their prey_. Those

that live in fields and gardens often fabricate their nets or webs

vertically. This sometimes occurs in locations where there is no object

sufficiently near to which the lower edge or extremity of the web can

properly be braced; and unless this be done, light puffs or breezes of

wind are apt to blow it into an entangled mass. Instead of being spread

out, like the sail of a ship, to the wind, it would become clewed over

the upper line, or edge, like a sail when furled up. Now how would a

human engineer act under similar circumstances? But ere the reader

begins to reflect(!), he should bear in mind that it would not do to

brace the web by running rigging from it to some _fixed_ or immovable

object below--by no means;--for were this done, it could not yield to

impulses of wind; the rigging would be snapped by the first blast, and

the whole structure probably destroyed.

“Whatever contrivances human sagacity might suggest, they could hardly

excel those which these despised engineers sometimes adopt. Having

formed a web, under circumstances similar to those to which we have

referred, a spider has been known to descend from it to the ground by

means of a thread spun for the purpose, and after selecting a minute

pebble, or piece of stone, has coiled the end of the thread round it.

Having done this, the ingenious artist ascended, and fixing himself on

the lower part of the web, hoisted up the pebble until it swung several

inches clear of the ground. The cord to which the weight was suspended

was then secured by additional ones, running from it to different parts

of the web, which thus acquired the requisite tension, and was allowed,

at the same time, to yield to sudden puffs of wind without danger of

being rent asunder.

“A similar instance came under my notice a few days ago. A large

spider had constructed his web, in nearly a vertical position, about

six feet from the ground, in a corner of my yard. The upper edge was

formed by a strong thread, secured at one end to a vine leaf, and the

other to a clothes line. One part of the lower edge was attached to a

Penyan sun-flower, and another to a trellis fence, four or five feet

distant. Between these there was no object nearer than the ground, to

which an additional brace line could be carried; but two threads, a

foot asunder, descended from this part of the web, and, eight or ten

inches below it, were united at a point. From this point, a single

line, four or five inches long, was suspended, and to its lower

extremity was the weight, a _living one_, viz. a worm, _three inches

long_, and _one-eighth of an inch thick_. The cord was fastened around

the middle of the victim’s body, and as no object was within reach, all

its writhings and efforts to escape were fruitless. Its weight answered

the same purpose as a piece of inanimate matter, while its sufferings

seemed not in the least to disturb the unconcerned murderer, who lay

waiting for his prey above.

“Whether the owner of the web found it a more easy task to capture this

unlucky worm and raise it, than to elevate a stone of the same weight,

may be a question(?). Perhaps in seeking for the latter, the former

fell in his way, and was seized as the first suitable object that came

to hand--like the human tyrant, (Domitian) who, to show his skill in

archery, planted his arrows in the heads of men or cattle, in the

absence of other targets. It may be, however, that a piece of stone,

earth, or wood, of a suitable weight, was not in the vicinity of the

web.

“To observe the effect of this weight, I separated, with a pair of

scissors, the thread by which it was suspended, and instantly the web

sunk to half its previous dimensions--the lower part became loose, and

with the slightest current kept shaking like a sail shivering in the

wind. A fresh weight was not supplied by the next morning; but instead

of it two long brace lines extended from the lower part of the web to

two vine tendrils, a considerable distance off. These I cut away to

see what device would be next adopted, but on going to examine it the

following day, I found the clothes line removed, and with it all relics

of the insect’s labors had disappeared.”

MASON-SPIDERS.--A no less wonderful structure is composed

by a sort of spiders, natives of the tropics and the south of Europe,

which have been justly called mason-spiders by M. Latreille. One of

these (_Mygale nidulans_, WALCKN.), found in the West Indies,

“digs a hole in the earth obliquely downwards, about three inches in

length, and one in diameter. This cavity she lines with a tough thick

web, which, when taken out, resembles a leathern purse; but what is

most curious, this house has a door with hinges, like the operculum of

some sea-shells, and herself and family, who tenant this nest, open and

shut the door whenever they pass and repass. This history was told me,”

says Darwin, “and the nest, with its door, shown me by the late Dr.

Butt, of Bath, who was some years physician in Jamaica[175].”

[175] Darwin’s Zoonomia, i. 253, 8vo. ed.

“The nest of a mason-spider, similar to this,” says Mr. Rennie, “has

been obligingly put into our hands by Mr. Riddle of Blackheath. It came

from the West Indies, and is probably that of Latreille’s clay-kneader

(_Mygale cratiens_), and one of the smallest of the genus. We have

since seen a pair of these spiders in possession of Mr. William Mello,

of Blackheath. The nest is composed of very hard argillaceous clay,

deeply tinged with brown oxide of iron. It is in form of a tube, about

one inch in diameter, between six and seven inches long, and slightly

bent towards the lower extremity--appearing to have been mined into

the clay rather than built. The interior of the tube is lined _with

a uniform tapestry of silken web, of an orange-white color_, with a

texture intermediate between India paper and very fine glove leather.

But the most wonderful part of this nest is its entrance, which we look

upon as the perfection of insect architecture. A circular door, about

the size of a crown piece, slightly concave on the outside and convex

within, is formed of more than a dozen layers of the same web which

lines the interior, closely laid upon one another, and shaped so that

the inner layers are the broadest, the outer being gradually less in

diameter, except towards the hinge, which is about an inch long; and in

consequence of all the layers being united there, and prolonged into

the tube, it becomes the thickest and strongest part of the structure.

The elasticity of the materials, also, gives to this hinge the

remarkable peculiarity of acting like a spring, and shutting the door

of the nest spontaneously. It is, besides, made to fit so accurately to

the aperture, which is composed of similar concentric layers of web,

that it is almost impossible to distinguish the joining by the most

careful inspection. To gratify curiosity, the door has been opened and

shut hundreds of times, without in the least destroying the power of

the spring. When the door is shut, it resembles some of the lichens

(_Lecidea_), or the leathery fungi, such as _Polyporus versicolor_

(MICHELI), or, nearer still, the upper valve of a young

oyster-shell. The door of the nest, the only part seen above ground,

being of a blackish-brown color, it must be very difficult to discover.”

Another mason-spider (_Mygale cœmentaria_, LATR.), found in the south

of France, usually selects for her nest a place bare of grass, sloping

in such a manner as to carry off the water, and of a firm soil, without

rocks or small stones. She digs a gallery a foot or two in depth, and

of a diameter (equal throughout) sufficient to admit of her easily

passing. She lines this _with a tapestry of silk glued to the walls_.

The door, which is circular, is constructed of many layers of earth

kneaded, and bound together with _silk_. Externally, it is flat and

rough, corresponding to the earth around the entrance, for the purpose,

no doubt, of concealment: on the inside it is convex, _and tapestried

thickly with a web of fine silk_. The threads of this door-tapestry are

prolonged, and strongly attached to the upper side of the entrance,

forming an excellent hinge, which, when pushed open by the spider,

shuts again by its own weight, without the aid of spring hinges. When

the spider is at home, and her door forcibly opened by an intruder, she

pulls it strongly inwards, and even where half-opened often snatches it

out of the hand; but when she is foiled in this, she retreats to the

bottom of her den, as her last resource[176]. The nest of this spider

(the mason spider) is represented in Plate IV. Fig. 14., and shows the

nest shut. Fig. 15., represents it open. Fig. 16. the spider (_Mygale

cœmentaria_). Fig. 17. the eyes magnified. Figures 18 and 19 parts of

the foot and claw magnified. Rossi ascertained that the female of an

allied species (_Mygale sauvagesii_, LATR.), found in Corsica, lived in

one of these nests, with a numerous posterity. He destroyed one of the

doors to observe whether a new one would be made, which it was; but it

was fixed immoveably, without a hinge; the spider, no doubt, fortifying

herself in this manner till she thought she might re-open it without

danger[177].

[176] Mém. Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de Paris, An. vii.

[177] Mém. Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de Paris, An. vii. p. 125, and Latreille,

Hist. Nat. Génér. viii. p. 163.

“The Rev. Revett Shepherd has often noticed, in the fen ditches of

Norfolk, a very large spider (the species not yet determined) which

actually forms a _raft_ for the purpose of obtaining its prey with more

facility. Keeping its station upon a ball of weeds about three inches

in diameter, probably held together by slight silken cords, it is

wafted along the surface of the water upon this floating island, which

it quits the moment it sees a drowning insect. The booty thus seized it

devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when alarmed

by any danger[178].” In the spring of 1830, Mr. Rennie found a spider

on some reeds in the Croydon Canal, which agreed in appearance with Mr.

Shepherd’s.

[178] Kirby and Spence, Intr. i. 425.

Among our native spiders there are several, which, not contented with a

web like the rest of their congeners, take advantage of other materials

to construct cells where, “_hushed in grim repose_,” they “expect their

insect prey.” The most simple of those spider cells is constructed by

a longish-bodied spider (_Aranea holosericea_, LINN.), which

is a little larger than the common hunting spider. It rolls up a leaf

of the lilac or poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done by the

leaf-rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it sometimes seizes to

save itself trouble, having first expelled, or perhaps devoured, the

rightful owner. The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapestry

of the caterpillar, _but always weaves a fresh set of her own_, more

close and substantial.

Another spider, common in woods and copses (_Epeira quadrata?_) weaves

together a great number of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and

in front of it she spreads her toils for entrapping the unwary insects

which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, are dragged into her

den, and stored up for a time of scarcity. Here also her eggs are

deposited and hatched in safety. When the cold weather approaches, and

the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it for the more secure

shelter of a hollow tree, where she soon dies; but the continuation of

the species depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before winter, and

remaining to be hatched with the warmth of the ensuing summer.

The spider’s den of united leaves, however, which has just been

described, is not always useless when withered and deserted; for the

dormouse usually selects it as a ready-made roof for its nest of dried

grass. That those old spiders’ dens are not accidentally chosen by the

mouse, appears from the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of

this sort found during winter in a copse between Lewisham and Bromley,

Kent (England), every second or third one was furnished with such a

roof.

THE WATER SPIDER.--We extract the following exquisitely

beautiful and interesting fact in nature, _connected with diving

operations_, from the Rev. Mr. Kirby’s Bridgewater Treatise:--

“The Water Spider is one of the most remarkable upon whom that office

(diving) is developed by her Creator. To this end, her instinct

instructs her to fabricate a kind of _diving-bell_ in the bosom of that

element. She usually selects still waters for this purpose. Her house

is an _oval cocoon_, filled with air, and lined with _silk_, from which

threads issue in every direction, and are fastened to the surrounding

plants; in this cocoon, which is open below, she watches for her prey,

and even appears to pass the winter, when she closes the opening. It is

most commonly, yet not always, entirely under water; but its inhabitant

has filled it with air for her respiration, which enables her to live

in it. She conveys the air to it in the following manner: she usually

swims upon her back, when her abdomen is enveloped in a bubble of air,

and appears like a globe of quicksilver[179]; with this she enters her

cocoon, and displacing an equal mass of water, again ascends for a

second lading, till she has sufficiently filled her house with it, so

as to expel all the water.

“The males construct similar habitations by the same manœuvres. How

these little animals can envelope their abdomen with an air-bubble,

and retain it till they enter their cells, is still one of Nature’s

mysteries that have not been explained.

“We, however, cannot help admiring, and adoring, the wisdom, power, and

goodness manifested in this singular provision, enabling an animal that

breathes the atmospheric air, to fill her house with it under water,

and which has instructed her in a secret art, _by which she can clothe

part of her body with air as a garment_, and which she can put off when

it answers her purpose.

“This is a kind of attraction and repulsion which mocks all our

inquiries.”

[179] Her singular economy was first, we believe, described by Clerck

(Aranei Suecici, Stockholm, 1757.), L. M. de Lignac (Mém. des

Araign. Aquat., 12mo. Paris, 1799.), and De Geer.

“The shining appearance,” says Clerck, “proceeds either from an

inflated globule surrounding the abdomen, or from the space between

the body and the water. The spider, when wishing to inhale the air,

rises to the surface, with its body still submersed, and only the

part containing the spinneret rising just to the surface, when it

briskly opens and moves its four teats. A thick coat of hair keeps

the water from approaching or wetting the abdomen. It comes up for

air about four times an hour or oftener, though I have good reason

to suppose it can continue without it for several days together.

“I found in the middle of May one male and ten females, which I

put into a glass filled with water, where they lived together very

quietly for eight days. I put some duck-weed (_Lemna_) into the

glass to afford them shelter, and the females began to stretch

diagonal threads in a confused manner from it to the sides of the

glass about half way down. Each of the females afterwards fixed

a close bag to the edge of the glass, from which the water was

expelled by the air from the spinneret, and thus a cell was formed

capable of containing the whole animal. Here they remained quietly,

with their abdomens in their cells, and their bodies still plunged

in the water; and in a short time brimstone-colored bags of eggs

appeared in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On the 7th

of July several young ones swam out from one of the bags. All this

time the old ones had nothing to eat, _and yet they never attacked

one another_, as other spiders would have been apt to do (Clerck,

Aranei Suecici, cap. viii.).”

“These spiders,” says De Geer, “spin in the water a cell of strong,

_closely woven, white silk_ in the form of half the shell of a

pigeon’s egg, or like a diving bell. This is sometimes left partly

above water, but at others is entirely submersed, and is always

attached to the objects near it by a great number of irregular

threads. It is closed all round, but has a large opening below,

which, however, I found closed on the 15th of December, and the

spider living quietly within, with her head downwards. I made a

rent in this cell, and expelled the air, upon which the spider

came out; yet though she appeared to have been laid up for three

months in her winter quarters, she greedily seized upon an insect

and sucked it. I also found that the male as well as the female

constructs a similar subaqueous cell, and during summer no less

than in winter (De Geer, Mém. des Insectes, vii. 312.).” “We have

recently kept one of these spiders,” says Mr. Rennie, “for several

months in a glass of water, where it built a cell half under water,

in which it laid its eggs.”

Thus it appears, that by the successive descents of the little

water-spider under the impulsion of its instinct, produce effects

in its subaqueous pavilion equivalent to those produced in the

diving-bell, or diving helmet, by the successive strokes of the

condensing air-pump of scientific man!

In the language of the book of Psalms, this insect “LAYETH THE BEAMS

OF” her “CHAMBERS IN THE WATERS,” and there secures her subaqueous

chambers in the manner described.

CLEANLINESS OF SPIDERS.--“When we look at the viscid

material,” says Mr. Rennie, “with which spiders construct their lines

and webs, and at the rough, hairy covering (with a few exceptions) of

their bodies, we might conclude, that they would be always stuck over

with fragments of the minute fibres which they produce. This, indeed,

must often happen, did they not take careful precautions to avoid it;

for we have observed that they seldom, if ever, leave a thread to float

at random, except when they wish to form a bridge. When a spider drops

along a line, for instance, in order to ascertain the strength of her

web, or the nature of the place below her, she invariably, when she

re-ascends, coils it up into a little ball, and throws it away. Her

claws are admirably adapted for this purpose, as well as for walking

along the lines, as may be readily seen by a magnifying glass. Fig.

13. Plate IV. shows the triple-clawed foot of a spider, magnified,

the others being toothed like a comb, for gliding along the lines.

This structure, however, unfits it to walk, as flies can do, upon

any upright polished surface like glass; although the contrary[180]

is erroneously asserted by the Abbé de la Pluche. Before she can do

so, she is obliged to construct a ladder of ropes, as Mr. Blackwall

remarks[181], by elevating her spinneret as high as she can, and laying

down a step upon which she stands to form a second; and so on, as any

one may try by placing a spider at the bottom of a very clean wine

glass.

“The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching bits of web and

particles of dust; but these are not suffered to remain long. Most

people may have remarked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushing

its feet upon one another to rub off the dust, though we have not seen

it remarked in authors that spiders are equally assiduous in keeping

themselves clean. They have, besides, a very efficient instrument in

their mandibles or jaws, which, like their claws, are furnished with

teeth; and a spider which appears to a careless observer as resting

idly, in nine cases out of ten will be found _slowly combing her

legs with her mandibles, beginning as high as possible on the thigh,

and passing down to the claws_. The flue which she thus combs off is

regularly tossed away.

“With respect to the house-spider (_A. domestica_), we are told in

books, that ‘she from time to time clears away the dust from her

web, and sweeps the whole by giving it a shake with her paw, so

nicely proportioning the force of her blow, that she never breaks

any thing[182].’ That spiders may be seen shaking their webs in this

manner, we readily admit; though it is not, we imagine, to clear them

of dust, but to ascertain whether they are sufficiently sound and

strong.

“We recently witnessed a more laborious process of cleaning a web

than merely shaking it. On coming down the Maine by the steam-boat

from Frankfort, in August 1829, we observed the geometric-net of a

conic spider (_Epeira conica_, WALCK.) on the framework of

the deck, and as it was covered with flakes of soot from the smoke of

the engine, we were surprised to see a spider at work on it; for, in

order to be useful, this sort of net must be clean. Upon observing it

a little closely, however, we perceived that she was not constructing

a net, but dressing up an old one; though not, we must think, to save

trouble, so much as an expenditure of material. Some of the lines she

dexterously stripped of the flakes of soot adhering to them; but in

the greater number, finding that she could not get them sufficiently

clean, she broke them quite off, bundled them up, and tossed them over.

We counted five of these packets of rubbish which she thus threw away,

though there must have been many more, as it was some time before

we discovered the manœuvre, the packets being so small as not to be

readily perceived, except when placed between the eye and the light.

When she had cleared off all the sooted lines, she began to replace

them in the usual way; but the arrival of the boat at Mentz put an

end to our observations.” Bloomfield, the poet, having observed the

disappearance of these bits of ravelled web, says that he observed a

garden spider moisten the pellets before swallowing them! Dr. Lister,

as we have already seen, thought the spider retracted the threads

within the abdomen.

[180] Spectacle de la Nature, i. 58.

[181] Linn. Trans. vol. xv.

[182] Spectacle de la Nature, i. p. 61.

“I could wish,” says Addison, in ‘The Spectator,’ “our Royal Society

would compile a body of natural history, the best that could be

gathered together from books and observations. If the several

writers among them took each his particular species, and gave us a

distinct account of its original, birth, and education; its policies,

hostilities, and alliances; with the frame and texture of its inward

and outward parts,--and particularly those which distinguish it from

all other animals,--with their aptitudes for the state of being in

which Providence has placed them; it would be one of the best services

their studies could do mankind, and not a little redound to the glory

of the All-wise Creator.”--‘Spectator,’ No. iii.

Although we do not consider Addison as a naturalist, in any of the

usual meanings of the term, yet it would be no easy task, even for

those who have devoted their undivided attention to the subject,

to improve upon the admirable plan of study here laid down. It is,

moreover, so especially applicable to the investigation of insects,

that it may be more or less put in practice by any person who chooses,

in whatever station or circumstances he happens to be placed. Nay,

we will go farther; for since it agrees with experience and many

recorded instances that individuals have been enabled to investigate

and elucidate particular facts, who were quite unacquainted with

systematic natural history, we hold it to be undeniable, that _any

person of moderate penetration, though altogether unacquainted with

what is called “Natural History_,” who will take the trouble to

observe particular facts and endeavor to trace them to their causes,

has every chance to be successful in adding to his own knowledge, and

frequently in making discoveries of what was previously unknown. It

is related of M. Pélissan, while a prisoner in the Bastille, that he

tamed a spider by means of music. This in conjunction with Evelyn’s

observations on hunting-spiders is strong proof of our position,

and show that though books are often of high value to guide us in

our observations, they are by no means indispensable to the study

of nature, inasmuch as the varied scene of creation itself forms an

inexhaustible book, which “even he who runneth may read.”

“It will be of the utmost importance, in the study here recommended,

to bear in mind that an insect can never be found in any situation,

nor make any movement, without some motive, originating in the

instinct imparted to it by Providence. This principle alone, when it

is made the basis of inquiry into such motives or instincts, will

be found productive of many interesting discoveries, which, without

it, might never be made. With this, indeed, exclusively in view,

during an excursion, and with a little attention and perseverance,

every walk--nay, every step--may lead to delightful and interesting

knowledge.”--“INSECT ARCHITECTURE,” p. 219.

[Illustration:

_Plate IV._

Spiders, with the processes of Spinning and Weaving.]

CHAPTER X.

FIBRES OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA.

The Pinna--Description of--Delicacy of its threads--Réaumur’s

observations--Mode of forming the filament or thread--Power of

continually producing new threads--Experiments to ascertain

this fact--The Pinna and its Cancer Friend--Nature of their

alliance--Beautiful phenomenon--Aristotle and Pliny’s account--The

Greek poet Oppianus’s lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer

friend--Manner of procuring the Pinna--Poli’s description--Specimens

of the Pinna in the British Museum--Pearls found in the Pinna--Pliny

and Athenæus’s account--Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna

for weaving--Scarceness of this material--No proof that the ancients

were acquainted with the art of knitting--Tertullian the first ancient

writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres

of the Pinna--Procopius mentions a chlamys made of the fibres of

the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of

gold--Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors--Golden fleece of the

Pinna--St. Basil’s account--Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into

cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India--Diving for the Pinna

at Colchi--Arrian’s account.

In the preceding chapter we have confined our remarks, principally, to

the various attempts made to obtain a silken or filamentous material

from the spider, and although those efforts have not been crowned with

that degree of success which would render a speculation of the kind

worthy of our attention in a pecuniary point of view, yet, it must be

conceded, that the subject is scarcely the less interesting; and Mr.

Bon, the gentleman who first undertook the training of spiders, has at

least given us matter for further interesting speculation. It is now

about 104 years since Mr. Bon commenced his experiments.

In this chapter, we shall proceed to describe the Pinna of the

ancients, and upon which human ingenuity has been more successfully

exercised in seeking, many feet below the surface of the Ocean, for

the slender filaments, the produce of an animal in almost a vegetative

state of existence.

The Pinna is a bivalve[183] shell-fish, which, when full grown, is 18

inches long, and 6 wide at its broad end. It is found near the shores

of South Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia; also in the Bay of

Smyrna, and in the Indian Ocean. It does not fasten itself to rocks

in the same position as the muscle, but sticks its sharp end into the

mud or sand, while the rest of the shell is at liberty to open in

the water. In common with the muscle, it has the power of spinning a

viscid matter from its body, conformably with that of the spider and

caterpillar. Although the pinna is vastly larger than the muscle,

its shell being sometimes found two feet long, the threads which it

produces are more delicate and slender than those of the muscle, being

in fineness and beauty scarcely inferior to the single filament of

the comparatively minute silk-worm. Threads so delicately thin, as

may readily be imagined, do not singly possess much strength; but

the little power of each is made up by the aggregate of the almost

infinite number which each fish puts forth to secure itself in a fixed

situation, and preserve it against the rolling of the waves. The

threads are, however, similar in their nature to those of the muscle,

differing only in their superior fineness and greater length. These

fish have, therefore, been distinguished by some naturalists, the one

as the silk-worm, the other as caterpillar of the sea.

[183] An animal having two valves, or a shell consisting of two parts

which open and shut.

It has been from a very remote period well known, that muscles have

the power of affixing themselves either to rocks or the shells of one

another, in a very firm manner; yet their method of effecting this

was not understood until explained by the accurate observations of

M. Réaumur, the _first_ naturalist who ascertained that if, by any

accident, the animals were torn from their hold, they possessed the

power of substituting other threads for those which had been broken

or injured. It was found by him, that if muscles, detached from each

other, were placed in any kind of vessel and then plunged into the sea,

they contrived in a very short time to fasten themselves both to the

vessel’s side and one another’s shells: in this process, the extremity

of each thread seemed to perform the office of a hand in seizing upon

the body to which it would attach itself.

The threads issue from the shell at that part where it naturally

opens, and in affixing themselves to any substance, form numerous

minute cables, by which the fish steadies itself in the water. Each

animal is provided with an organ, which it is difficult to designate

by any name, since it performs the office of so many members, and is

the only indicator of the existence of vital powers in the creature. It

is by turns a tongue, an arm, and sometimes a leg. Its shape resembles

that of a tongue, and is, therefore, most frequently called by that

name. Whenever the fish requires to change its place, this member

serves to drag its body forward, together with its cumbrous habitation:

in performing a journey, the extremity of this organ, which may then be

styled a leg, is fixed to some solid body, and being then contracted

in length, the whole fish is necessarily drawn towards the spot where

it intends to station itself; and by a repetition of these movements,

the animal arrives at its destination. It is not often that the organ

is put to this use, as the pinna is but little addicted to locomotion:

some naturalists indeed affirm that it is always stable. The purpose to

which the tongue is most frequently applied, is that of spinning the

threads. Although this body is flat, and in form similar to a tongue

through the greater part of its length, it becomes cylindrical about

the base or root, where it is much smaller than in any other part: at

this lower end are several ligatures of a muscular nature, which keep

the tongue firmly fixed against the middle of the shell; four of these

cords are very apparent, and serve to move the tongue in any direction

according to the wants of the fish. Through the entire length of this

member there runs a slit, which pierces so deeply into its surface,

as almost to divide it into two longitudinal sections; this performs

the office of a canal for the liquor of which the threads are formed,

and serves to mould them into their proper form: the canal appears

externally like a small crack, being almost covered by the flesh

from either side, but internally it is much wider, and surrounded by

circular fibres. The channel thus formed extends regularly from the

tip to the base of the tongue, where it partakes of the form of the

member and becomes cylindric, producing there a tube or pipe in which

the canal terminates. The viscid substance is moulded in this tube into

the shape of a cord, similar to the threads produced from it, though

much thicker, and from which all the minute fibres issue and disperse.

The internal surface of the tube, wherein the large cord is formed,

is furnished with glands for the secretion of the peculiar substance

employed in its production, and which is always in great abundance in

this animal as well as in muscles.

Réaumur observed, “that although the workmanship of the land and sea

animals when completed is alike, the manner of its production is very

different. Spiders, caterpillars, &c., form threads of any required

length, by making the viscous liquor of which the filament is formed

pass through fine perforations in the organ appointed for spinning.

But the way in which muscles form their thread is widely opposite; as

the former resembles the work of the wire-drawer[184], so does the

latter that of the founder who casts metals in a mould.” The canal of

the organ destined for the muscle’s spinning is the mould in which its

thread is cast, and gives to it its determinate length.

[184] This remark of M. Réaumur confirms the observations of M. H.

Straus, quoted in Chapter VII. that the thread of the silk-worm

is not produced by a simple emission of liquid matter through the

orifices of the spinner, or that it acquires solidity at once from

the drying influence of the air. Indeed, silk cannot be produced

in this manner, but is _secreted in the form of silk in silk

vessels_, and the spinning apparatus, so called, only unwinds it.

Mr. Straus’s observations on this head admit of no argument. The

discovery reduces all that has been heretofore written upon the

subject to the character of old lumber.

Réaumur learned the manner of the muscle performing the operation of

swimming by actually placing some of these fish under his constant

inspection. He kept them in his apartment in a vessel filled with

sea water, and distinctly saw them open their shells and put forth

their tongues. They extended and contracted this organ several times,

obtruding it in every direction, as if seeking the fittest place

whereon to fix their threads. After repeated trials of this kind,

the tongue of one was observed to remain for some time on the spot

chosen, and being then drawn back with great quickness, a thread was

very easily discerned, fastened to the place: this operation was again

resumed, until all the threads were in sufficient number: one fibre

being produced at each movement of the tongue.

The old threads were found to differ materially from those newly spun,

the latter being whiter, more glossy, and transparent than the former,

and it was thence discovered that it was not the office of the tongue

to transfer the old threads one by one to the new spots where they were

fixed, which course M. Réaumur had thought was pursued. The old threads

once severed from the spot to which they had been originally fixed were

seen to be useless, and that every fibre employed by the fish to secure

itself in a new position was produced at the time required; and, in

short, that nature had endowed some fish, as well as land insects, with

the power of spinning threads, as their natural wants and instincts

demanded. This fact was incontrovertibly established by cutting away,

as close to the body as they could with safety be separated, the old

threads, which were always replaced by others in a space of time as

short as was employed by other muscles not so deprived.

“The pinna and its cancer friend” have on more than one occasion been

made subjects for poetry. There is doubtless some foundation for the

fact of the mutual alliance between these aquatic friends which has

been thus celebrated; yet some slight coloring may have been borrowed

from the regions of fancy wherewith to adorn the verse, and even the

prose history of their attachment may be exposed to a similar objection.

The scuttle-fish, a native of the same seas with the pinna, is its

deadly foe, and would quickly destroy it, were it not for its faithful

ally. In common with all the same species, the pinna is destitute of

the organs of sight, and could not, therefore, unassisted, be aware

of the vicinity of its dangerous enemy. A small animal of the crab

kind, itself deprived of a covering, but extremely quick-sighted,

takes refuge in the shell of the pinna, whose strong calcareous

valves affords a shelter to her guest, _while he makes a return for

this protection by going forth in search of prey_. At these intervals

the pinna opens her valves to afford him egress and ingress: if the

watchful scuttle-fish now approach, the crab returns instanter with

notice of the danger to her hostess; who, timely warned, shuts her door

and keeps out the enemy. When the crab has, unmolested, succeeded in

loading itself with provisions, _it gives a signal by a gentle noise

at the opening of the shell_, and when admitted, the two friends feast

together on the fruit of its industry. It would appear an arduous,

nay, a task almost impossible for the defenceless and diminutive crab,

not merely to elude its enemies and return home, but likewise obtain

a supply of provender sufficient to satisfy the wants of its larger

companion. The following different account of the nature of this

alliance is more credible:--

Whenever the pinna ventures to open its shell, it is immediately

exposed to the attacks of various of the smaller kinds of fish, which,

meeting with no resistance to their first assaults, acquire boldness

and venture in. The vigilant guard, by a gentle bite, gives notice of

this to his companion, who, upon such a hint, closes her shell, and

having thus shut them in makes a prey of those who had come to prey

upon her: when thus supplied with food, she never fails to share her

booty with so useful an ally.

We are told that the sagacious observer, Dr. Hasselquist, in his

voyage, (about the middle of the last century,) to Palestine, which

he undertook for objects connected with the study of natural history,

beheld this curious phenomenon, which, although well known to the

ancients, had escaped the attention of the moderns.

It is related by Aristotle[185] that the pinna keeps a guard to watch

for her, which grows to her mouth, and serves as her caterer: this he

calls pinnophylax, and describes as a little fish with claws like a

crab. Pliny observes[186], that the smallest species of crab is called

the pinnotores, and being from its diminutive size liable to injury,

has the prudence to conceal itself in the shells of oysters. In another

place he describes the pinna as of the genus of shell-fish, with the

further particulars that it is found in muddy waters, always erect,

and never without a companion, called by some pinnatores, by others

pinnophylax; this being sometimes a small squill, and at others a crab,

which remains with the pinna for the sake of food.

[185] Hist. lib. v. c. 15.

[186] Lib. ix. 51. 66.

The description of the pinna by the Greek poet Oppianus, who flourished

in the second century, has been thus given in English verse:--

The pinna and the crab together dwell,

For mutual succor in one common shell;

They both to gain a livelihood combine,

That takes the prey, when this has given the sign;

From hence this crab, above his fellows famed,

By ancient Greeks was Pinnotores named.

It is said that the pinna fastens itself so strongly to the rocks, that

the men employed in fishing for it are obliged to use considerable

force to break the tuft of threads by which it is secured fifteen,

twenty, and sometimes even thirty feet below the surface of the sea.

It is fished up in the Gulf of Tarentum by the _Pernonico_, which

consists of two semicircular bars of iron fastened together at the

ends, at one of which is a wooden pole, at the other a ring and cord.

The fishermen conduct their boat over the place, where the pinna is

seen through the clear water, let down the Pernonico, and, having

loosened the pinna by embracing it with the iron bars and twisting it

round, draw it up to the boat. The pinna is also obtained by diving.

Poli, in his splendid work on the Sicilian Testacea (_Parma_, 1795,

_folio_,) gives beautiful representations of the several species and

especially of the Pinna Nobilis[187]. The following description of

submarine scenery and operations, is so vivid and pleasing that we

quote it at length.

[187] The figure (Fig. 7.) of the Pinna Nobilis, Plate III., is reduced

from Plate XXXIV. in vol. ii.

Pinnis hujusmodi abundant præ cæteris litus Trinacriæ, sinus

Tarentinus, oraque maritima Crateris Neapolitani, potissimum ultra

Promontorium Pausilypi. Equidem persummâ adficimur animi jucunditate,

quoties illarum piscationis recordamur, quam vere jam inchoato

inibi facere iterum iterumque consuevimus. Est ad Insulam Nisitæ,

quâ illa ad septentrionem vergit, respicitque contra Pausilypi

Promontorium, amœnissimi maris plaga, quoddam maris ocium. Ibi inter

ingentes, pulcherrimosque marinarum stirpium saltus, quibus plaga

illa undique virescit, oculosque animumque recreat, Pinnarum greges

sponte gignuntur; quæ mari tranquillo, umbrisque ab insulæ summitate

cadentibus, ab iis qui cymbis insistunt, ad triginta fermè pedum

altitudinem, subrectæ, inque fundo arenoso defixæ perspicuè cerni

possunt. Urinatores igitur, sese mari submergentes, illis arripiendis

destinantur. Quoniam vero, ne reiteratis quidem ictibus, ab arenâ,

ubi consitæ sunt, educi queunt; arena etenim, et pondere suo et

altissimâ aquarum mole sibi incumbente fortiter stipata, urinatorum

conatibus validè resistit; hi maris fundum nacti, ibique veluti in

solo sedentes, arenam Pinnæ circumjectam manibus averrunt, Pinnamque

deinceps ambabus manibus comprehensam divellere conantur. Et si

diutius, quam par est, spiritum cohibere nequeunt, ad summa æquorum

ascendunt, suberibusque aquæ innatantibus inibi de industriâ positis

innituntur, donec tandem aëris haustu recreati, maris fundum iterum

petant, operamque penitus absolvant. _v._ ii. _p._ 230, 231.

This species of Pinna is especially abundant on the shores of Sicily,

in the Gulf of Taranto, and in the Bay of Naples, particularly beyond

the Cape of Posilipo. It always fills my mind with the greatest

delight to recollect the manner of fishing for it, in which I have

often taken a part at that spot in the commencement of spring. On the

northern shore of the Isle of Nisida opposite Posilipo, is a most

agreeable expanse of water, where the sea appears to be ever at rest.

Here, amidst those vast and most beauteous submarine forests, with

which the coast is decorated in every direction so as at once to charm

the mind and refresh the eye, the Pinna grows spontaneously in large

groups, and in calm water, when the shadows fall from the summit of

the island, is clearly seen by persons in boats growing nearly upright

and fixed in the sandy bottom at the depth of about thirty feet. There

are divers, whose business it is to bring it up. But, since it cannot

be loosened even by repeated blows, (for the sand firmly resists the

attempts of the diver, being supported by its own weight and by the

super-incumbent water,) in these circumstances he sits down at the

bottom of the sea, brushes away with his fingers the earth which

encompasses the shell, and then endeavors to pull it up by seizing it

with both hands. If he is thus likely to be detained at the bottom for

a longer time than he can hold his breath, he ascends to the surface,

supports himself _upon corks_, which are in readiness for him, and,

when he has sufficiently recovered himself by breathing, he again

dives to the bottom to complete his task.

The specimens of Pinna in the British Museum show not only the tuft,

but also the pearls and the mother of pearl. Poli found in one specimen

of the Pinna Nobilis no less than twenty pearls, of which he has given

figures in his splendid work. Pliny (l. ix. c. 35.) mentions the

practice of diving for the Pinna in the Mediterranean Sea in order

to obtain pearls from it: and Athenæus (l. iii. p. 93 Casaub.) has

preserved extracts from two historical writers, one of whom accompanied

Alexander on his Indian expedition, and who informs us, that the Pinna

was procured in the Indian seas, by diving and for the sake of the

pearls.

The Italians call the fibres _Lana Pesce_ or _Lana Penna_, i. e. _Fish

Wool_, or _Pinna Wool_. It is not equally good in all places. When the

bottom of the sea is sandy, the shell with its bunch of fibres may be

easily extracted, and they are silky and of a fine color. But in rushy

and muddy bottoms so fast do they stick as to be generally broken in

drawing up, and are of a blackish color without gloss.

The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water,

and again in tepid water, then spread on a table to dry: while yet

moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on

the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and

then through a narrow one. That which is destined for very fine works

is also drawn through iron combs, called _scarde_ (_cards_). It is then

spun with a distaff and spindle.

As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality,

the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings

and gloves, are expensive. They are esteemed excellent preservatives

against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a

brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly

carried on at Taranto, the ancient _Tarentum_[188].

[188] Riedesel’s Travels through Sicily and Græcia Magna, translated

by J. R. Forster, London, 1773, p. 178-180. De Salis, Travels in

the Kingdom of Naples. Keppel Craven, Tour through the Southern

Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, p. 185. D’Argenville, Lithol.

et Conchologie, p. 183, and Plate 25.

The _Lana Penna_, having been spun, is now almost universally knit.

But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this

process prior to the second century, whatever garments they made of

this material must have been woven.

The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Tertullian, who

lived in the second century (_De Pallio_, iii. _p._ 115, _Rigaltii_).

Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says,

Nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum

contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosæ lanusitatis plautiores

conchæ comant.

Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was

necessary also to fish for one’s dress. For fleeces are obtained from

the sea, where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts

of mossy hair[189]. (See Fig. 7, Plate II.)

[189] In this passage _piscari_ is rather fancifully opposed to

_pangere_ and _serere_. The former of these two terms (_pangere_)

refers to tunics of wool, which was _pacta_ or _pexa_; the latter

to tunics of cotton and flax, which were _sata_. The epithet

_plautiores_, (etymologically allied to _latiores_, and to πλατὺς,)

well describes the large size and expanded form of the Pinna.

Procopius informs us (_De Edif. lib._ iii. _c._ 1.), that Armenia was

governed by five hereditary satraps, who received their _insignia_ from

the Roman Emperor. Among these was a Chlamys made of the fibres of the

Pinna. (Χλαμὺς ἡ ἐξ ἐρίων πεποιημένη, οὐχ οἷα τῶν προβατίων ἐκπέφυκεν,

ἀλλ’ ἐκ θαλάσσης συνειλεγμένων· πίννους τὰ ζῶα καλεῖν νενομίκασι, ἐν

οἷς ἡ τῶν ἐρίων ἔκφυσις γίνεται.) This chlamys was fastened with a

fibula of gold, in which a precious stone was set, and three hyacinths

were suspended from it by golden chains (χρυσαῖς τε καὶ χαλαραῖς

ἀλύσεσιν.) The chlamys was accompanied by a silken tunic, adorned with

sprigs or “_feathers_” of gold. It is thus described:

Χιτὼν ἐκ μετάξης, ἐγκαλλωπίσμασι χρυσοῖς πανταχόθεν ὡραΐσμενος, ἃ δὴ

νενομίκασι πλούμμια καλεῖν.

With the chlamys and tunic were worn boots of red leather, such as only

the emperors of Rome and Persia were allowed to wear.

St. Basil mentions with admiration “the golden fleece” of the Pinna,

which no artificial dye could imitate. Πόθεν τὸ χρυσοῦν ἔριον αἱ πίνναι

τρέφουσιν, ὅπερ οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀνθοβάφων ἐμιμήσατο.--_Hexaem._ vii.

Whether the tuft of the Pinna was used for weaving before the time of

the authors, who have now been cited, seems doubtful. As the Pinna is

frequently mentioned by earlier writers, both Greek and Latin[190], but

without any reference to the use of its tuft, it may be regarded as

probable, that this kind of cloth was not invented before the time of

Tertullian.

[190] The passages are collected in Stephani Thesaurus L. Græcæ, ed.

Valpy, p. 7579.

It is a no less curious question, Whence did the ancients obtain the

fibres of the Pinna, _and where was the manufacture of them carried on_?

It has been commonly said at _Tarentum_, but apparently for no

other reason than that the Pinna is obtained and the manufacture

principally carried on at _Taranto_ in modern times. By referring to

the authorities above quoted, it will be seen that none of them makes

any allusion to Tarentum. Consequently we have no direct evidence, that

this was the seat of the ancient manufacture. On the contrary, we have

testimony, that fine cloths of this substance were made in _India_, and

thence imported into Greece and other countries.

The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a document of an age

at least as late as the time of Tertullian, states that the business

of diving for the wool of the Pinna was prosecuted near the city

called _Colchi_ in the south of India. Different species of Pinna

with tufts of fine silk are now no less abundant in the Indian than

the Mediterranean Sea. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea presents a

sufficient proof, that this beautiful substance was spun and woven

by the Indians, whereas we can only suppose from analogy that the

manufacture was carried on in ancient times by the Tarentines.

CHAPTER XI

FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE-APPLE.

Fibres of the Pine-Apple--Facility of dyeing--Manner of preparing the

fibres for weaving--Easy cultivation of the plant--Thrives where no

other plant will live--Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke’s patent process of

manufacturing cloth from the fibres of this plant--Its comparative

want of strength--Silken material procured from the Papyfera--Spun

and woven into cloth--Cloth of this description manufactured

generally by the Otaheiteans, and other inhabitants of the South Sea

Islands--Great strength (supposed) of ropes made from the fibres of

the aloe--Exaggerated statements.

This plant, which has hitherto been valued solely as ministering to the

luxuries of the table, has lately had a new interest attached to it

from the discovery of a fibre contained in its leaves, possessing such

valuable properties, that it will, in all probability, soon form a new

and important article of commerce.

The fibres of the pine-apple plant are disposed in fasciculi, each

apparent fibre being an assemblage of fibres adhering together, of

such exceeding delicacy, as only to measure from 1/5000th to 1/7000th

part of an inch in diameter; viewed under the microscope, they bear

considerable resemblance to silk, from their glossy, even, and

smooth texture. They appear altogether destitute of joints, or other

irregularities, and are remarkably transparent, particularly when

viewed in water: they are very elastic, of considerable strength,

and readily receive the most delicate dyes. This last fact appears

singular, when we bear in mind the resistance, if we may be allowed

the expression, which flax offers to dyes. With much trouble, and by

long processes, flax will receive a few dark dingy colors: all light

and brilliant ones it wholly resists; they do not enter the fibre,

but merely dry upon it externally, and afterwards easily peel, or rub

off,--in short, it may be said to be _painted_, and not dyed.

The preparation of the pine-fibre is exceedingly simple. If a leaf of

this plant be examined, it will be found to consist of an assemblage

of fibres running parallel from one extremity of the leaf to the

other, embedded in the soft pabulum. All the process necessary is to

pass the leaf under a “tilt hammer,” the rapid action of which, in a

few seconds, completely crushes it, without in the slightest degree

injuring the fibre, which remains in a large skein, and then requires

to be rinsed out in soft water, to cleanse it from impurities, and be

afterwards dried in the shade. So simple and rapid is the process, that

a leaf, in a quarter of an hour after being cut from the plant, may

be in a state fit for the purposes of the manufacturer, as a glossy,

white fibre, with its strength unimpaired by any process of maceration,

which, by inducing partial putrefaction, not only materially injures

the strength of flax, but also renders it of a dingy color.

The pine-plant abounds both in the East and West Indies, and may be

easily propagated from the crown; offsets from round the base of the

fruit, which often amount to upwards of twenty in number; and from

the young plants which spring from the parent stem; its cultivation

requires but little care or expense, and is of such hardy growth, as

to be almost independent of those casualties of weather, which often

prove so detrimental to more delicate crops--it is one of those plants

which Nature has scattered so profusely through tropical regions,

whose leaves are thick and fleshy, to contain a large supply of

nourishment, and covered by a thick, glazed cuticle; admitting of so

little evaporation, that many of them will thrive upon a barren rock,

where no other plant would live. Also from the large portion of oxalic

acid which the leaves contain, no animal will touch them, and are,

therefore, exempt from the trespasses of cattle, &c. Indeed no greater

proof of the hardiness of the plant can be given, than the fact,

that in many places where lands have been under tillage,--afterwards

abandoned, and allowed to return to a state of nature, the pine-apple

plant exhibits the only trace of former cultivation; every other

cultivated plant has died away before the encroachments of the

surrounding wood, while they alone remained increasing from year to

year, and spread into large beds.

Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke obtained a patent in England, bearing date

December 9, 1836, for the following mode of preparing the filaments

of this plant, the “_Bromelia ananas_.” We give the patentee’s own

description (with slight emendations), as received from the patent

office, London, and which is as follows.

“I (the said Frederick Burt Zincke) do hereby declare that the nature

of my said invention consists--Firstly, in preparing or manufacturing

the leaf of the plant, commonly called the pine-apple, by bruising,

beating, washing, and drying the same, in such manner as to separate

the long fibrous parts from the cuticle pabulum, and other matter

comprising the said leaf. Secondly, in the application of the fibrous

substance, so prepared to various manufactures and purposes, for which

silk, flax, cotton, hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials are now

used. And further, I describe the manner in which my said invention

is to be performed by the following statement: For the purpose of

preparing the fibre, I cut the leaves from the pine-apple plant, at any

period from the time of their obtaining their full growth, till the

ripening of the fruit, for I find that if the leaves are taken before

they are full grown, the fibre is less strong, and if suffered to

remain on the plant, after the ripening of the fruit, the fibre becomes

harsh, and is more difficult to divest of the extraneous matter. The

small thorns having been trimmed from the edge of the leaves, with

a sharp knife, the leaves should be crushed, so as to disengage the

fibre from the other matter composing the leaf, for which purpose the

employment of a mallet upon a block of wood, will fully answer the

intended purpose. This process of crushing is to be continued until

the fibre appears in an assemblage of long silky filaments, with more

or less of the pulpy and other matter of the leaf adhering to them;

to cleanse them from which they are to be well rinsed in soft water,

_immediately after having been crushed_ or beaten, and then the water

should forthwith be squeezed out of them, by drawing them between the

edges of two pieces of wood, placed parallel to each other, so as to

admit of the fibres being drawn out rather lightly between them, for if

the green matter is allowed to dry on the fibre, it of course becomes

more difficult to cleanse. The washing must be carefully performed,

so as to prevent the fibre from becoming tangled or knotted. The

operation of washing or rinsing must be repeated until the fibre be

thoroughly cleansed. If it be found difficult to clean the fibre from

the extraneous matter, in consequence of not collecting the leaves from

the plant sufficiently early, or from any other cause, the operation

will be facilitated by boiling the fibre, after it has been beaten,

and partially purified in a solution of soap in soft water. For this

purpose the fibre must be regularly disposed in any suitable vessel, so

as to prevent its becoming tangled, with sufficient water to cover it,

in which soap has been dissolved, in the proportion of about 5 lbs. to

50 lbs. of fibre, a light weight being then placed upon it, to keep the

fibre beneath the surface of the liquor; the whole is then to be boiled

for the space of three or four hours, and after boiling, to be well

rinsed out in soft water, and squeezed as before directed. The fibre

having been cleansed by these processes, is to be _gradually dried in

the shade_, and occasionally shaken out, so as to prevent the too close

adhesion of the filament in drying, which would otherwise take place.

The fibre may be obtained free from the extraneous matter of the leaf

by other modes; but I prefer that which I have above described. As to

the second part of my said invention, it is only necessary to observe

that from the _superiority of this fibre in several respects over those

now in common use_(?), it is adapted to a vast number of purposes,

in which fibrous materials are now employed; it is of a glossy white

color, it receives dyes with facility, it possesses great strength, and

is divisible to an exceeding degree of fineness, for upon examination

each filament that appears a single fibre, is, in fact, a bundle

of very delicate fibres, adhering more or less strongly together.

These qualities render it applicable to the manufacture of _shawls_,

_drills_, _damask-linens_, _plushes_, _carpets_, _rugs_, _lace_,

_bonnets_, _paper_; as a material for _rope_, _twine_, or _thread_, and

a variety of other purposes to which silk, cotton, flax hemp, wool, and

other fibrous materials are now applied. As a material for spinning in

the ordinary method in which flax is now spun through hot water, this

fibre requires to undergo the process generally in use for bleaching

flax. I find the period at which the bleaching can be most conveniently

performed, is when the fibre is in the state called technically “a

roving;” for the coarser yarns the first stages of the bleaching

process will be sufficient, but this operation must be carried further,

in proportion to the fineness of the yarn intended to be spun. The

effect of the bleaching upon the fibre is, to disengage part of the

adhesive matter, which connects the fine filaments together, and render

the yarn susceptible of longation, between the receiving and delivering

rollers in spinning, after it has passed through the hot water; I

therefore claim as my invention, the preparing and manufacturing into

the fibres hereinbefore particularly described; the leaf of the plant

commonly called the pine-apple, by any mode or modes of preparation,

and also the application of the said fibres, when prepared and

manufactured, to the several purposes hereinbefore also particularly

specified, the same being to the best of my knowledge (information,

remembrance, and belief), now and not heretofore practised.”

M. de la Rouverie affirms, that he procured a beautiful vegetable silk

from the Papyfera or paper mulberry; cutting the bark while the tree

was in sap, beating it with mallets, and steeping it in water; he

obtained a thread from the fibres, almost equal to silk in quality; and

this was woven into a cloth the texture of which appeared as if formed

of that material. The finest sort of cloth among the inhabitants of

Otaheite, and other of the South Sea Islands, is made of the bark of

this tree.

According to M. Chevremont, Engineer of Mines, “ropes made of aloes

have _four times the resistance_ of those of hemp of the same diameter,

and made by the same process(?). The fibres of the aloe contain

a resinous substance which protects the ropes from the action of

moisture: even at sea, and renders the tarring of them unnecessary.

They are lighter than hempen ropes, and lose nothing of their strength

by being wet(?). When plunged into water, they are shortened only two

per cent., so that they become less rigid than ropes made of hemp(?).”

There appears to be a good deal of exaggeration in regard to the

great superiority of the fibres of these plants over cotton, flax, &c.

This is particularly the case in regard to Mr. Zincke, for although

he succeeded in producing some very beautiful specimens of fabric,

in conformity with the foregoing specification, yet, the manufacture

does not appear to make much progress, chiefly on account of the

_inferiority in point of strength of the cloth_, more especially when

bleached.

CHAPTER XII.

MALLOWS.

CULTIVATION AND USE OF THE MALLOW AMONG THE ANCIENTS.--TESTIMONY OF

LATIN, GREEK, AND ATTIC WRITERS.

The earliest mention of Mallows is to be found in Job xxx.

4.--Varieties of the Mallow--Cultivation and use of the

Mallow--Testimony of ancient authors--Papias and Isidore’s mention of

Mallow cloth--Mallow cloth common in the days of Charlemagne--Mallow

shawls--Mallow cloths mentioned in the Periplus as exported from

India to Barygaza (Baroch)--Calidāsa the Indian dramatist, who

lived in the first century B. C.--His testimony--Wallich’s (the

Indian botanist) account--Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the

Sacontăla of Calidāsa--Valcălas or Mantles of woven bark,

mentioned in the Ramayana, a noted poem of ancient India--Sheets made

from trees--Ctesias’ testimony--Strabo’s account--Testimony of Statius

Cæcilius and Plautus, who lived 169 B. C. and 184 B. C.--Plautus’s

laughable enumeration of the analogy of trades--Beauty of garments of

Amorgos mentioned by Eupolis--Clearchus’s testimony--Plato mentions

linen shifts--Amorgine garments first manufactured at Athens in the

time of Aristophanes.

The earliest mention of mallows is that given in the book of Job, in

the following words: “For want and famine they were solitary: fleeing

into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up

_mallows_ by the bushes, and _juniper-roots_ for their meat.”--Job xxx.

We find in ancient authors of a more modern date, distinct mention of

three species of malvaceous plants, which are still common in the South

of Europe. These are, the Common Mallow, _Malva Silvestris_, Linn.; the

Marsh Mallow, _Althæa Officinalis_, Linn.; and the Hempleaved Mallow,

_Althæa Cannabina_, Linn.

The Common Mallow is called by the Latin writers _Malva_, by the Greek

Μαλάχη, or Μολόχη.

This plant was used for food from the earliest times. Hesiod represents

living on Mallows and asphodel as the sign of moderation, contentment,

and simplicity of manners.

Νήπιοι, οὐδ’ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντὸς,

Οὐδ’ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῃ τε καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ’ ὄνειαρ.--_Op. et Dies_, 41.

Fools! not to know how much more the half is than the whole, and how

much benefit there is in mallows and asphodel.

A dish of these vegetables was probably the cheapest of all kinds

of food; they grew wild in the meadow and by the wayside, and were

gathered and dressed without any labor or trouble.

Various authors however mention the cultivation of the Common Mallow in

gardens. See Virgil, _Moretum_, 73. Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ l. xix. c. 22

and 31. Isidori _Orig._ l. xvii. c. 10. Papiæ _Vocabular._ v. _Malva.

Geoponica_, xii. l. Palladuis, iii. 24. xi. ll.

Dioscorides (_l._ ii. c. III.) calls it the Garden Mallow. Aristophanes

(_Plutus_ 544.) mentions eating the shoots of mallows instead of

bread, intending by this to represent a vile and destitute kind of

living. Plutarch (_Septem Sapientum Convivium_) says, “The mallow is

good for food, and the Anthericus is sweet.” According to Le Clerc

ὁ ἀνθέρικος (_Anthericus_) means the scapus of the asphodel: if he

is right, this plant was eaten as we now eat asparagus. It is also

remarkable that on this supposition Plutarch mentions the same two

plants, which are also mentioned together by Hesiod.

According to Theophrastus (_Hist. Plant._ vii. 7. 2.) the mallow

was not eaten raw, as in a salad, but required to be cooked. Cicero

(_Epist. ad Fam._ vii. 26.) mentions the highly-seasoned vegetables at

a dinner given by his friend Lentulus. Having been made ill by them,

he says, that he, “who easily abstained from oysters and lampreys, had

been deceived by beet and mallows.” Probably the leaves of the mallow

were on this occasion boiled, chopped, and seasoned, much in the same

way as spinach is now prepared in France.

Moschus in the following well-known lines refers to the common mallow

together with other culinary vegetables:

Αἲ, αἲ, ταὶ μαλάχαι μὲν, ἐπὰν κατὰ κᾶπον ὄλωνται,

Ἠδὲ τὰ χλωρὰ σέλινα, τό τ’ εὐθαλὲς οὖλον ἄνηθον,

Ὕστερον αὖ ζώοντι, καὶ εἰς ἔτος ἄλλο φυόντι.

Mallows, alas! die down, and parsley, and flourishing fennel;

Then they spring up afresh, and live next year in the garden.

This is accurately true of the common mallow, the root of which is

perennial, so that the stems grow up and die down again every year.

Accordingly Theophrastus brings it as an example of a plant _with

annual stems_[191].

[191] Hist. Plant. l. vii. c. 8. p. 142. Heinsii. 240. Schneider.

Horace in two passages signifies his partiality to mallows, calling

them “_leves_,” _light to digest_.

Let olives be my food, endive, and mallows light.

_Od._ _l._ i. 31. _v._ 16.

Mallows, salubrious to a frame o’er-filled.

Epod. 2. 57.

Martial recommends this vegetable on account of its laxative effect:

Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis. (iii. 47.)

Exoneratarus ventrem mihi villica malvas

Attulit, et varias, quas habet hortus, opes. (x. 48.)

Diphilus of Siphnos (_as quoted by Athenæus_, _l._ ii. _p._ 58. E.

_Casaub._), after enumerating the medical virtues of the Common Mallow,

says, that “the wild was better than the cultivated kind.”

Without quoting other classical authorities, the ancient practice may

be illustrated by the observations of modern travellers, who mention

that the Common Mallow is still an article of consumption in the same

parts of the world.

Biddulph, who visited Syria about the year 1600, says, he “saw near

Aleppo many poor people gathering mallows, and three-leaved grass, and

asked them what they did with it, and they answered, that it was all

their food, and that they boiled it, and did eat it.” (_Collection of

Voyages and Travels from the Library of the E. of Oxford_, _p._ 807.)

Dr. Sibthorp states, that the _Malva Silvestris_ grows wild in Cyprus,

and is called Μόλωχα. He also says, “The wild mallow is very common

about Athens: the leaves are boiled and eaten as a pot-herb, and an

ingredient in the Dolma.” (_Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic

Turkey_, _edited by Walpole_, _p._ 245.) Dr. Holland mentions both

_Malva Silvestris_ and _Althæa Officinalis_ among the officinal

plants, which he found in Cephalonia. (_Travels in Greece_, _p._ 543,

_4to._).

The _Althæa Officinalis_, or Marsh Mallow, is called by the Greek

authors Ἀλθαία, by the Latin, Hibiscus. Theophrastus says, that it went

also under the name of wild mallow[192]. Whilst the Common Mallow,

though highly esteemed for its medicinal virtues, was principally

regarded as a substantial article of food; the Marsh Mallow, on the

contrary, seems to have been rarely used except as an article of the

Materia Medica[193]; and, as its peculiar properties were likely to

be more matured in the wild than cultivated state, it does not appear

to have been grown in gardens[194]. Theophrastus describes it by

comparing it with the Common Mallow, and mentions its application, both

internally and externally, as a medicine[195]. Dioscorides (_l._ iii.

_c._ 139.) gives similar details. Besides mentioning the proper name of

the plant in Greek and in Latin, he calls it, “a kind of wild mallow.”

Palladius (_l._ xi. _p._ 184. _Bip._) explains “_Hibiscus_” to be the

same as “_Althæa_.” See also Pliny, _l._ xx. _c._ 14. _ed. Bip._ Virgil

alludes to the use of it as fodder for goats, and as a material for

_weaving baskets_[196].

[192] Hist. Plant. l. ix. cap. 15. p. 188. Heinsii.

[193] Calpurnius (Eclog. iv. 32,) mentions the “Hibiscus” as used for

food, but only by persons in a state of great destitution.

[194] At a later period, however, we find the Althæa Officinalis under

the name of “_Ibischa Mis-malva_” in a catalogue of the plants,

which Charlemagne selected for cultivation in the gardens attached

to his villas. See Sprengel, Hist. Rei Herb. i. 220.

[195] Hist. Plant. l. ix. cap. 19. p. 192. ed. Heinsii.

[196] Eclog. ii. 30. and x. 71. See Servius, Heyne, and J. II. Voss.,

_ad loc._

The Hemp-leaved Mallow, _Althæa Cannabina_, is once mentioned by

Dioscorides (_lib._ iii. _c._ 141.). Giving an account of hemp, he

distinguishes between the cultivated and the wild. He says of the wild

hemp, that the Romans called it _Cannabis Terminalis_[197]. After

mentioning the medical properties of the plant, Dioscorides says, that

its bark was useful for making ropes. The truth of this observation

will be apparent to every botanist. The plants belonging to the natural

order _Malvaceæ_ are all remarkable for the abundance of strong and

beautiful fibres in their bark[198].

[197] Meaning literally Hedge-hemp.

[198] We have the following testimony respecting the actual fabrication

of mallow-cloth in modern times:

“Nous avons vu à Madrid, chez le savant pharmacien D. Casimir

Ortéga, de ces tissus, qui nous ont semblé fort remarquables.

Ils étaient faits avec l’écorce des _Althéas officinalis_ et

_cannabina_, et avec celle du _Malva sylvestris_.” Fée, Flore de

Virgile, Paris 1822, p. 66.

But of the European species there is none superior in the fineness,

the strength, the whiteness, and lustre of its fibres, to the Common

Mallow, the _Malva Silvestris_. We have seen that the _ancients_ were

familiarly acquainted with this plant; that it was commonly cultivated

in their gardens; and that they gathered it, when growing wild, to be

taken as food or medicine. In these circumstances they could scarcely

fail to observe the aptitude of its bark for being spun into thread.

More especially in places where they had no other native supply of

fibrous materials; in Attica, for example, which probably produced

neither hemp nor flax, it seems in the highest degree probable, that

the fitness of the mallow to supply materials for weaving would not be

overlooked.

In producing the evidence, which establishes this as a positive fact,

we shall begin with the latest testimonies and proceed in a reverse

order upward to the most ancient. According to this plan, the first

authority is that of Papias, who wrote his Vocabulary about the year

1050. He gives the following explanations:

Malbella vestis quæ ex malvarum stamine conficitur,

quam alii molocinam vocant.

Molocina vestis quæ albo stamine sit: quam alii malbellam vocant.

These passages clearly describe a kind of cloth made of the white

fibres of the common mallow. _Malbella_, the same with Malvella, is a

Latin adjective, in the form of a diminutive, from _Malva_: _Molocina_,

the same with Μολόχινη, is a Greek adjective from Μολόχη, and signifies

_made of mallow_.

Papias, who seems in compiling his dictionary to have made great use of

Isidore, perhaps derived these explanations in part from the following

passage of the latter author:

_Melocinia_ (vestis est), quæ malvarum stamine conficitur, quam alii

_molocinam_, alii _malvellam_ vocant. _Isid. Hisp. Orig._ xix. 22.

The cloth called _Melocinea_ is made of the thread of mallows, and is

called by some _Molocina_, by others _Malvella_.

The passages of Papias cannot be taken as a proof, that mallow-cloth

was woven in his day. But that it was in fashion as late as the age

of Charlemagne appears from the following line, which is quoted by

Du Cange (_Glossar. Med. et Inf. Lat. v. Melocineus_) from a poem in

praise of that monarch, attributed to Alcuin:

Tecta melocineo fulgescit femina amictu.

Wrapt in a mallow shawl the lady shines.

The word “_fulgescit_” aptly describes the lustre of the material under

consideration. From the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea[199] we learn,

that _cloths made of mallow_, were among the articles of export from

India, being brought from Ozene (Ugain) and Tagara in the interior of

the country to the sea-port of Barygaza (Baroch). P. 146. 169, 170, 171.

[199] P. 146. 169, 170, 171. Arriani Op. ed. Blancardi, tom. ii.

The genus _Hibiscus_, Linn. is very abundant in India. The bark of a

certain species of this genus, especially of H. _Tiliaceus_ and H.

_Cannabinus_, is now very extensively employed for making _cordage_,

and might unquestionably have been used for making cloth[200].

[200] Cavanilles, Tab. 52, fig. 1, represents H. Cannabinus, the

leaf of which is like that of hemp. Tab. 55, fig. 1, represents H.

Tiliaceus, in the description of which we read “_cortice in funes

ductili_;” and Cavanilles says, the inhabitants of the South Sea

Islands (_Australium insularum_) use in their ships and boats ropes

made from the bark.

H. _Tiliaceus_ is also represented in Rheede’s Hort. Malabaricus (vol.

i. fig. 30.). It grows about 15 feet high.

Dr. Wallich (Cat. of Indian Woods, p. 18.) mentions two other species

as used for making cordage from the bark.

The late Mr. John Hare, who lived in India a long time, says, that a

coarse kind of cloth, used for making sacks, &c., is now woven from

Hibiscus bark.

As a further evidence, that the _Molochina_ mentioned in the Periplus

were made from the bark of the Hibiscus, we may refer to that admirable

specimen of Eastern taste and ingenuity, the Sacontăla of the great

Indian dramatist Calidāsa. Several passages of this poem make

mention of the _Valcăla_, which the Sanscrit Lexicons, themselves

of great antiquity, explain as meaning either bark, or a vesture made

from it. We learn from Dr. Wallich, a celebrated Indian botanist, that

many kinds of Hibiscus had this quality in an eminent degree, and, as

their bark was in common use for making all kinds of cordage, it might

undoubtedly be employed for weaving.

The Sacontăla is of a date as ancient as the Periplus. Professor

Von Bohlen (_Das alte Indien_, _vol._ ii. _p._ 477.) asserts, that the

author Calidāsa certainly flourished as early as the first century

B. C. Sir William Jones makes him older by several centuries. (_Works_,

_vol._ vi. _p._ 206.) The place also agrees as well as the time. The

Hibiscus Tiliaceus, according to Sir J. E. Smith, is “one of the most

common trees in every part of the East Indies, thriving in all sorts

of situations and soils, and cultivated for the sake of its shade

even more than the beauty of its flowers, in towns and villages and

by road-sides. A coarse cordage,” he adds, “is made of the bark; the

wood is light and white, useful for small cabinet-work; the mucilage of

the whole plant is applied to some medical purposes.” The Molochina,

mentioned in the Periplus, were brought from Ozene and Tagara, and may

have come from still further North. The hermitage, described in the

drama, was at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and near the river

Malina, and, according to the representations given by the poet, the

Valcălas (translated by Sir W. Jones “_mantles of woven bark_,” and

by Chézy, “_vêtemens d’écorce_”), were worn both by the hermits and by

the beautiful Sacontăla, while she was their inmate[201].

[201] Translation of the Sacontăla, Sir W. Jones’s Works, vol. vi. pp.

217. 225. 289. Original, ed. Chézy, Paris, 1830, p. 7, l. 10.; p.

9, l. 10; p. 24, l. 7.; p. 131, l. 14. Chézy’s translation, pp. 10.

27. 142. 143. See also Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. p. 648.

“Valcălas” are mentioned in precisely the same manner in the

Ramayana, one of the most noted of the heroic poems of ancient India.

They are represented as coarse garments worn by ascetics.

If the explanation now given be admitted as applicable to the Molochina

of the Periplus, it may throw light upon some other passages of ancient

authors.

Ctesias, in his _Indica_[202], mentions “_sheets made from trees_.”

[202] Cap. 22. Fragmenta, ed. Bähr. p. 253. 326.

Strabo’s account of the webs, which he calls _Serica_, an account

derived from the writings of Nearchus, admiral of Alexander the Great,

represents those webs as made from fibres, _which were scraped from the

bark of trees_. This would apply exactly to the supposed use of the

Hibiscus for making cloth. The bark must have been first stript from

the tree, and the fibres then scraped from the _inside of the bark_.

To the same source we may, we think, trace the idea of Arethas (_in

Apoc._ _c._ 57.), that the Byssus, Rev. xix. 8., was “_the bark of an

Indian tree made into flax_.”

Although the date of the following inscription, found at Rome, is

uncertain, it may be conveniently brought in here. It is published by

Muratori, _Novus Thesaurus Vet. Inscriptionum_, _tom._ ii. _p._ 939.

P. AVCTIVS P. L. LYSANDER.

VESTIARIVS. TENVIARIVS.

MOLOCHINARIVS. VOT. SOL.

Muratori in his Note says, that “Vestiarius Tenuiarius” was the man

who made thin garments, and “_Molochinarius_” the man who made such

garments of a mallow color.

The authors, next in regard to antiquity, who make mention of

_Molochina_, are the writers of the Latin Comedy, Statius Cæcilius, who

died 169 B. C., and Plautus, who died 184 B. C.

Nonius Marcellus (_l._ xvi.) quotes the following line from the

_Pausimachus_ of the former dramatist:

Carbasina, molochina, ampelina.[203]

[203] See C. C. Statii Fragmenta, a Leonhardo Spengel, Monachii 1829,

p. 35. Statius chiefly copied Menander (_Gellius_, ii. _c._

16.); but it is not certain that Menander wrote any play called

_Pausimachus_.

The passage of Plautus is in the Aulularia (_Act_ iii. _Scene_ v. _l._

40.), where we have a ludicrous enumeration, extending through more

than ten lines, of all the persons concerned in the manufacture or sale

of garments.

Solearii astant, astant molochinarii.

All the lexicographers and commentators explain _Molochinarius_ to

be one who dyes cloth of the color of the mallow. _Lanarius_ was

a woollen-draper; _Coactiliarius_, a dealer in felts, a hatter;

_Lintearius_ a linen-draper; and _Sericarius_ a silk-mercer. According

to the same analogy, _Molochinarius_ would mean _a dealer in

Molochina_, i. e. _in all kinds of cloth made from mallows_.

The class of writers, which will now be produced as affording testimony

respecting the use of the mallow for weaving, are Greek authors,

and who instead of the common Greek terms employ the Attic term

Ἀμοργὸς and its derivatives.

Ἀμοργὸς has been explained by some of the lexicographers to be a kind

of flax (See Julius Pollux, L. vii. § 74.). Perhaps by this explanation

nothing more was intended than that it was a plant, the fibres of which

were used to spin and weave into cloth. It is highly probable that it

was the _Malva Silvestris_ or _Common Mallow_, and that it was called

Ἀμοργὸς.

According to the Attic lexicons of Pausanias (_apud Eustath. l. c._)

and of Mœris, Ἀμοργὸς was an Attic term. We now find traces of it in

seven Attic writers, four or five of whom wrote comedy. These are

Aristophanes, Cratinus, Antiphanes, Eupolis, Clearchus, Æschines, and

Plato.

I. We shall take first Aristophanes, whose comedy called Lysistrata

is frequently quoted by Pausanias and Cratinus, and being still extant

throws considerable light upon the subject. It was represented in the

year 412. B. C. Lysistrata says (_l._ 150),

Κᾂν τοῖς χιτώνιοισι τοῖς ἁμόργινοις

Γυμναὶ παριοῖμεν,

“And if we should present ourselves naked in shifts of amorgos;”

showing that these shifts were transparent. Accordingly Mœris says,

that the ἀμόργινον was λεπτὸν ὕφασμα, “a thin web.” Bisetus in his

Greek commentary on this play, after quoting the explanations of

Stephanus Byzantinus, Suidas, Eustathius, and the Etymologicum Magnum,

judiciously concludes as follows: “From all these it is manifest, that

ἀμόργινοι χιτώνες, whether they took their name from a place, from

their color, or from the raw material, were a kind of valuable robe,

worn by the rich, fashionable, and luxurious women.”

A subsequent passage of the Lysistrata (v. 736-741) still further

illustrates this subject. A woman laments, that she has left at home

her ἀμοργις _without being peeled_ (ἄλοπον), and she goes _to peel it_

(ἀποδείρειν). The mallow no less than flax and hemp, would require the

bark to be stript off, and doubtless the best time for stripping it is

as soon as the plant is gathered.

II. Cratinus died about 420 B. C. The following line, from his comedy

called Μαλθακοὶ, represents a person spinning Ἀμοργός.

Ἀμοργὸν ἔνδον βρυτίνην νήθειν τινα.

_Cratina Fragmenta, a Runkel_, _p._ 29.

III. Julius Pollux, speaking of garments made of Ἀμοργὸς (L. vii. c.

13.) quotes the Medea of Antiphanes thus: Ἦν χιτὼν ἁμόργινος. This

author was contemporary with Aristophanes.

IV. Eupolis wrote about the same time, and his authority may be added

to the rest as proving that garments of Amorgos were admired by

luxurious persons at Athens[204].

[204] See Harpocration, p. 29. ed. Blancardi. 1683. 4to. Also Pher. et

Eupolidis Fragmenta, a Runkel, p. 150.

V. Clearchus of Soli[205] mentions the use of a cover of Amorgos

for inclosing a splendid purple blanket. This application of it is

agreeable to the foregoing evidence, showing that the _amorgine webs

were transparent_. The silky translucence of the lace-like web of

mallow would have a very beautiful effect over the fine purple of the

downy blanket.

[205] Ap. Athenæum, L. vi. p. 255, Casaub. Clearchus probably wrote

about 100 years later than the before-mentioned authors, but the

circumstances related by him may have occurred about the time when

those authors flourished, and even at Athens.

VI. Æschines in an oration against Timarchus, the object of which is

to hold up to contempt the extravagancies of this Athenian spendthrift,

in his enumeration of them, he mentions (p. 118, ed. Reiskii.) that

Timarchus took to his house a “woman skilled in making cloths of

Amorgos.”

VII. Plato in the 13th Epistle, addressed to Dionysius, tyrant of

Syracuse, which, if not genuine, is at least ancient, proposes to give

to the three daughters of Cebes three long shifts, not the valuable

shifts made of Amorgos, but the linen shifts of Sicily.

The mention of amorgine garments by the writers, who have now been

cited, seems to prove, that the fashion of making and wearing them

first came in among the Greeks at Athens in the time of Aristophanes,

who lived, as the reader will have observed, in the fifth century

before Christ. From them the fashion may have extended itself into

Sicily and Italy, which will account, if _Amorgina_ were the same

with _Molochina_, for the striking agreement in this respect between

the writers of Greek and of Latin Comedy. In subsequent ages the

manufacture seems to have declined, probably in consequence of the

abundance of silk and other rich and beautiful goods imported from

Asia. But the mention of these stuffs in the writings of Isidore and

Alcuin renders it probable, that they were brought again into use in

the fifth and following centuries of the Christian era.

CHAPTER XIII.

SPARTUM, OR SPANISH BROOM.

CLOTH MANUFACTURED FROM BROOM BARK, NETTLE, AND BULBOUS

PLANT.--TESTIMONY OF GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS.

Authority for Spanish Broom--Stipa Tenacissima--Cloth made from

Broom-bark--Albania--Italy--France--Mode of preparing the fibre for

weaving--Pliny’s account of Spartum--Bulbous plant--Its fibrous

coats--Pliny’s translation of Theophrastus--Socks and garments--Size

of the bulb--Its genus or species not sufficiently defined--Remarks of

various modern writers on this plant--Interesting communications of

Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass. to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth.

Pliny says, that “in the part of Hispania Citerior about New Carthage

whole mountains were covered with Spartum; that the natives made

mattresses, shoes, _and coarse garments of it_, also fires and torches;

and that its tender tops were eaten by animals[206].” He also says,

that it grows spontaneously where nothing else will grow, and that it

is “the rush of a dry soil.”

[206] L. xix. c. 2.

The question now arises, what plant Pliny intended to describe.

Clusius, who travelled in Spain chiefly with a view to botany, supposed

Pliny’s “Spartum” to be the tough grass, used in every part of Spain

for making mats, baskets, &c., which Linnæus afterwards called Stipa

Tenacissima[207]. It is not surprising, that the opinion of so eminent

a botanist as Clusius has been generally adopted. It is, however, far

more probable, that the plant, which Pliny intended to speak of, was

the Spartium Junceum, _Linn._, so familiarly known under the name of

Spanish Broom.

[207] Clusii Plant. Rar. Historia, L. vi. p. 219. 220.

In the first place, the name _Spartum_ should be considered as

decisive of the question, unless some sufficient reason can be shown

for ascribing to it in this passage a sense different from that which

it commonly bore. _Spartus_ or _Spartum_, is admitted to be used by

all authors, Greek and Latin, and even by Pliny himself in another

passage[208], to denote the Spanish Broom. We learn from Sibthorp, that

the Spanish Broom is still called _Sparto_ by the Greeks, and that it

grows on dry sandy hills throughout the islands of the Archipelago

and the continent of Greece. _Sparto_ was indeed properly the Greek

name of this shrub, the Latin name being _Genista_, and the use of the

Greek name in Hispania Citerior may have been owing to the Grecian

settlements on that coast, colonized from Marseilles.

[208] See L. xi. 8. where Pliny says, that bees obtain honey and wax

from “Spartum,” and compare this with Aristotle, Hist. Anim. L. x.

40.

Besides the passages of Latin authors referred to by Schneider and

Billerbeck, and which it is unnecessary to repeat, the following from

Isidore of Seville appears decisive respecting the acceptation of the

term.

“Spartus frutex virgosus sine foliis, ab asperitate vocatus; volumina

enim funium, quæ ex eo fiunt, aspera sunt.” _Originum_ L. xvii. _c._ 9.

This is the definition of a learned and observant author, who lived

in Spain, and who must have been familiar with the facts. “_Frutex

virgosus sine foliis_” is a clear and striking description of the

Spanish Broom, the leaves of which are so small as easily to escape

observation[209]. The Stipa Tenacissima, on the other hand, is not a

shrub with twigs, but a grass, which grows in tufts, the long leaves

being as abundant and useful as the stems or straws. Clusius himself

(_l. c._) in laying down the distinction between the Spartum of the

Greeks, which he supposed to be the Spanish Broom, and the Spartum of

Pliny, which he supposed to be the Stipa Tenacissima, asserts that the

former is a shrub (_frutex_), the latter a herb with grassy leaves

(_herba graminacea folia proferens_). It is clear, therefore, that

the inhabitants of Spain in the time of Isidore still used the term

_Spartus_ in its original acceptation, viz. to denote the Spartium

Junceum of Linnæus.

[209] Dioscorides also describes the Spanish Broom to be “a shrub

bearing long twigs without leaves.” Isidore’s etymology, deducing

Spartus from Asper, is manifestly absurd.

When the Stipa Tenacissima was brought into use for making ropes and

for other purposes, for which the Spanish Broom was employed, the name

of the latter would naturally be extended to the former, and we may

thus account for the fact that the Stipa Tenacissima is now universally

known in Spain by the name _Esparto_. Indeed it is possible, that the

employment of the Stipa Tenacissima for these purposes may have been

as ancient as the time of Pliny; and his use of the word “_herba_” in

describing it, as well as the locality which he assigns to it, the

hilly country about Carthage, favors the common interpretation, and

perhaps even authorizes the conclusion, that his account is the result

of confounding the two plants together, so that he says of one supposed

plant things, which were partly true of both, and partly applicable

either to the Spanish Broom, or to the Stipa Tenacissima only. But,

even if this be admitted, it is still possible that the plant, from

whose fibres the “_pastorum vestis_” was manufactured, was not the

grassy Stipa, but the shrub, the Spanish Broom.

In order to establish this point we now proceed to mention the

evidence respecting the application of it to such uses. It has been

employed for making cloth in Turkey, in Italy, and the South of France,

but in circumstances, which were either specially favorable to the

manufacture, or where flax could not be cultivated. It is manufactured

into shirts in Albania according to Dr. Sibthorp[210]. Nearly a century

ago, Pope Benedict XIV. brought a colony of Albanians to inhabit a

barren and desolate portion of his territory on the sea-coast. Here

they obtained a very fine, strong, durable thread from the Broom

and the _Nettle_, and used it, when woven, in place of linen[211].

Trombelli, who relates this fact, also gives an account of the

manufacture of broom-bark in the vicinity of Lucca, where the hills,

called Monte Cascia, are covered with this plant[212]. “Formerly,” he

says, “the people derived no other advantage from the shrub than to

feed sheep and goats with it, and to heat their stoves and furnaces.

But their ingenuity and industry have now made it far more profitable.

They steep the twigs for some days in the thermal waters of Bagno a

Acqua near Lucca. _After this process the bark is easily stript off,

and it is then combed and otherwise treated like flax._ It becomes

finer than hemp could be made; it is easily _dyed_ of _any_ color, and

may be used for garments of _any_ kind[213].” In the vicinity of Pisa

we find that the twigs of the Spanish Broom were in like manner soaked

in the thermal waters, and that a coarse cloth was manufactured from

the bark[214].

[210] Flora Græca, No. 671.

[211] Trombelli, Bononiensis Scient. atque Artium Instituti

Commentarii, tom. vi. p. 118.

[212] Trombelli calls the plant Genista, and says it is the kind

called by botanists “Genista juncea flore luteo.” This is the

Spartium Junceum of Linnæus. See Ray, Catal. Stirp. Europ. and

Scopoli, Flora Carniolica, 1772, tom. i. No. 870.

[213] Bononiensis Scientiarum atque Artium Instituti Commentarii, tom.

iv. Bonon. 1757, p. 349-351. A similar account of the manufacture

of the “Teladi Ginestia” at Bagno a Acqua is given by Mr. John

Strange, who says he had sent an account of it to the Society

for encouraging Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Lettera sopra

l’Origine della carta naturale di Cortona, Pisa 1764. p. 79.

[214] Mém. de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris 1763.

But the manufacture has been carried to a far greater extent in the

South of France. In the _Journal de Physique_, _Tom._ 30. _4to._ An.

1787. p. 294., is a paper by _Broussonet Sur la culture et les usages

économiques du Genêt d’Espagne_. A minute and highly curious account is

here given of the mode of preparing the fibres, which is practised by

the inhabitants of all the villages in the vicinity of Lodêve in Bas

Languedoc. The shrub abounds on the barren hills of that region, and

all that the people do to favor its growth is to sow the seed in the

driest places, where scarce any other plant can vegetate. After being

cut, the twigs are dried in the sun, then beaten, macerated in water,

and treated in the same way as flax or hemp (See Zincke’s process,

Chapter XI.). The coarser thread is used to make bags for holding the

legumes, corn, &c.; the finer for making _sheets_, _napkins_, and

_shirts_. The peasants in this district use _no other kind of linen_,

not being acquainted with the culture either of flax or hemp. The

ground is too dry and unproductive to suit these plants. The linen made

of the Spanish Broom is as supple as that made from hemp; it might be

even as beautiful as real linen, if more pains were taken with it.

It becomes whiter, the oftener it is washed. It is rarely sold, each

family making it for its own use. The stalks, after the rind has been

separated from them, are tied in small bundles, and sold for lighting

fires.

The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances; Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving. · 第 16 / 21 章

“These webs, it was quickly perceived, were not formed in the air,