Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/109

Rh It is the root of a parasitic plant, with leaves like the ivy, and a red flower, which has the property of shunning the light, and opening only at night, whence the French name for it, Belle de nuit. The quantity exported from Veracruz seldom exceeds three thousand quintals.

Cochineal is another of those precious productions which Nature seems to have bestowed, almost exclusively, upon Mexico; for the insect which bears the same name in the Brazils is of a very inferior kind. It is that known by the naturalists as Grana Silvestre, and the dye extracted from it is neither so brilliant, nor so durable, as that of the Grana Fina, with which Mexico supplies the European market. The Grana Fina, at its utmost growth, resembles a bug in size and colour, with the exception of a mealy, or whitish powder, through which the rings, or cross stripes on the back of the insect, are distinctly visible: The female alone produces the dye; the males are smaller, and one is found sufficient for three hundred females.

According to Humboldt, the insect is bred on a species of Cactus, (opuntia, or Indian fig,) the fruit of which is white.

The Cochineal feeds only upon the leaf the process of rearing it is complicated, and attended with much difficulty: the leaves of the Nopal, on which the seed is deposited, must be kept free from all