AMERICAN WILD VINE. 143 



wood grown annually from the seeds of the main shoot, or shoots of old wood. 

 The two last methods he regards as the best. 



It is customary with many to cultivate flowers, or vegetables of various kinds 

 between or near their vines, without reflecting that they are doing them great 

 injury by abstracting their proper nourishment from the soil ; a practice not only 

 strictly guarded against by the most intelligent vine-dressers of the present day, 

 but condemned by all ancient writers on the subject ; and Moses, in exhorting 

 the people of Israel, very forcibly elucidated his discourse by commanding them 

 not to defile their vineyards with the fruit of divers seeds : 



"Thou shall not sow ihy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fniit of thy seed 

 which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled." 



Deuteronomy, xxii. 9. 



thus plainly showing that the wisdom and prudence of this important law wab 

 well understood even at that early day. 



Insects, Casualties, <^c. The Vitis labrusca, like most of its congeners, is sub- 

 ject to the attack of various tribes of insects or their larvae, and requires the vigi- 

 lant attention of the cultivator during all the warmer months of the year. 

 Among the Coleoptera we recognize the Pelidnota punctata, Anomala varians, 

 Melolontha subspinosa, and the Haltica chalybea. The former is a large beetle, 

 sometimes found in great abundance in the months of July and August, and is 

 described by Dr. Harris, as being of an oval shape, about an inch long, having 

 dull, brownish-yellow wing-covers, with three distinct black dots on each ; the 

 thorax darker, and slightly bronzed, with a black dot on each side ; and the legs 

 and body beneath of a deep bronze-green. These beetles fly by day, and devour 

 the leaves of the vine, which constitute their only food. They may be destroyed 

 in considerable numbers, by snatching them from the vines and crushing them 

 under the foot. Their larvae live in decayed wood, and like those of beetles in 

 general, consist of grubs. The Anomala varkms, which is said to resemble, in 

 its habits, the vine-chafer of Europe, is found in June and July, feeding upon 

 the leaves of the vine, as well as upon those of several species of rhus. Both 

 the males and the females are of a broad oval shape, and of varied colours, mea- 

 suring from four to five lines in length, the former being the least in size. The 

 head and thorax of the male are greenish-black, margined with dull-ochre or 

 tile-red, and thickly punctured; the wing-covers are clay-yellow, irregularly 

 furrowed, and punctured in the furrows ; the legs are pale-red, brown, or black ; 

 and sometimes the whole insect is entirely black. The thorax of the female is 

 clay-yellow or tile-red, sometimes with two oblique blackish spots on the top, 

 and at others nearly black ; the wing-covers resemble those of the male ; the legs 

 are clay-yellow or light-red. The Melolontha siibspmosa, or common rose-bug, 

 is also a diurnal insect, and appeared for some time to be confined to its favour- 

 ite food, the blossoms of the rose; but within thirty years, according to Dr. 

 Harris, this species has prodigiously increased, in number, has attacked at ran- 

 dom various kinds of plants, in swarms, and has become notorious for its exten- 

 sive and deplorable 'ravages. The grape-vine in particular, has annually suf- 

 fered by its depredations, as well as most of our fruit-trees, garden and field 

 vegetables, and even the trees of the forest. "The unexpected arrival of these 

 insects in swarms," says Harris, "at their first coming, and their sudden disap- 

 pearance, at the close of their career, are remarkable facts in their history. They 

 come forth from the ground during the second week in June, or about the time 

 of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain from thirty to forty days. At 

 the end of this period, the males become exhausted, fall to the ground, and per- 

 ish, while the females enter the earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, and. 

 after lingering a few days, die also. The eggs laid by each female arc about 



