INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 133 



Pliny had the genius to conceive, and the talent to execute, 

 an abridged encyclopedia of human knowledge : we may, 

 perhaps, even say that he has produced the most learned book 

 that was ever written ; and it is perfectly unallowable to speak 

 of a writer of such merit with the rudeness and contempt 

 which the learned German has shown on the present occasion. 

 Pliny, however, is not altogether undeserving of censure ; he 

 has borrowed largely from Aristotle's Natural History of 

 Animals, and in so doing he is not content merely to trans- 

 late, but often perplexes, by useless or pompously obscure 

 phrases, subjects which Aristotle has explained with pre- 

 cision and clearness, and mixes up with his (Aristotle's) 

 matter, vulgar and silly stories, or vague and erroneous 

 notions. 



However, it would certainly have been better if Mr. 

 Schneider, who unites the knowledge of a naturalist with the 

 learning of the philosopher, instead of allowing himself to give 

 vent to such a sally on the subject of the passage in Pliny 

 we have quoted, had endeavoured to obtain what information 

 he could therefrom, as he would have seen that this very 

 passage (of which he speaks so disrespectfully,) enables us 

 to ascertain the species of insect named spondylus in the 

 first passage of Aristotle, and perhaps also of that named in 

 the second. In fine, as we are very certain that no ser- 

 pent, at least in Europe, is injurious to the roots of plants, 

 we infer from comparing the two passages (of Pliny and 

 Aristotle) : — 



First, That the larva of an insect named spondylus by the 

 Greeks, was known to the Romans, and that it ate the roots 

 of all kinds of plants ; 



Secondly, That this larva was very large, since it is com- 

 pared to a little serpent ; 



We shall presently see the conclusions we shall obtain from 

 these results. 



We shall, perhaps, be told that we might have spared our- 

 selves this long discussion on the word spondylus, since Pliny 

 has only spoken of it in connexion with the wild vine, vitis 

 silvestris, which is not a vine, and has nothing to do with the 

 plant that bears grapes ; but it is, as Pliny himself tells us, an 

 annual, like hirthwort. I reply, that the vine is included 

 amongst the plants Pliny has spoken of, and which, he says, 



NO. II. VOL. IV. T 



