In ancient times, the manufacture of silk was confined to the East Indies and China, where the insects that produce it are indigenous. It was thence brought to Europe in small quantities, and in early times sold at so extravagant a price, that it was deemed too expensive even for royalty. The Emperor Aurelian assigned the expense as a reason for refusing his empress a robe of silk; and our own James I., before his accession to the crown of England, had to borrow of the Earl of Mar a pair of silk stockings to appear in before the English ambassador, a circumstance which probably led him to promote the cultivation of silk in England.[DX] The Roman authors were altogether ignorant of its origin,--some supposing it to be grown on trees as hair grows on animals,--others that it was produced by a shell-fish similar to the mussel, which is known to throw out threads for the purpose of attaching itself to rocks,--others that it was the entrails of a sort of spider, which was fed for four years with paste, and then with the leaves of the green willow, till it burst with fat,--and others that it was the produce of a worm which built nests of clay and collected wax. The insect was at length spread into Persia; and eggs were afterwards, at the instance of the Emperor Justinian, concealed in hollow canes by two monks, and conveyed to the Isle of Cos. This emperor, in the sixth century, caused them to be introduced into Constantinople, and made an object of public utility. They were thence successively cultivated in Greece, in Arabia, in Spain, in Italy, in France, and in all places where any hope could be indulged of their succeeding. In America the culture of the silk-worm was introduced into Virginia in the time of James I., who himself composed a book of instructions on the subject, and caused mulberry-trees and silk-worms' eggs to be sent to the colony. In Georgia, also, lands were granted on condition of planting one hundred white mulberry-trees on every ten acres of cleared land.[DY] The growth of the silk-worm has also been tried, but with no great success, in this country. Evelyn computed that one mulberry-tree would feed as many silk-worms annually as would produce seven pounds of silk. "According to that estimate," says Barham,[DZ] "the two thousand trees already planted in Chelsea Park (which take up one-third of it) will make 14,000 lbs. weight of silk; to be commonly worth but twenty shillings a pound, those trees must make 14,000_l._ per annum." During the last century, some French refugees in the south of Ireland made considerable plantations of the mulberry, and had begun the cultivation of silk with every appearance of success; but since their removal the trees have been cut down.[EA] In the vicinity of London, also, a considerable plantation of mulberry-trees was purchased by the British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company in 1825; but we have not learned whether this Company have any active measures now in operation.