above a thousand perfons to gather the kermes, which was afterwards fent to Alicant, where it was put into cafks for exportation, being chiefly fhipped for Genoa and Leghorn, paffing from thence to Tunis. In the fame year, 1758, they gathered about 300 arrobes of kermes at Xixona, which fold for about twenty-four dollars (41.) the arrobe *, with about fix per cent. duty and shipping charges, till on board. In the kingdom of Seville it is put up to public fale, and is generally bought by the people of the neighbourhood, who fell it again for exportation to the merchants of Cadiz..

Both antients and moderns feem to have had very confufed notions concerning the origin and nature of the kermes; fome confidering it as a fruit, without a juít knowledge of the tree which produced it; others, taking it for an excrefcence formed by the puncture of a particular fly, the fame as the common gall obferved upon oaks. Tournefort was of this number. Count Marfigli, and Dr. Nifole, a phyfician of Montpelier, made experiments and obfervations, with a view of further difcoveries, but did not perfealy fucceed. Two other phyficians at Aix, in Provence, Dr. Emeric, and Dr. Garidel, applied themselves about the fame time, and with greater fuccefs; having finally difcovered that the kermes is in reality nothing else but the body of an infect transformed into a grain, berry or hufk, according to the course of nature; whole hiftory I shall now briefly relate :

The progrefs of this transformation must be confidered at three different feafons. In the first ftage, at the beginning of March, an animalcule, no larger than a grain of millet, fcarce able to crawl, is perceived flicking to the branches of the tree, where it fixes itself, and foon becomes immoveable; at this period it grows the moft, appears to fwell and thrive with the fuftenance it draws in by degrees: this ftate of reft feems to have deceived the curious obferver, it then refembling an excrefcence of the bark: during this period of its growth, it appears to be covered with a down, extending over its whole frame, like a net, and adhering to the bark its figure is convex, not unlike a fmall floe: in fuch parts as are not quite hidden by this foft garment, many bright fpecks are perceived of a gold colour, as well as ftripes running across the body from one fpace to another.

At the fecond flage in April, its growth is compleated, its shape is then round, and about the fize of a pea: it has then acquired more ftrength, and its down is changed into duft, and feems to be nothing but a hufk, or a capfule, full of à reddifh juice not unlike difcoloured blood.

Its third ftate is towards the end of May, a little fooner or later, according to the warmth of the climate. The hufk appears replete with fmall eggs, lefs than the feed of a poppy. Thefe are properly ranged under the belly of the infect, progreflively placed in the neft of down, that covers its body,

which it withdraws in proportion to the number of eggs: after this work is performed, it foon dies, though it ftill adheres to its pofition, rendering a further service to its progeny, and fhielding them from the inclemency of the weather or the holile attacks of an enemy. In a good feafon they multiply exceedingly, having from 1800 to 2000 eggs, which produce the fame number of animalcules. The antients knew them to be infects, for Pliny fays, "Coccum ilicis celerrime in vermiculum fe mutans." Lib. 24. fect. 4. When obferved with the microscope in July or Auguft, we find that what appeared as duft, are fo many eggs, or open capfules, as white as fnow, out of each of which iffues a gold coloured animalcule, of the fhape of a cockroche, with two horns, fix feet, and a forked tail.

Mr. De Reaumur has placed the kermes in the clafs of gall infects, on account of the analogy in their mode of propagation, and immoveable form, continuing even after death, like the other fpecies of this clafs, found upon different trees, appearing only like galls, or excrefcences, to the most accurate naturalifts therefore they could not be more properly named, than gall infects. There are of them of different fhapes and fizes, but that of the cofcoxa or carrafca (the kermes) is of a spherical figure, about the fize of a juniper berry. It is found moft plentifully on the oldest and loweft trees, and when the kermes are gathered near the fea, they are larger and give a brighter colour than thofe in any other places.

There are feveral fpecies of galls

difcovered on different trees and plants of Spain, though they only make ufe of thofe gathered on oaks, either for dying, or any other purposes; fuch are those, from the Levant, called Aleppo galls, which were generally made ufe of, till it was discovered by frequent experiments, that the new ingredient called dividivi was preferable, being a fruit from the province of Carracas, and Maracaybo, in South America,

The great mystery which hitherto had not been difcovered, by thofe naturalifts who knew how to distinguish the gall infect from the galls, was to inveftigate their mode of propagation: Mr. de Reaumur affures us, that from frequent obfervations it appeared to him, that there are both male and female, but that fome which are extremely fmall, transform themselves into gnats, while others, growing larger, depofit their eggs, without any transformation; from which, and their analogy with the others, he concluded, that the fmall gnats with wings, though large in comparifon with their body, and ftripcd with a beautiful crimson, were the males of the gall infect which he obferved with the help of a microscope, feeing how they fecundate the females, before they affume a globular form towards March; but this happens when it is fcarcely ever noticed, and in fo fingular a manner, that a common obferver would never imagine fuch an event to have happened, or even fuppofe, that the males which he faw frifking about, had the leaft connection with the females but on the contrary, were small gnats which accidentally light upon the fame boughs; if to this obH 4 fervation

fervation we add, that as the new kermes which come forth in June, remain small without engaging our attention till March enfuing, when they begin to fwell without any appearance of animal life, it will not be thought fo extraordinary, that they have been generally held as a vegetable production. In Languedoc, and Provence, the poor are employed to gather the kermes, the women letting their nails grow for that purpofe, in order to pick them off with greater facility.

The cuftom of lopping off the boughs is very injudicious, as by this means they deftroy the next year's harvest. Some women will gather two or three pounds a day, the great point being to know the places where they are most likely to be found in any quantity, and to gather them early with the morning dew, as the leaves are more pliable and tender at that time, than after they have been dried and parched by the rays of the fun; ftrong dews will occafionally make them fall from the trees fooner than ufual: when the proper feafon paffes, they fall off of themfelves, and become food for birds, particularly doves. Sometimes there will be a fecond production, which is commonly of a lefs fize with a fainter tinge. The firit is generally found adhering to the bark, as well as on the branches and flalks; the fecond is principally on the leaves, as the worms choofe that part where the nutritious juice preferves itself the longest, is most abundant, and can be moft easily devoured in the fhort time that remains of their existence, the bark being then drier and harder than the leaves.

Those who buy the kermes to fend to foreign parts, fpread it on linen, taking care to fprinkle it with vinegar, to kill the worms that are within, which produces a red duft which in Spain is feparated from the hufk. Then they let it dry, paffing it through a fearce, and make it up into bags. In the middle of each its proportion of red duft put in a little leather bag alfo belongs to the buyer, and then it is ready for exportation, being always in demand on the African coaft.

The people of Hinojos, Bonares, Villalba, and other parts of the kingdom of Seville, dry it on mats in the fun, ftirring it about, and feparating the red duft, which is the finest part, and being mixed with vinegar, goes by the name of Paftel. The fame is done with the hufks; but these have but half the value of the duft.

There is no doubt, but if this branch of induftry was more closely attended to, there is yet room for improvement, and the kermes would give a brighter colour, fimilar to that obtained from the cochineal, likewife an infect found in the Mexican woods on a plant called nopal by the Americans, and tuna by the Spaniards; being the opuntia maxima folio obtufo rotundo of Sir Hans Sloane, and the cactus opuntia of Linneus.

It is remarked that those plants which are cultivated by art, give a much finer cochineal, known by the name of meftica, fo called from the quantities collected of it in the diftrict of Meteca, in the province of Honduras *,

But neither the cochineal, the kermes, or any fimilar production,

would

would afford that beautiful colour, were it not for the falts employed in the lye by the dyers, to bring it to perfection. Mr. Maquer, in his art of dying filks, affures us, that the white tartar employed for crimfen colours, gives by means of its acdity, that brilliancy to cochinea, and that though other acids night produce the fame effect, it would not be with fo much fuccefs Mr. Goguet, in his "origin of laws, arts and fciences," tells us, the antients ufed a great deal o falt, to make their dyes folid, and permanent, fupplying the plate of our chemical preparations by other fecrets unknown to 11s. Putarch, in the life of Alexander the Great, mentions, that conqueror having found in the treafures of the King of Perfia a prodig bus quantity of purple ftuffs, which though they had lain by hundred and ninety years, till preferved their luftre, because they had been prepared with honey; behold, fays Mr. Goguet, fecret unknown to us! but if we reflect for a moment, that honey is a vegetable falt, like fugar, ve fhall find it to be the fame a tartar, which is no more than an effential falt of wine; fo that the falts employed by the antients, were equivalent to thofe ufed it prefent in the dye-house. Probably the falts of fruits have the fame effect in the manner they ale used in Perfia for dying of filk, where, instead of tartar and honey, they use the pulp of red melons, well dried, mixed with allum, barila, and other falts.

The kermes of Spain is preferred on the coaft of Barbary, on account of its goodness. The people of Tunis mix it with that of

Tetuan, for dying thofe fcarlet caps fo much used in the Levant. The Tunifians export every year above one hundred and fifty thoufand dozen of thefe caps, which yields to the Dey a revenue of one hundred and fifty thousand hard dollars, (33,7501.) per annum for duties; fo that, exclufive of the ufes and advantages of kermes in medicine, it appears to be a very valuable branch of commerce in Spain, and there is ftill fufficient encouragement to use every effort for its improvement.

The Method of making Saltpetre in Spain. From the fame.

N the year 1754, I received

IN

orders from the miniftry to infpect into feveral faltpetre works, as well as into the making of gunpowder, which having complied with, the following reflections occurred to my mind.

All the profeffors of chemistry I had converfed with, either in France or in Germany, laid down as a fixed principle, that there are three mineral acids in nature: that the vitriolic, is the univerfal one, belonging to metals, from whence the other two arife, That the nitrous is fecond in activity, and belongs to the vegetable kingdom, and the marine being the weakest of all, is homogeneous to fish. They do not include the animal acid, which, united with the phlogifton, forms the phofphorus. was further taught, that the fixed. alkali of faltpetre, did not exist purely, and fimply in nature, but was generated by fire, and when they found faltpetre, to be dug out of the earth naturally in the

I

Eat

Eaft-Indies, they thought to folve the difficulty, by faying it proceeded from the incineration of woods, which had impregnated the earth with this fixed alkali, the basis of faltpetre; fo that I had been led to believe, it was formed by certain combinations, that took place in the act of combuftion; but I foon found my error, when I had feen the method of making faltpetre in the different provinces of Spain. I have now evident proofs that the bafis of nitre really exifts in the earth and in plants, the fame as in the Soda of Alicant. Let thefe learned gentlemen come to Spain, they may convince themselves of this truth, and fee faltpetre with its alkaline bafis, in the manufactures of Caftile, Aragon, Navarre, Valencia, Murcia, and Andalufia, where it is made without the affiftance of vegetable matter; fometimes throwing in a handful of afhes of matweed, merely to filter the lye of earth, and though they often meet with gypfeous tone in the neighbourhood of their works, yet they make excellent faltpetre by boiling the lixivium of their lands only, in which they do not find an atom of gypfum ; confequently they have gunpowder in Spain, without being indebted for its fixed alkali, to the vegetable kingdom, and without the vifible or fenfible converfion of the vitriolic acid of gypfum into the nitrous.

Having thus difcovered in Spain a perfect fixed alkali in the earth, I pursued my obfervations on other falts, and vegetable productions, and after many reflections and experiments, I difcovered that fimiJar fixed alkalies, many oils, and neutral falts, proceed from differ5

ent combinations of the air, earth, and water, with fuch matters as the air conveys in a diffolved state, and that these three elements, rifing, falling, and meeting, combine together, and form new bodies in the organs of vegetation.

Those who are verfed in phy. fics, agree, that all the fubftinces of the very globe we inhabit, confit of the combinations of fire, water, earth, and air; why then deny them the power of combin ing, in the living organs of plants? when we fo often perceive in them, the faculty of changing, and ranfforming productions in the ringdom of nature. In proof of i, we find that many cruciformed plants give, by analyfis, the fame vdatile alkali as animals, notwith flaiding that their tubes are fimilar to the eye with thofe that give acids

Some plants have their rots fo fmall, and yet their branches, leaves and fruit fo ponderous, that it appears impoffible, fo imconfiderable a root fhould draw fufficient nurture out of the earth for fuch various purposes. It eems therefore, that the ambient air, containing many diffolved bodies, penetrates into the plants, and combines in the vegetative tubes, forming thofe fubftances difcovered by analyfation.

I have frequently feen water melons in Spain weigh from twenty to thirty pounds, with a flem of only two or three ounces, fo great was the increase of the fibrous and tubulous fubftance of those plants, owing to the watery particles they imbibed from the air. It fhoud feem then, that many plants draw their principal fupport from the air, water, and a small portion of

earth