Note 061 In the history of insects (far more wonderful than Ovid's Metamorphoses) the silk-worm holds a conspicuous place. The bombyx of the Isle of Ceos, as described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. xi. 26, 27, with the notes of the two learned Jesuits, Hardouin and Brotier,) may be illustrated by a similar species in China, (Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. ii. p. 575 - 598;) but our silk-worm, as well as the white mulberry-tree, were unknown to Theophrastus and Pliny.]

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 40