and it there goes through all its changes without any attention from man, whose only care is to gather in the harvest of silk cocoons at the right season. In some parts of China, however, the silk-worm requires the same care, in the way of shelter, feeding, and nursing, which in other countries is found necessary to insure success.

The silk-worm when first hatched is about a quarter of an inch long. If supplied with appropriate food it remains contentedly in one spot. After eight days' feeding and rapid increase in size, it prepares to change its skin, which has become too small for its body. This operation is facilitated by silken lines which the insect casts off and fixes to adjacent objects: these hold the old skin tightly while the caterpillar creeps out of it. It immediately begins again to eat voraciously, and in five days more another change of skin is necessary. Four of these renewals bring the insect to its full size, which is about three inches long. Arrived at maturity the caterpillar is of a rich golden hue. It then leaves off eating and selects a corner in which to spin its cocoon. It first forms a loose structure of floss silk, and then within it the closer texture of its nest, which is of an oval shape. Here it remains spinning and working until it is gradually lost sight of within its own beautiful winding-sheet. On the completion of its cocoon it changes its skin once more, and then becomes an apparently inanimate chrysalis, with a smooth brown skin. It remains in this corpse-like state for a fortnight or three weeks, when it comes forth a perfect winged insect-the silk moth. In escaping from the cocoon, it pushes the fibres aside: having no teeth, it cannot gnaw its way out, as is generally supposed. In the perfect form, the insect takes no food, and only lives two or three days.

The silk of the silk-worm is a fine yellow, transparent gum, which hardens as it becomes exposed to the air when issuing from the insect's body. The length of filament yielded by a single cocoon is about three hundred yards. This filament, however, is so fine that it takes upwards of two thousand cocoons to make a pound weight of silk.

THE FLAX PLANT AND LINEN MANUFACTURES. THE flax plant, which affords the raw material of the linen manufacture of this country, is a graceful annual, often found growing wild in our fields. The stalk is very slender, about two feet high, and has small pointed leaves placed alternately on the stem. It bears exceedingly delicate pale blue flowers; but these fragile blossoms soon fade and fall away.* When a flax field is in flower it is a singularly beautiful sight. The stems, though slender, are very strong, and the appearance of the plant is light and beautiful, both in form and colour.

The flax plant seems to thrive best in a moist climate. It is largely and successfully cultivated in the north of Ireland, and in Lancashire. The seeds are sown in March; and the plants, when the seeds are ripe in autumn, are pulled up by the roots. If the object be to save the seeds, the plants are spread out in the sun to dry; but if the fibrous part be the chief object, the plants are tied up in bundles and laid to soak in pools or ponds of water. By this means the pulpy part of the stalks dissolves, and the fibres are loosened. The bundles are then taken out and spread in a sunny place till the stalks are quite brittle, when the fibrous part is easily separated by beating from the rest of the plant. After various processes of cleaning and combing, it is in a fit state to be spun into thread.

The chief textures manufactured from flax are known by the names of linens, damasks, shirtings, &c. The coarser and stronger kinds are used for sail-cloth, sheeting, canvas, &c. The finest flax texture is cambric; so named because it was first manufactured in the town of Cambrai, in the north of France.

Everybody who has had anything to do with the care of the sick knows that linen is preferred for that purpose, and what collections of old linen are made in time of war. During the late war in the Crimea, gatherings of old linen were made in almost every household throughout the country, and despatched to the hospitals in the East, to bind up wounds. The reason is plain:

From the seeds of the flax plant linseed oil is made.

the fibres of flax are straight and smooth, having no hairs on their surface; therefore, when the material is worn, and has been often washed, it becomes very soft and cool, and has no fine loose particles to adhere to the open parts of a wound, to cause pain in removing, and prevent the healing.

The north of Ireland, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Fifeshire, and Forfarshire, are the chief seats of the linen manufactures.

The quantity of home-grown flax is very small compared with that imported from foreign countries. The chief supplies come from Russia and Belgium. In 1859 no less than 120 millions of pounds were imported from Russia, and 11 millions of pounds from Belgium. The entire annual consumption in this country is about 200 millions of pounds.

The number of persons directly and indirectly dependent on this branch of industry, in the United Kingdom, is stated to be nearly a million, or one half of those dependent on cotton.

Linen was

The art of making fine linen out of flax fibres has been known and practised for more than four thousand years. esteemed above woollen cloth in the East, and is mentioned several times in the Scriptures as an indication of the rank of the wearer. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we are told only two things about the outward state of the rich man, and they relate to his clothing and his food. He " was clothed in purple and fine linen." These words are quite sufficient to inform us of his riches, even if it were not added that "he fared sumptuously every day:" for the woollen cloth dyed purple was very rare and costly, only worn by kings and great persons; and the "fine linen" was the most choice and expensive material, to be obtained only by the rich.

Linen was in the earliest period of civilization the most delicate material for garments. The ancient Egyptians were acquainted with the art of spinning and weaving flax in the time of their greatest prosperity, nearly three thousand years ago. Linen cloth was not only used for garments by kings and rich subjects in their lifetime, but the mummies found in the royal tombs of the pyramids at Thebes were wrapped in fine linen.

WOOL.

THE spinning and weaving of wool were well known in the time of Moses; they were extensively practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans; and when the latter people made the conquest of Britain, they probably introduced these arts into the island; and the inhabitants thus came gradually to exchange the most primitive form of clothing-namely, that of the skins of animals caught in the chase-for a more artificial and more convenient description of covering. The Romans appear to have had a factory at Winchester for supplying cloth to the Roman army. The natives of Britain, however, adopted the new art very slowly; the peasants continued to use garments of leather, and did so till a much later period, for the "buff-jerkin" was in use among the labouring population at the time of the Commonwealth.

The first mention of the sheep in Britain occurs in a public document of the date 712 A.D., in which the price of a sheep is fixed at one shilling until a fortnight after Easter. We read also that the mother of Alfred the Great was skilful in the spinning of wool, and instructed her daughters therein. At later periods the art of spinning wool was considered part of a good education; and the term spinster, as applied to unmarried females, indicated the nature of their principal occupation. The origin of the woollen manufacture as a national employment is supposed to date from the time of William the Conqueror, when a number of Flemings, being deprived of their territory by an incursion of the sea, came to England and endeavoured to obtain the patronage of the Queen, who was a native of their country. In this they were successful, and they were established under royal patronage along the northern frontier, in the neighbourhood of Carlisle. Henry I., however, finding that they did not agree with his other subjects, removed them to a district taken from the Welsh, now forming part of Pembrokeshire. Henry II. granted a fair for clothiers and dressers, to be held in the churchyard of Bartholomew Priory for three days-a spot still designated the Cloth Fair. Towards the end

of this reign the manufacture extended to several parts of the kingdom, and companies of weavers were formed in the counties of York, Oxford, Nottingham, Huntingdon, Lincoln, and also at Winchester, which paid fines to the King for the privilege of carrying on their trade, to the exclusion of other towns

During the civil wars of Charles I. the trade escaped from the hands of the English into those of our continental rivals, and various descriptions of cloth were manufactured by them which had previously been the sole produce of England. In order to revive the trade, one of those absurd laws was passed which show so much ignorance of the principles of commerce on the part of the Legislature. In 1666 it was enacted that every person should be buried in a shroud composed of wool alone, under the forfeiture of £5 to the poor of the parish. This law continued in force about one hundred and thirty years. In the year 1685, that most unjust law, commonly known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was passed in France, whereby upwards of 600,000 Protestants, being deprived of the liberty of worshipping God according to the light of Scripture truth and of their own conscience, were compelled to expatriate themselves. Of this large number, no less than 50,000 sought refuge in England, where they were well received. Many of them were skilful in the manufacture of cloth, and improved the lighter textures, which at that time were in great demand. From that time to the present, the woollen trade has continued steadily to increase in prosperity.

The British woollen manufacture gives employment to about one million persons, and constitutes one fourth part of our textile manufactures. The chief seats are Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, &c.

The chief supplies of colonial and foreign wool come from Australia, Cape Colony, the East Indies, and South America.

The wool of the alpaca has long been in demand, on account of its silky texture. The alpaca is a species of llama, found in Peru and other parts of South America. The animal has been successfully introduced into Australia, and will doubtless in a few years become an important source of wealth to our colonies.