culae; the latter, being the most
densely coloured in fresh specimens, are always the most persistent.
These belong to Schoenherr's var. [Greek: gamma], which that author
formerly regarded as the _Larinus Onopordinis_, Fabr. Others of Mr.
Loftus's specimens, which are very fresh, belong to var. [Greek:
beta]; none to the typical variety, which is often larger in size.

"This species has a very extended habitat: I have received it from
European Turkey (Frivaldski), Beyrouth, Caucasus, Persia (Dupont),
&c. &c.; and it is recorded by Schoenherr as also found in Barbary
and Portugal.

"This is the insect which proceeds from the rough chalky-looking
nidus figured by Mr. Ford. (_Vide_ fig. 2.)"

The entomological question being so far disposed of, I may be permitted
a few remarks upon the properties which have obtained for _Trehala_ a
place among drugs and dietetic substances.

The first author who gives any account of the substance is Father Ange,
who, in his 'Pharmacopoea Persica[H],' describes it in the following
terms:--"Est autem istud medicamentum veluti _tragea_ ex nucleo pistacii
integro confecta; nam revera saccharum istud exterius corrugatum et
agglomeratum adhaeret cuidam nucleo, in quo non fructus, sed vermiculus
quidam nigricans Persice _C-hezoukek_ bombycis instar reconditur et
moritur."

Father Ange also states that the substance is called in Persian _Schakar
tigal_ ([Persian script]), literally _Sugar of nests_; but his Arabic
names, _Schakar el ma-ascher_ ([Arabic script]) and _Saccar el aschaar_,
apply to an entirely different substance, namely to a saccharine matter
exuded, after the punctures of an insect, from the stems of _Calotropis
procera_, R. Br.[I], of which plant he gives a quaint but tolerably
characteristic description.

Mr. Loftus, who obtained the specimens which he presented to the British
Museum, at Kirrind in Persia, in September, 1851, gives as the Persian
name of the cocoons _Shek roukeh_--a term, probably, the same as the
"_C-hezoukek_" (a misprint?) of Father Ange, but the signification of
which I have not been able to discover.

Another notice of the same substance, with a figure, is briefly given in
Dr. Honigberger's 'Thirty-five Years in the East' (Lond. 1852, vol. ii.
pp. 305-6), where we read that _Manna teeghul_ or _Shukure teeghal_,
which are certain insect-nests of a hard texture, rough on the outside,
smooth within, about half