[64] In the Royal Museum of Natural History at Leyden are eight or ten cocoons of the Phalæna Atlas from Java. They consist of a strong silk, and are formed upon the leaves of a kind of Ficus. The first layer of the cocoon covers the whole of a leaf, and receives the exact impress of its form. Then two or three other layers are distinctly perceptible. Two or three leaves are joined together to form the cocoon. In regard to the looseness of the layers these cocoons do not correspond to M. Breton’s description of the cocoons of the wild silk-worms of China, which are very strong and compact, and therefore more resemble those of the Phalæna Paphia. FIFTH CENTURY. PRUDENTIUS, CL., A. D. 405. The following sentence occurs in a speech of St. Lawrence at his martyrdom: Hunc, qui superbit serico, Quem currus inflatum vehit; Hydrops aquosus lucido Tendit veneno intrinsecus. _Peristeph. Hymn._ ii. _l._ 237-240. See him, attir’d in silken pride, Inflated in his chariot ride; The lucid poison works within, Dropsy distends his swollen skin. In another Hymn to the honor of St. Romanus we find the following lines: Aurum regestum nonne carni adquiritur? Inlusa vestis, gemma, bombyx, purpura, In carnis usum mille quæruntur dolis. _Peristeph. Hymn._ x. To please the flesh a thousand arts contend: The miser’s heaps of gold, the figur’d vest, The gem, the silk-worm, and the purple dye, By toil acquir’d, promote no other end. In the same Hymn (_l._ 1015.) Prudentius describes a heathen priest sacrificing a bull, and dressed _in a silken toga_ which is held up by the Gabine cincture (_Cinctu Gabino Sericam fultus togam_). Perhaps, however, we ought here to understand that the cincture only, not the whole toga, was of silk. It was used to fasten and support the toga by being drawn over the breast. In two other passages this poet censures the progress of luxury in dress, and especially when adopted by men. Sericaque in fractis fluitent ut pallia membris _Psychomachia, l._ 365. The silken scarfs float o’er their weaken’d limbs. Sed pudet esse viros: quærunt vanissima quæque Quîs niteant: genuina leves ut robora solvant, Vellere non ovium, sed Eoo ex orbe petitis Ramorum spoliis fluitantes sumere amictus, Gaudent, et durum scutulis perfundere corpus. Additur ars, ut fila herbis saturata recoctis Inludant varias distincto stamine formas. Ut quæque est lanugo feræ mollissima tactu, Pectitur. Hunc videas lascivas præpete cursu Venantem tunicas, avium quoque versicolorum Indumenta novis texentem plumea telis: Ilium pigmentis redolentibus, et peregrino Pulvere femineas spargentem turpitur auras. _Hamartigenia, l._ 286-298.