IN AND AROUND MACCLESFIELD. 237 



with one too well known, Aphis pruni, or common plum blight of 

 the spring, that it might be almost identified with that species. 



Of all classes of insects that of the Aphis assuredly presents the 

 most singular and peculiar properties. While some are winged, 

 others are not so, and this without distinction of age or sex. In the 

 early part of the year they are viviparous, or producing their young 

 alive ; whereas, in the autumn, they are oviparous, or layers of 

 eggs, which remain throughout the winter ; but by a surprising 

 aberration from the common laws of nature, it appears, that one 

 impregnation of the female is sufficient for seven, certainly, and it 

 is suspected of many more, generations ; that is to say, that the first 

 female will lay eggs, productive of other females, laying their eggs, 

 and successively productive of seven or more broods ; and when it 

 is further known that in five generations, one single Aphis may 

 thus be the parent of nearly six hundred million descendents, well 

 may our foresters, nurserymen, and gardeners, tremble at the bare 

 possibility of the stupendous influx we are now noticing, each car- 

 rying on its prolific capabilities without check or restraint, by which 

 in the early part of next spring, such an appalling pestilence may 

 be turned loose to make a barren wilderness of our gardens and 

 pleasure grounds. But Nature — ever provident and circumspect — 

 for the possible evil, has provided various checks, each or all of 

 which, are ever at work in neutralizing the devastating effects which 

 might otherwise ensue from similar causes. We have alluded to the 

 operation in ceaseless action of meteorological and electro-magnetic 

 agency. But if witli them the disorder originates, by them also is 

 the remedy provided, and the equilibrium of general utility and ad- 

 vantage restored. These little insects which germed into life so 

 suddenly, were (if we may so designate them) children of the sun- 

 beam ; let it withdraw its invigorating radiance, let the winds blow 

 but for an hour from a less genial quarter, and the thermometer fall 

 but a few degrees, — they vanish, — their place is seen no more, — 

 and their mass, the slight framework of an ephemeral existence, 

 again becomes a compound of unorganized matter, ready, however, 

 again at any appointed time, once more to become the recipient of 

 animal or vegetable life, obedient to the summons, and according as 

 it is acted upon by the fiat of Omnipotence. 



