Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH . •The Death ' s-head Moth is one of the largest of our British subjects . It is so named , on account of the great resemblance of the markings on the thorax , to a human skull and cross-bones , and through its bearing this distinctive markings and name , it is looked upon by many persons as a most uncanny and dreadful creature , and is said by some to be a sure forerunner of death . It is also capable of producing a squeaking sound , w ' lich is

another cause ot fear . The moth often measures as much as Five inches in expanse of wings . The upper wings are brownish black , sported and lined with reddish yellow , the under ones being yellow with two . black paralled marg inal lines . The body is reddish yellow , with black cross bars , and a black stripe down the centre of the back , The skull and cross-bones on the thorax , which is blackish brown are yellow . The caterpillar of this

moth frequently measures over four inches in length , so that one measuring 2 % inches , is not , as have been affirmed , a " champion specimen . " Its colour is of a yellowish green , with seven oblique purplish markings on each side . It feeds chiefly on jessamine , elder , and potato leaves , but it is rarely seen , as it procures its food at night . This summer the death ' s-head moth has been more plentiful than usual , and records of the capture of it , and of its lava , have been announced from many parts of the country .

INSECTS VALUABLE IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES .

The insect which produces the gall-nut is of the genus Cynips . T . he galls originate on the leaves of a species of oak , very common throughout Asia Minor , in many parts of which they are collected by the poorer inhabitants , and exported from Smyrna , Aleppo , and other ports in the Levant , as well as from the East Indies , whither a part of those collected are now carried . The galls most esteemed are those known in commerce

under the name of blue galls , being the produce of the first gathering before the fly has issued from the gall . The galls which have escaped the first searches , and from most of which the fly has emerged , are called white galls , and are of a very inferior character , containing less of the astringent principle than the blue galls . The white and blue galls are usually imported , mixed in about equal proportions , and are called " galls in sorts . "

If no substitute equal to galls as a constituent part of ink has been discovered , the same may be said of these productions , as one of the most important of our dyeing materials constantly employed in dyeing black . Other dyeing drugs are afforded by insects , the principal of which are Chermes , Cochineal , Lace-lake , and Lac-dye , all ot which are furnished by different species of Coccus . The first of these Coccus Ilicis , found

abundantly upon a small species of evergreen oak , common in the south of France , and many other parts of the world , has bien employed to impart a blood red or crimson dye to cloth from the earliest ages , and was known to the Phoenicians before the time of Moses under the name of Tola or Thola , to the Greeks under that of Coccus , and to the Arabians and Persians under that of Kermes or Alkermes ; whence from epithet veriniciilatum

given to it in the middle ages , when it was ascertained to be the produce of a worm , have sprung the Latin coccineus , the French cramoisi and vermeil , and our crimson and vermilion . It was rriostr probably with this substance that the curtains of the Jewish tabernacle were dyed deep red ( which the word scarlet then implied , not the colour now sa called , which was not known in the reign of fames I ., when the Bible was translated );

it was with this that the Grecians and Romans produced their crimson , and from the same source was derived the imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries . In short , previous to the discovery of cochineal , this was the material usually used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known ; Cochineal , the Coccus Cacti , is , doubtless , the most valuable product for which the dyer is indebted to insects , and , with the exception ,

perhaps , of indigo , the most important of dyeing materials . Though the Spaniards found it employed by the natives of Mexico , where alone it is cultivated , on their arrival in that country in 1518 , its true nature was not accurately ascertained for nearly two centuries afterwards . Acosta , indeed , as early as 1530 , had stated it to be an insect , but , led apparently by its external appearance , it was believed by Europeans in general to b 3 the seed

of a plant , until by dissections and microscopical observations its real origin was incontrovertibly proved . This insect , which comes to us in the form of a reddish shrivelled grain , covered with a white powder or bloom , feeds on a particular kind of Indian fig , called in Mexico—where alone cochineal is produced in any quantity—Nopal , which has always been supposed to be the Cactus cochinilifer , but , according to Humboldt , is ,

unquestionably , a distinct species , which bears fruit internally white . Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the Intendency of Oaxaca ; and some plantations contain 50 , 000 or 60 , 000 nopals in lines , each being kept about four feet high for more easy access in collecting the dye . The cultivators prefer the most prickly varieties of the plant , as affording protection to the cochineal from insects ; to prevent which from depositing their eggs in thc flower cr fruit , both are carefully cut off . The greatest quantity , however ,

of cochineal employed in commerce is produced in small nopaleries bilong-Jng to Indians of extreme poverty , called Nopaleros . They plant their nopaleries in cleared ground on the slopes of mountains or ravines , two or three leagues distant from their villages ; and when properly cleaned , the plants are in a condition to maintain the cochineal in the third year . As a stock , the proprietor , in April or Maypurchases branches or joints of the

, Tuiiii ^ de Costilla , laden with small cochineal insects recently hatched ( SemHa ) . These branches , which may be bought in the market of Oaxaca tor about three francs ( 2 s . 6 i . ) tbe 100 , are kept for 20 days in the interior of their huts , and then exposed to the open air under a shed , where , from their succulency , they continue to live for several monthsIn August and

. September tbe mother cochineal insects , now big with young , are placed in nests made of a plant called Paxtle , which are distributed upon the nopals . In about four months the first gathering may be made , which in the course ot the year is succeeded by two or more profitable harvests . In colder climates the semilla is not placed upon the nopals until October or even

December , when it is necessary to shelter the young insects by covering the nopals with rush mats , and the harvests are proportionately later and unproatrctive . Much care is necessary in the tedious operation of gathering the cocnineaUro m the nopals , which is performed with a squirrel or stag ' s tail oy tne Indian women , who for this purpose squat down for hours together oesiae one plant . The cochineal insects are killed either by throwing them

Science, Art, And The Drama.

into boiling water , by exposing them in heaps to ths sun or by placing them in the ovens used for vapour baths . " The last of these methods , which is least in use , preserves the whitish powder on the body of the cochineal , which being thus less subject to the adulterations so often p-actised by the Indians , bears a higher pric ; both in America and Eu"opi . The quantity annually exported from South America was said by Humboldt to be , at the time he wrote , 32 . 000 arrobas , there worth £ 500 , 040 sterling

—a vast amount to arise from so small an insect , and well calculated to show us the absurdity of despising any animals on account of their minuteness . So important was the acquisition of this inse : t regarded that the Court of Directors of the East India Company formerly offered a reward of £ 6000 to any one who should introduce it into India , where hitherto ] the Company had only succeeded in procuring from Brazil the wild kind producing the sylvestre cochineal , which is of very inferior value . The true cochineal insect and the Cactus on which it feeds are said to have been of late years successfully introduced into Spain and the French colony of Algiers .

GENERAL REMARKS ON ART DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES I .

Sculpture had made considerable progress in France , as having been emancipated from Gothic forms and system by John Gougeon , at least for half a century before any effort of skill , taste , or variety in design had appeared in England . The tomb of Diana of Poiters , in the chapel of the Castle d'Anet , was composed of a sarcophagus , placed on a square , having four female figures at the angles , sculptured in wood , by Germain Pilon , in

1570 . The principal figure is kneeling upon the sarcophagus . Nothing of so classical an adaptation was seen here before the middle of the reign of James the First . The effigies , if two , were extended upon a very large slab , and composed of white marble or alabaster , and the latter of black marble , called by the statuaries touch-stone . A better taste prevailed in abandoning colour and gilding , excepting for the blazonry . These

figures were frequently copied from whole length portraits , and were well proportioned , and exquisitely finished as to the drapery and armour . Another fashion was to place the figure as kneeling in prayer before a desk , borrowed from the French , especial ! / for ecclesiastics or for soldiers , with a casque placed before them . Sometimes a man was represented as recumbent and leaning upon his elbow , as a deviation from the prostrate position .

In Westminster Abbey the monument of Queen Elizabeth and that of Mary Oueen of Scots , of larger dimensions , were composed from the same plan and of the same materials , and were likewise the work of the same artists . The king , as we have seen , did not spare a sumptuous expense for this proof of gratitude and filial piety . Brth these monuments are chiefly of an architectural character . The royal effigies lie upon raised table tombs .

There is a vast entablature , supported by f : iur columns , with Corinthian capitals , from which springs a high circular arch , finished by a superstructure , exhibiting the arms and supporters . In the monument of Sir Francis Vere a mare theatre attempt is made by the introduction of personages , as in life , accompanying the dead . He is placed on a ground slab in a loose robe ; four knights are represented as kneeling , but in varied postures , who support another plinth , upon which a complete suit of armour is disposed in

different pieces . In that of Lord Morris , which is of large dimjnsioni , his six sons ( celebrated warriors ) in arm nur , of the size of life , kneel round his tomb , and are doubtless portraits of them . These , which miybs deemed statuary , required the talents of a sculptor , and , however void of classical simplicity or correctness , are entitled to the praise of skilful labour , and afford most inferesting evidence of the state of the art at the commencement of the 17 th century .

GENERAL NOTES . " My Best Girl" is the title given by Messrs . S ; ymoar Hicks and P . Greenbank to their new vaudeville , for which Mr . Walter Slaughter has composed the music . The piece will be brought out by Mr . Frohman , primarily in America , about the middle of September . * » * *

Mr . Maurice Jacobi , son of Mr . Georges Jacobi , will be the musical director of " The Whirl of the Town , " when produced at ., the new theatre , " The Century , " late Adelphi .

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