RAVAGES OF THE APATE BASILI.ARIS. 7 



finely appointed means of solvation ? And after God has appointed 

 means, and enjoined the faithful use of them, what reason have we to 

 believe he will give his blessing without them, or excuse our neglect of 

 them ? It is true, that neither he that planteth, nor he that watereth, is 

 any thing in the sense of being the author of salvation ; but both are in- 

 dispensable as instruments. And it is a settled priiu;iple of the divine 

 administration, that "as a man soweth, so shall he reap." The harvest 

 usually corresponds, in kind and quantity, to the seed sown, and the 

 husbandry employed. Few indeed are capable of the highest grade of 

 eloquence; but the majority of speakers may acquire the power and 

 habit of judiciously selecting their topics, clearly arranging their 

 thoughts, and impressively and fervently expressing their sentiments 

 in distinct, appropriate, and agreeable tones. This is what I call elo- 

 quence. It is just such eloquence as is needed in the pulpit and at the 

 bar ; and it cannot be obtained without a careful culture of the voice. 



J. R. K. 

 Mw Germantown, JV. J. .lug. 22, 1845. 



RAVAGES OP THE APATE BASILLARIS. 



To-day a gentleman brought five or six specimens of an insect, 

 which he discovered committing serious depredations upon young trees 

 of firm texture, by boring into them and forming a clean orifice corres- 

 ponding to the size of the animal. He presumed that this insect might 

 eventually so interfere with the proper communication of the vital fluids 

 as to destroy the life of the tree. He desired some information on the 

 nature of the animal, including its name, order, and history, which I 

 briefly gave him, but shall now enlarge upon in this communication. 



The insect belongs to that class familiarly called hark beetles, which 

 .are capable of doing extensive mischief, and the congeners of which, in 

 some parts of the world, have been the terror of the husbandman, in 

 destroying immense numbers of forest and ornamental trees. It is a 

 coleopterous or hard winged insect ; not quite half an inch long, the 

 body is nearly cylindrical, the head rounded, almost globular, and ca- 

 pable of being received into the thorax as far as the eyes ; the thorax is 

 more or less convex before, and forms a sort of hood ; the color is dark 

 ferruginous, approaching to black, with two reddish spots at the base of 

 the elytra; the elytra at their termination appear to be cut out, and have 

 six or seven irregular teeth, so that the whole of the abdomen is not 

 covered, — the mouth is covered with horny mandibles, and each foot 

 has a sharp claw. It belongs to the genus Jlpate, and the species under 



