BUGS. 121 



should not the subtle manner in which it works a vast 

 amount of injury, prevent even the vile Shield-louse 

 from being passed by unnoticed among those of its 

 order ? Let the vain man who would imitate it, think 

 of the base level to which he must stoop, and from 

 this insignificant animal learn one of the lessons 

 Nature is everywhere teaching ! 



Probably hundreds have passed through their 

 orchards, day after day, without noticing this Insect, 

 although myriads have been in sight. Many well- 

 educated farmers have seen their peach-trees covered 

 with brownish warts, and have suffered them to wither 

 and die, without dreaming that these warts were live 

 animals, sucking the sap, the life-blood of the tree; 

 and yet these motionless excrescences have laid waste 

 whole orchards, have devastated the fairest of bushes 

 •and the most fruitful of trees, and in place of fragrance 

 and verdure, have left naught but desolation and 

 ♦decay. They are essentially noxious Insects, which, 

 if unmolested, multiply' immensely, and hence should 

 be carefully sought upon the branches of our trees, 

 and as often as they make their appearance destroyed 

 at the point of the knife. Their colour very nearly 

 resembles that of the branches upon which they 

 alight, usually a brown or black, but sometimes a 

 reddish or violet, and hence they scarcely ever attract 

 attention unless looked for. The branches of peach- 



